The Oli government in Nepal failed to control public outrage, or perhaps, failed to understand the public mood. This discontent had been simmering for years, waiting for a spark. The result was a violent protest on September 8th. People broke through police lines and entered the parliament complex. Many were killed in police firing and violence. Angry people set fire to the parliament building, and the wife of a former prime minister was killed.
Incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli escaped, taking some of his ministers in a helicopter from Kathmandu. No one knows where they went. The public was furious over the government’s corruption. Adding fuel to the fire, the government imposed a ban on social media.
Several ministers were chased and beaten by angry people. The house of former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal was set on fire, and his wife, Rajlakshmi Chitrkar, was severely burned. She was taken to the hospital, where she died. Another Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, was beaten by the public inside his home. His wife was also injured. Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel was chased and beaten after being dragged out of his house. KP Sharma Oli’s house was set on fire, and the President’s residence was also set ablaze. The fire in the parliament building could not be controlled, and looting also occurred. Singh Durbar was also set on fire. Nepal is completely under the control of rebels. The army and police are helpless. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has resigned.
KP Sharma Oli was unable to manage Nepal. There were several reasons for the protests, with rampant corruption being a major one. Governments changed repeatedly, with three prime ministers in five years: Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, and KP Sharma Oli. Except for Deuba, the other two are communists. They were increasing closeness with China, which led to natural distancing from India. Oli was very upset over the Lipulekh dispute and angered India, while Nepalis find refuge in India. They are in all kinds of jobs there. Raising disputes with India meant ending the relationships of ‘roti-beti’ (food and marriage). In addition, Nepali governments have been treating the Madhesi people living in the Terai region unfairly, despite their larger population and agricultural community.
Balen Shah, also known as Balan, who is leading this movement, is the mayor of Kathmandu and is young. He is also originally from the Madhesi community. It is believed that he may temporarily take charge of Nepal. Nepal, present as a buffer state between India and China, is also beneficial to America. This situation is now troubling both India and China. The Oli government’s inclination towards China had increased significantly. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, with China’s support, began to show disrespect to both India and America. On top of that, every minister in the Nepal government was accumulating wealth. Nepotism was so rampant that the sons and daughters of these ministers held every key position. Contracts for projects were also awarded to them.
The corruption of those in power has led to the overthrow of governments by the people of four countries close to India in the last four years: Afghanistan in 2021, Sri Lanka in 2022, Bangladesh in August 2024, and now Nepal. All four of these countries are small, and there is a lot of unemployment and corruption. The public was fed up with the governments. Both China and America were intervening in these four countries. It is said about China that the government of the country it favors becomes unstable. It is a different matter that the government of Xi Jinping of China, which has the world’s largest population, is currently stable. Xi Jinping demonstrated his weapons and his powerful army by showing a military parade to several heads of state on September 3rd.
A similar public outrage to that of Nepal was seen in Libya in 2011. There, the government of Colonel Gaddafi, who had been in power since 1969, was overthrown by the youth. It was the first violent movement of the 21st century that used Facebook. Colonel Gaddafi ruled this North African desert country for 42 years. The people were troubled by his repressive policies, corrupt behavior, and nepotism. Therefore, the youth were appealed to through social media platforms like Facebook. The arrest of a human rights activist in the city of Benghazi angered the public, and people took to the streets in protest against Colonel Gaddafi. Soon, this movement spread to the capital, Tripoli. Despite government repression, Gaddafi had to leave the throne.
Colonel Gaddafi was killed in a battle in Sirte on October 20, 2011. Libya had a population of around 80 million. In small countries where politicians do not have a grip on the public, it is not easy to remain in power. Every leader gets caught in the web of corruption, and after a time, unemployment also starts increasing. The recent example was Bangladesh, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed stopped the migration of her people, and the demand for clothes made in Bangladesh increased in all Western countries, including America and Canada. But there is no doubt that the contracts were awarded to Hasina’s family members. The anti-Hasina political parties took advantage of this and had a coup. Last year, on August 5, Hasina fled to Delhi.
It is not that the new governments that came after the coup take any revolutionary steps. The interim government formed in Bangladesh after Hasina could neither curb corruption nor stop public outrage. The head of the new government, Mohammad Yunus, is unable to protect minorities and secular people there. Two days ago, the grave of Sufi saint Nora Pagla was dug up, the body was removed, and it was set on fire by violent extremists.
