Nepal is witnessing a massive youth-led uprising as Gen Z protesters flood the streets of Kathmandu against the government's ban on major social media platforms and widespread corruption. The peaceful protest escalated into violent clashes near the Parliament, resulting in many deaths and many injuries. Ajay Thakur, CEO of Avenues TV in Nepal, shares an on-ground update about the spiraling crisis, youth frustrations over unemployment, and the government's response. Watch.
00:00I have with me Ajit Hakur. He is the CEO of Nepal's news media outlet, which is Evinews TV.
00:22Thank you so much, Ajit Hakur, for speaking with AsiaNet News.
00:25You know, the visuals that are coming out of Nepal, they are quite disturbing.
00:28What is the current situation? How bad it is?
00:30You know, as far as Nepal is concerned, it's slowly spiraling out of control, the way it has been, panning out since the morning.
00:42It's like, you know, it started at about 9 o'clock in the morning, the protest, and now we are at 5 o'clock local time.
00:51So it's almost now 8 hours, and it first was restricted to a certain section of Nepal, it's called Mahitigat Mandela, where these people were supposed to congregate and to protest against both the closure of the social media networks as well as of the, like, you know, corruption.
01:14So this social media network, Google work and stuff like that, as well as corruption, they were actually going hand in hand.
01:23And till that point of time, it was just looking like an absolute, and even till now, it looks like an absolute Gen Z kind of a protest where these are all youth, you know, well-educated, even less educated, all kinds of people.
01:42They joined, and they started this whole thing, and they were, peacefully, they were proceeding towards the Parliament House, and it's called the sunset over here.
01:55So they were going over there, and then things spiraling, quickly spiraling out of control, and they just gate crashed the Parliament.
02:06There were scenes of, you know, the students getting into Parliament annex, and, you know, some of them even roughed up the cops, but at the same time, the cops struck back.
02:20The most important or the disturbing thing which has come up as of now, the disturbing news which is coming in is that over 80 people have been injured, 17 people have been confirmed dead, and the figure is expected to rise.
02:35And this thing has actually even spiraled beyond, in the sense that what has happened is, it's also now across the rest of the country.
02:47So, like, you know, places like Virat Nagar, which is in the east, to Bilganj, which is in the centre, and even fires.
02:55So we are getting, you know, reports from all over the place.
02:59Students are breaking into this spontaneous protest, and they are clashing with authorities.
03:03Journalists are also part of this protest.
03:06What are they actually saying?
03:07You know, this bill was not passed in Parliament, but the government cited the Supreme Court's directive, which also kind of asked these social media companies to go ahead and register with the Nepali authorities.
03:18So what exactly are the journalists and the youth of the country are saying?
03:21See, first of all, like, you know, I think back in India, if you would have seen, you know, people coming from Nepal, and even across the globe, the people coming from Nepal are actually connected to each other, mostly through the social media platforms and instant messengers.
03:37And so what happened is, essentially, you know, in a country which is struggling to, you know, get its infrastructure into place, what is happening is, okay, you have the communication, you know, platforms, you have got mobile phones and stuff like that.
03:53But the broadband networks, the social media, they become the mainstay for connecting between different countries and between different people.
04:02So now what happens is, you know, for the journalists also, this is, you know, one of the source of, you know, sourcing information because quite a few of the media houses have got, you know, alignments.
04:14So there's a general kind of discontent, you know, even in the people over here, they look more at social media for the correct picture of things.
04:27So that's what happens is, like, and of course, the youth of this country, they are interacting more over here through this social media platform.
04:34Not to forget the fact that these social media platforms, you know, they are also a great source of income for a lot of these youths, because, you know, influencers and, you know, opinion makers and, you know, videos and stuff like that.
04:50So there's a huge population which also depends upon that.
04:53And most importantly, in a democracy, like, you know, this is one of the best places for them to give in to their feelings.
04:59Now, that was something which was not happening. And like, you know, with these kinds of closure, I mean, again, for the past now, little more than 72 hours, this country has been battling slow networks and stuff like that.
05:12Even, you know, the roaming calls from other countries, which was on the first day, it was OK, but it's also started, like, you know, going down.
05:25It's become, it's become erratic. We can, you know, censor, you know, handle the government and all this.
05:30So what is happening is, and to, you know, sort of add insult to injury, last evening, the prime minister, like, you know, in, you know, the prime minister just got a thundering majority to, you know, extend his stay as the leader of the ruling UML party.
05:51And, you know, which they amended their constitution essentially to make him the party supreme for a third term, as well as they also removed the cap for the upper age limit, which was 70 years or so.
06:04So what has happened is, in that, you know, I think in one of the primary sessions, he actually laughed at the Gen Z protests, because this was happening, this shutdown was happening, parallel to the, you know, parallel to the UML's, you know, convention, which elected him.
06:23So, of course, there are different schools of thought, but the prime minister also, like, you know, laughing it off, that also added a bit of insult to injury.
06:34So, so that's what, how things, like, you know, just went out of control over here.
