Prakash Bohora was one of the first of Nepal’s gen Z protesters to feel the sting of a police bullet. Like thousands of other young people, he had taken to the streets of the capital last month to protest against corruption and a draconian ban on social media.
He had no idea on that day in Kathmandu that the demonstration would escalate into what is now described as Nepal’s gen Z revolution, which has led to the toppling of the government within a day, the dissolution of parliament and appointment of a new interim prime minister, the anti-corruption hardliner Sushila Karki, by the end of the week.
Bohora was outside the parliament building in Kathmandu on the morning of 8 September when he heard the sound of gunfire and felt pain in his left leg. As his friend carried him to the nearby hospital, his bloodied trainer was left behind amid the pandemonium. A photograph of the shoe later went viral, an evocative symbol of the deadliest day of protest in Nepal’s history, with 19 protesters killed.
Demonstrators outside Nepal’s parliament building on 8 September. They had gathered to protest against corruption and a draconian ban on social media. Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images
One month on, Bohora is still in hospital as doctors fight to save his leg. Sitting in the trauma ward, he expressed frustration at the what he saw as the slow pace of change for Nepal since the gen Z uprising, for which he paid such a heavy price.
He was among those calling for the former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and the former home minister Ramesh Lekhak to be arrested for alleged corruption and their role in the shooting of protesters by police on 8 September. “It’s been a month since the movement began, yet many of our demands remain unmet,” Bohora said.
Bohora had had been driven to protest in anger at a system that seemed to be making the politicians and their children wildly rich while he had faced unemployment and exploitation.
Despite qualifying as a health assistant eight years ago, there was no work for Bohora in Nepal’s struggling job market and he eventually travelled to Russia for further studies. But after running out of money, he found himself coerced into joining the Russian army, fighting on the frontlines in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk. He saw friends killed and maimed. He finally escaped back to Nepal 18 months later.
“I was lucky to return home alive,” Bohora said. “After coming back, I took to the streets hoping for a better country, free from corruption.”
Many of the young people who took to the streets on 8 September say they simply wanted to raise their voice against corruption and never intended to bring about wholesale regime change – let alone be tasked with deciding the next prime minister and future of the country.
Their movement had no single leader, no manifesto and no singular set of demands, and still largely remains that way. Even the decision to champion Karki, a former chief justice, as their choice of interim prime minister came after she emerged as a favourite in online discussions and polls held by thousands of gen Z protesters on the social media platform Discord.
Nepal’s new interim prime minister, Sushila Karki, is an anti-corruption hardliner. The legitimacy of her government has been questioned by the country’s biggest political parties. Photograph: Monika Malla/Reuters
With elections promised for March, Karki is under mounting pressure from gen Z groups to demonstrate that she will crack down on corruption as promised. Yet major bureaucratic obstacles remain in implementing large-scale reform, and the lack of any high-profile arrests of former ministers from Oli’s government is a growing bone of contention.
“Right now, our main demand is to control corruption,” said Amit Khanal, 24, of the Gen-Z Movement Alliance. While there are no gen Z figures appointed to Karki’s cabinet yet, Khanal said they remained in close talks with the government.
“This government was formed under special circumstances, and it must investigate the major corruption scandals, especially those involving former top leaders,” he said. “If no investigation is carried out, the entire purpose of this massive movement will be meaningless.”
Om Prakash Aryal, whom Karki appointed as home minister, said one of the interim government’s first moves had been to “remove the obstructions and disconnect the political links” that had prevented the most powerful political figures from being investigated for corruption.
“The environment is being created so the commission can accept complaints about anyone and investigate,” Aryal said. He emphasised that it would take time for authorities to carry out a full independent investigation into the decades of alleged graft, but added: “At the same time, there are things that must be acted on immediately. The government will not let impunity have room.”
In the backdrop are growing efforts by Nepal’s biggest political parties – Nepali Congress, the Communists and the Maoists – to question the legitimacy of Karki’s interim government. After parliament was dissolved, all three parties released statements calling the move unconstitutional and dangerous. In a notable break from tradition, none attended Karki’s swearing-in ceremony.
In an inflammatory speech this week, Oli accused Karki and the gen Z protesters of ulterior motives. “There is an attack on this country,” he said. “There is an attack on the sovereign power of this country. There is an attack on its territory. There is an attack on the country’s interests.”
Analysts warned that the gulf between the interim government and the political parties could spell bad news for Nepal’s political stability and the success of its elections in March.
Lok Raj Baral, a professor of political science and former ambassador to India, said that rather than casting blame, the gen Z uprising should be a moment of reckoning for Nepal’s political old guard.
“This is an opportunity for old parties to correct themselves, to transfer leadership, to renew and regain their credibility,” he said. “The old leaders were busy fighting for their chairs. They should have now learned their lesson.”
