Warning signals from Nepal’s Gen-Z to politicians and ‘nepo kids’

The youth-led protests in Nepal against the established political system and politicians, preceded by similar protests witnessed in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in recent years, are a stark warning to the neighbourhood. ‘Business as usual’ will no longer do. There is need for politicians to change their ways, their language, their discourse, their lifestyle, and clamp down on corruption. That at least is the message that Nepal’s Gen-Z is sending out to the political establishment in Kathmandu, say Nepal watchers.

The state of politics and politicians in India does not appear very different except, as Kanakmani Dixit pointed out, Nepal has had a robust media exposing the corruption and complicity of political leaders and bureaucrats.

Generation Z in Nepal spearheaded a campaign on social media in the last several weeks on ‘nepo kids’, children of politicians who were living the good life. They flaunted their high living on Instagram, made reels, and were having the best of times. Their conspicuous consumption, fast lifestyle with a fondness for fancy clothes, cars, gadgets and foreign travel, and their proud parents posting photographs of children studying abroad caused both disgust and rising anger among the youth.

Politicians appeared disconnected from the realities of life for ordinary Nepalis. Struggling with scarcity, high prices, rising unemployment and with the future looking bleak, the generation greedily scanned news feeds and reels for vicarious pleasure and ‘time pass’. Over time, this turned into anger at the disparities and lack of opportunities for ordinary Nepalis.

This, say Nepal observers, is what led to the violence, arson and attacks on policemen. This pent-up anger was let loose on the houses of politicians and bureaucrats with mobs setting the houses of the president, prime minister, and other ministers.

Helicopters and the army were deployed to rescue the ministers, and secure the Parliament building and other government offices in Kathmandu. The tension and violence spread to other towns on Tuesday, the second day of violence.

The disconnect between the government and the people has become stark. Ishika Thapa, a young journalist in Kathmandu, told Smita Sharma in a conversation that the youth were frustrated because politicians seemed deaf to their plight and pleas.

Politicians and bureaucrats in the higher echelons, said veteran Nepal watcher Dixit on the same programme, are unquestionably corrupt. Their conspicuous consumption drew attention and upset less privileged youth. Thapa chipped in to say the youth were getting sick of the smooth speeches of politicians, laced with fake humour to gloss over their hypocrisy.

If this description of the ground situation in Nepal appears uncannily similar to that in India, Dixit points to a remarkable difference. While governments in Nepal have been unstable since 1990, when it became a democracy from a monarchy, the mass media in Nepal has been both free and robust. He credits the media with exposing several corruption scandals and scams involving land grabbing, tea gardens, gold smuggling and cooperative scandals. The latest scam exposed by the Nepali media, he pointed out, was a ‘fake refugee scam’.

A large number of Nepalis were fraudulently passed off as refugees from Bhutan and sent abroad for rehabilitation, taking advantage of international programmes. The complicity of politicians and bureaucrats was evident, and this added to the discontent.

Neither Thapa nor Dixit seemed sure of the road ahead, but were critical of the failure of the coalition government in preventing the loss of 19 lives in the violence in Kathmandu on Monday.

Will Indian politicians learn a lesson from the developments in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal? Not if they remain impervious to the signals as they appear to be.