06:39Right. And I'm also trying to get a sense of the situation on ground. Is it only the anger because of the ban on social media? Because we have been hearing reports about protests against unemployment and against corruption in the government.
06:53See, ban on the social media was the flashpoint. That was the last thing that the government should have done. See, what happens is over here, like, you know, opinion is pretty fragmented and pretty polarized.
07:07So, you know, you have got medias, you know, alignments and stuff like that. But most importantly, what has happened is this was, you know, in terms of press freedom index, Nepal is much, much higher than practically all the South Asian countries.
07:22So, I mean, it's actually in the top 60s. So what happened was, like, you know, people cherish that freedom a lot. And these are, mind you, youth, Nepal is a young country, over 65 to, you know, 70% of the population is young.
07:36So what happened was, this was the only thing that they could do to rent out their feelings against unemployment. Every year, almost 3 to 5% of the people from here have to migrate overseas to get a decent living.
07:50There is, you know, the GDP is not exactly much to talk about. Most of the economy is being run through, you know, through remittances.
08:00So what happens is, there was, there's been a growing discontent amongst youth. Although all the political parties, you know, draw their strength from these people also, from the youth also.
08:12But this time, it was like a more enough is enough. And, you know, the platform that, you know, they used to, used to give vent to their feelings, that was actually going off the radar.
08:23So that's how this whole thing, you know, spiraled out of control. And I don't see it, like, you know, these people are in a forgiving mood on this side.
08:32Just last question from my side would be, what are we hearing from the government side? Because as you quoted, 17 people have died so far.
08:41What is the government saying so far? What can we expect in the future to tackle this situation? Because is it also simmering down or it continues to be as such?
08:50See, if you may recollect about, I think it was half a year ago, a couple of months back, there was a pro-monarchist protest which happened in this country.
09:00And that also led to the, you know, the death of two people. Incidentally, one of them was one of our, you know, he was one of our cameramen who was out there, a guy called Sureshi Razak, who was out there shooting this whole scene.
09:16So that claim also, there was something that we, you know, these disturbing things we have seen happening over there and the government literally crushed the protest.
09:25Now, this time also what is happening is, you know, the things that we are getting from unconfirmed sources are that like, you know, most of the people who are injured might have been just injured because of bullet wounds.
09:38So we actually don't know at this point of time because until the government actually comes out with a, maybe a white paper or a clear statement on this.
09:47But one thing is definitely clear that the government was caught napping because the way this whole thing planned out and, you know, the police, like we had been tracking the police communication and stuff like that.
10:00And what we saw firsthand was that like the government was totally caught off guard.
10:06But more than that, what is happening is this is also going to be, it's not going to be an easy task for the government to wriggle out.
10:12Mind you, this is a UML, Nepali Congress government, the Prime Minister is from the UML, the Communist Party, and diametrically opposite ideology is the other ruling opposition, the ruling coalition partner, the Nepali Congress, and the Home Minister is from the Nepali Congress.
10:33So what is going to happen right now is that while, you know, this whole thing was triggered off by the UML, the ruling UML's communication minister, and this thing is, you know, going to pan out over here.
10:45So there are also simmerings within the ruling coalition because the way this has been handled, mind you, the elections are less than two years away, the parliamentary elections.
10:59So this could also be, you know, a huge sign as to what, how things are going to pan out in the future.
11:07But as of now, currently, there is an uneasy silence.
11:11The government has not yet spoken, although the government has gone into some kind of, you know, meeting and stuff like that, some talent meeting or whatever.
11:20But the thing is, no one, none of the leading political leaders of this country in the past six years, six hours of like, you know, citizens or youth versus, you know, police, none of them have, like, you know, have spoken even a word about it.
11:40There are also talks of, you know, there are also whispers, I would say, this is always unconfirmed.
11:46We have, we had, of course, seen it in the past of, you know, these political party aligned vigilantes, like, you know, having a shot in the dark and such situations.
11:56So we are also like looking at such situation panning out over here.
12:01So we actually don't know at this point of time, what the government is going to say, but the government has not said anything as yet.
12:08Right. And, you know, given the fact that all the major social media outlets are banned, I think journalists are resorting to other social media, which are not banned, for example, Reddit and TikTok.
12:18That's what we are hearing here in India.
12:21Yeah, how TikTok will, it's the, I mean, like, you know, TikTok is pretty cute, because that's the one which they and Reddit actually ran the whole show over here.
12:31In fact, we drew all our strengths from there itself, you know, tracking things, you know, what is being planned and stuff like that.
12:40But mind you, even when they shut down everything, we saw the crowd climbing from a mere 100 to almost 20, 25,000 plus in less than three hours flat.
12:56That was TikTok for you. That was Reddit for you.
12:59So this country is, you know, way far, you know, beyond that, like in what its government would have imagined the youth to be.
13:07And I mean, I would say full marks to the kids the way they have been, like, you know, they have, you know, managed themselves with the way they have come together.
13:19But then again, the thing is, we don't know which way that things are going to pan out at this point.
Be the first to comment