00:00Hi, I have with me Ajit Hakur. He is the CEO of Nepal's news media outlet, which is
00:21Evernews TV. Thank you so much, Ajit Hakur, for speaking with AsiaNet News. You know,
00:25the visuals that are coming out of Nepal, they are quite disturbing. What is the current
00:29situation? How bad it is? You know, as far as Nepal is concerned, it's slowly spiraling out of control,
00:38the way it has been panning out since the morning. It started at about nine o'clock in the morning,
00:46the protest, and now we are at five o'clock local time. So it's almost now eight hours and
00:53it first was restricted to a certain section of Nepal. It's called Mahitigat Mandala, where these
01:02people were supposed to congregate and to protest against both the closure of the social media
01:10networks as well as of the like, you know, corruption. So this social media network
01:19and stuff like that, as well as corruption, they were actually going hand in hand. And
01:25till that point of time, it was just looking like a absolute and even till now, it looks like an absolute
01:31Gen Z kind of protest where these are all youth, you know, well educated, even less educated, all kinds
01:42of people they joined. And they started this whole thing. And they were peacefully, they were proceeding
01:50towards the Parliament House. And it's called the sunset over here. So they were going over there and then
01:58things spirally quickly spiraled out of control. And they just gate crashed the Parliament. There were
02:08scenes of, you know, the students getting into Parliament annex and, you know, some of them
02:16when roughed up the cops, but at the same time, the cops struck back. The most important or the
02:22disturbing thing which has come up as of now, the disturbing news which is coming in is that over
02:2780 people have been injured. 17 people have been confirmed dead. And the figure is expected to rise.
02:36And this thing has actually even spiraled beyond in the sense that what has happened is, it's also now
02:45across the rest of the country. So like, you know, places like Berat Nagar, which is in the east,
02:51to Bilganj, which is in the centre, and even fires. So we are getting, you know, reports from all over
02:58the place. Students are breaking into this spontaneous protest, and they are clashing with
03:02authorities. Journalists are also part of this protest. What are they actually saying? You know,
03:08this bill was not passed in Parliament, but the government cited the Supreme Court's directive,
03:13which also kind of asked these social media companies to go ahead and register with the Nepali
03:17authorities. So 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,
03:27people coming from Nepal, and even across the globe, the people coming from Nepal are actually
03:32connected to each other, mostly through the social media platforms and instant messengers. And
03:39so what happened is essentially, you know, in a country which is struggling to, you know, get its
03:45infrastructure into place, what is happening is, okay, you have the communication, you know,
03:51platforms, you have got mobile phones and stuff like that. But the broadband networks, the social media,
03:57they 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,
04:06you know, sourcing information, because quite a few of the media houses have got, you know,
04:14alignments. So there's a general kind of a discontent, you know, even in the people over here,
04:22they look more at social media for the correct picture of things. So that's what happens is,
04:28like, and of course, the youth of this country, they are interacting more over here through this
04:33social media platform, not to forget the fact that these social media platforms, you know,
04:38they are also a great source of income for a lot of these youths, because, you know,
04:45influencers and, you know, opinion makers and, you know, videos and stuff like that. So it's a huge
04:51population, which also depends upon that. And most importantly, in our democracy, like, you know,
04:56this is one of the best places for them to give in to their feelings. Now, that was something which was
05:00not happening. And like, you know, with these kinds of closure, I mean, looking for the past,
05:05now, a 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 okay,
05:21but it's also started, like, you know, going down, it's become erratic. We can, you know, censor,
05:28you know, handle the government and all this. So what is happening is, and to, you know, sort of
05:34add insult to injury, last evening, the Prime Minister, like, you know, in, you know, the Prime
05:41Minister just got a thundering majority to, you know, extend his stay as the leader of the ruling UML
05:50Party, and which they amended the constitution essentially to make him the party supreme for a
05:58third 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, in, you know, I think in one of the primary sessions,
06:10he actually laughed at the Gen Z protests, because this was happening, this shutdown was happening,
06:16parallel to the, you know, parallel to the UML's, you know, convention, which elected him. So,
06:24of course, there are different schools of thought, but the Prime Minister also, like, you know,
06:30laughing it off, that also added a bit of insult to injury. So, so that's what, how things like,
06:37you know, just went out of control over here. Right. And I'm also trying to get a sense of the
06:42situation on ground. Is it only the anger because of the ban on social media? Because we have been
06:47hearing reports about protests against unemployment and against corruption in the government? See,
06:53ban on the social media was the flashpoint. That was the last thing that the government should have
06:58done. 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,
07:13what has happened is this was, you know, in terms of press freedom index, Nepal is much,
07:19much higher than practically all the South Asian countries. So, I mean, it's actually in the top
07:2560s. So what happened was like, you know, people cherish that freedom a lot. And these are mind you,
07:30youth, Nepal is a young country, over 65 to 70% of the population is young. So what happened was,
07:37this was the only thing that they could do to rent out their feelings against unemployment. Every
07:42year, almost three to 5% of the people from here have to migrate overseas to get a decent leaving.
