Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has stepped down. The resignation came a day after his government came under massive criticism at home and abroad for using extreme force against Nepal’s Gen Z protestors. At least 19 people, most of them youth, were killed and 400 others were injured on Monday, when Nepali police fired rubber bullets and live ammunition into the protesting crowds.
With his resignation, Oli has become the latest casualty of mass protests in South Asian countries.
In September 2022, Sri Lanka’s President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa resigned and fled from the country following months-long mass protests that were initially triggered by an economic crisis and then escalated into a demand for the exit of the entire Rajapaksa clan from positions of power. Then, in August last year, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power. What began as protests related to quotas in jobs escalated into a demand for her resignation.
As in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the iron-fisted response of the state pushed the masses to oust the leadership. Unlike Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, however, where protests extended over months, it took just two days of protests to oust Oli from power. Rajapaksa and Hasina fled their countries. Oli is expected to do so too.
In his resignation letter, Oli said he was stepping down “considering the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and in order to facilitate further efforts toward a constitutional political solution.”
The “extraordinary situation” Oli was referring to was the protests that erupted on September 8, when Nepal’s Gen Z poured into the streets of Kathmandu.
While the immediate trigger for their protests may have been the Oli government’s decision to ban several social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, their anger was not quite so simple. Their rage had its roots in frustration with the state of affairs in the Himalayan country — widespread corruption, nepotism, and misgovernance — that exploded in angry defiance on the streets of Kathmandu on Monday.
The government responded with the use of lethal force on unarmed protestors, leading to bloody street battles.
Describing Oli’s use of force against “unarmed youths” as “barbarian vulgarity,” Dinesh Kafle, who teaches at Kathmandu University, pointed out that the 19 deaths that resulted were “as many killings as those committed by [former Nepali King] Gyanendra Shah during the movement for the restoration of democracy in 2006. The despotic former king’s murderous credentials have now been dwarfed by the democratically elected prime minister [Oli], who yesterday oversaw the cold-blooded murder of his citizens in broad daylight right outside the temple of democracy,” Kafle wrote in an article in the Kathmandu Post.
The use of force on the protestors was widely criticized, forcing Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak to resign. Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Ramnath Adhikari and Minister for Water Supply Pradeep Yadav resigned subsequently, citing their disagreement with how authorities handled the protesters.
Although the government lifted the social media ban, the protestors were not appeased, underscoring that their demands related to systemic change. Neither were they deterred by the government’s heavy deployment of security forces and imposition of curfew in some districts.
Tuesday morning, they returned to the streets in cities across Nepal.
Violence soon escalated. The Nepali parliament building and residences of several top politicians were vandalized and set on fire.
Interestingly, the ire of the mobs was not reserved for Oli alone but was directed at leaders across parties. Besides Oli’s house, the residence of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress and of former Nepali President and Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal were set ablaze. Political party headquarters were also targeted.
The Nepal Army has begun evacuating ministers from their residences using helicopters amid reports of widespread looting and arson.
Oli became Nepal’s prime minister for the fourth time in July 2024, when he formed a government with the support of the Nepali Congress. He is known to be a shrewd politician, but one who was reluctant to share power. He has not hesitated to stoke nationalist sentiment to hang on to power.
Nepal is not new to mass protests, even violent protests. There have been several mass struggles for democracy, and a decade-long Maoist insurgency. The country has seen several momentous changes as a result. While mass movements toppled Nepal’s monarchy to usher in a federal, secular Republic, Nepal’s democratic leaders have time and again failed the Nepali people.
Nepal is notorious for its “revolving door” style of politics, where governments are made and unmade, and come and go with shocking frequency. Parties and politicians are willing to form alliances and coalitions and break them with ease to come to power. Once in power, it is political survival that is their primary preoccupation. Consequently, problems like unemployment and poverty have remained unaddressed and have, in fact, worsened. Frustration with politicians and political parties has been mounting in Nepal, especially among its youth.
Early this year, demonstrations in support of the return of the monarchy and restoration of Nepal as a Hindu state roiled the country. However, the monarchy remains deeply unpopular. It is growing support for a restoration of a Hindu state, especially amidst reported backing from India’s Hindutva organizations, that appears to have propelled the demonstrations.
Now, as Nepal descends into turmoil, there will be any number of forces looking to fish in the troubled waters of this strategically positioned Himalayan nation.
Importantly, governments in neighboring India and China will be closely watching the unfolding events in Nepal. Both have not hesitated to meddle in Nepal’s domestic politics in the past and will surely be planning their next moves. Oli was known to be close to Beijing but was desperately seeking to mend ties with the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi. He was angling for an invitation to visit India. It was reported that such a visit was likely to happen later this month. With his resignation, that much-hoped-for visit will not happen.