AA Edit | After Gen Z Revolt, Nepal on Right Path to Recovery

Struck by a sudden youth uprising featuring deadly street protests which brought down K.P. Sharma Oli’s coalition government in a trice, Nepal appears to be on the right path to recovery. A former chief justice in Sushila Karki has been sworn in as the country’s first woman (interim) Prime Minister with her nomination to the post by the President happening with more than a semblance of transparency as the Army chief and Gen Z protesters were involved in the consultation process.

In fact, the protesters had held several rounds of an impromptu poll on the US based platform Discord, which gamers commonly use for their interactions, before finalising the choice of the lady judge who is known for her integrity. As a new member of Nepal’s top court in 2016, she emerged unscathed from an impeachment process brought about by disgruntled leaders alleging bias as she had opposed their appointment of a police chief. Public protests then had led to the top court withdrawing the impeachment motion against her and, later as chief justice, she had presided over several landmark cases.

The will of the young people has prevailed in vaulting Ms Karki into a crucial post, and she has acted in good faith straightaway in fixing an election date (March 5, 2026) to bring the country back to a democratic platform. Compared to Bangladesh where, in similar circumstances, in August 2024, of a public uprising and fall of an elected government, a microfinance banker was parachuted in by forces residing far from the subcontinent and he has been dragging his feet over fixing a date in February 2026 for elections.

The process of appointing an interim Prime Minister who was sworn in to office rather than appointed ad hoc as an adviser was inclusive, so too her appointment of three ministers, among whom is Kulman Ghising who was thought to be a contender for the job of Prime Minister in the poll the protesters held. With ministers possessing a degree of expertise in finance, economics and power supply, the job of reconstructing Nepal, especially Kathmandu which took the worst hits during the protests, may have already begun.

The restoration of order has been one of the interim PM’s main tasks and reports have it that the days spent in transition to the new government have been peaceful enough to engender hope that the worst days when protests spread like wildfire are well behind it. It will be interesting to see in what way the PM can now contribute in pointing the constitutional way to cleaning up the system that had been used by a self-interested cabal of political leaders from the country’s top three parties to pad up personal fortunes while serving nepotism.

Post-pandemic, the economy has been driven further into the ground with a confounding jobs scene that sees only one in five young Nepalis with a job, even if most of them are only in the informal sector. It would be fanciful to imagine an interim regime can do a lot about the economy from which almost a million young Nepalis are fleeing every year, though they may be adding to the remittances that already account for a third of the GDP.

If it is assumed that the polls will be held on the same rules as always, but if the once-entrenched politicians are free to run again and use the ruse of the public vote to get back to office, the student’s revolution would not have borne fruit. Thus far, the PM has done everything by the book and her actions are positive signs that normalcy will return soon. Who would be bold enough to stand in the changed atmosphere of public anger and what happens in the polls is anybody’s guess.