07:50There is, you know, the GDP is not exactly much to talk about. Most of the economy is being run through,
07:57you know, through remittances. So what happens is there was a, there's been a growing discontent
08:04amongst youth. Although all the political parties, you know, draw their strength from these people
08:11also, from the youth also, but this time, it was like a more enough is enough. And, you know,
08:16the platform that, you know, they used to use to give vent to their feelings, that was actually going off
08:22the radar. So that's how this whole thing, you know, spiraled out of control. And I don't see it,
08:28like, you know, these people are in a forgiving mood on this side. Just last question from my side
08:34would be, what are we hearing from the government side? Because as you quoted, 17 people have died so
08:40far. What is the government saying so far? What can we expect in the future to tackle this situation?
08:45Because is it also simmering down or it continues to be as such? See, if you may recollect about,
08:53I think it was half a year ago, couple of months back, there was a pro-monarchist protest which
08:58happened in this country. And that also led to the, you know, the death of two people. Incidentally,
09:06one of them was one of our, you know, he was one of our cameramen who was out there, a guy called
09:11Sureshi Razak, who was out there shooting, this whole scene. So that time also, there's something
09:18that we, you know, these disturbing things we have seen happening over there and the government
09:23literally crushed the protest. Now, this time also, what is happening is, you know, the things that we
09:29are getting from unconfirmed sources are that like, you know, most of the people who are injured might
09:36have been just injured because of bullet wounds. So we actually don't know at this point of time, because
09:41till the government actually comes out with a, maybe a white paper or a clear statement on this.
09:48But one thing is definitely clear that the government was caught napping, because the way this whole
09:53thing panned out, and you know, the police, like we had been tracking the police communication and stuff
10:00like that. And 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
10:10for the government to wriggle out. Mind you, this is the UML, the Nepali Congress government.
10:17The Prime Minister is from the UML, the Communist Party. And diametrically opposite ideology is the
10:25other ruling opposition, the ruling coalition partner, the Nepali Congress. And the Home Minister is
10:32from the Nepali Congress. So what is going to happen right now is that while, you know, this whole thing
10:37was triggered off by the UML, the ruling UML's communication minister, and this thing is, you
10:44know, going to pan out over here. So there are also simmerings within the ruling coalition, because
10:52the way this has been handled, mind you, you know, the elections are less than two years away,
10:57the parliamentary elections. So this could also be, you know, a huge sign as to what, how things are
11:05going to pan out in the future. But as of now, currently, there is an uneasy silence, the government
11:12has not yet spoken, although the government has gone into some kind of a meeting and stuff like that,
11:18some talent meeting or whatever. But the thing is, no one, none of the leading political leaders of this
11:26country in the past six years, six hours of like, you know, citizens or youth versus, you know, police,
11:36none of them have, like, you know, have spoken even a word about it. There are also talks of, you know,
11:42there are also whispers, I would say, this is always unconfirmed. We had, of course, seen it in the past
11:48of, you know, these political party aligned vigilantes, like, you know, having a shot in the dark
11:55and set situations. So we are also like, looking at such situation panning out over here. So we
12:01actually don't know at this point of time, what the government is going to say, but the government
12:06has not said anything as yet. Right. And you know, given the fact that all the major social media
12:11outlets are banned, I think journalists are resorting to other social media, which are not banned, for
12:16example, Reddit and TikTok. That's what we are hearing here in India. Yeah, TikTok will, it's the, I mean,
12:24like, you know, TikTok is pretty cute, because that's the one which they and Reddit actually
12:30ran the whole show over here. In fact, we drew all our strengths from there itself, you know,
12:37tracking things, you know, what is being planned and stuff like that. But mind you, even when they shut
12:43down everything, we saw the crowd climbing from a mere 100 to almost 20, 25,000 plus in less than
12:55three hours flat. That was TikTok for you, that was Reddit for you. So this country is, you know,
13:03very far, you know, beyond that, like, you know, what its government would have imagined that used to be.
13:07And, I mean, I would say full marks to the kids, the way they have been, like, you know, they have,
13:14you know, managed themselves with the way they have come together. But then again, the thing is,
13:22we don't know which way that things are going to pan out at this point.
13:25But, and I do need to make more of this video, and I think that's important.
13:33But, and I personally don't know which way, when I'm thinking about it, we have to do it it.
13:39But, now, with the, you know, that's really interesting.
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