PM K P Oli’s forced resignation and attacks on political parties are ominous signs
By Sushil Kutty
It happened like it was going to happen. Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned Tuesday afternoon. Oli called an all-party meeting for the evening but had to succumb to pressure. Both his homes, private and government, had felt the torch and it was getting very hot at the top. There were also rumours Oli was planning to take a plane to Dubai along with a clutch of similarly tangled politicians.
Fathers of ‘nepo-kids’ enjoying student life in luxury lives in hotspots across the globe and who were part of the reason why the “youth in Nepal took to the streets demanding Oli and his cabal left governance to a new shift with a new leader.
Nobody knows who that leader could be. Never mind who will be would be known. But till Oli resigned there were massive protests in Nepal, which made certain opposition politicians in India wish there were similar demonstrations in India, too.
Just like in Bangladesh and before that in Sri Lanka. Youth took to the streets, college students leading from the front, marched to the symbols of power, the homes of the Prime Minister and President, the cabal of ministers, and left those symbols of power tainted and torn, like in the case of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s underclothes.
In Nepal, Oli’s homes have been burned and the president’s house has been vandalized, the intentions of the demonstrators clear. They had had enough. Like the feeling a whole of Indian citizens share for the Modi government, feelings of dissatisfaction.
Didn’t Bangladesh happen, didn’t Bangladeshi college youth come out in the streets to protest against the Sheikh Hasina dispensation and didn’t the Prime Minister flee to the safety of India? It was a version of ‘Arab Spring’ and the unrest in Bangladesh continues albeit called teething problems.
Important thing is there’s a pattern to what’s happening and not curiously enough the happenings in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came post-2014, after the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister in 2014.
Yep, the link is drawn and millions do not find it incredible. In Fact, with the Gujarat riots tainted Modi at the helm of India the story was anything is possible and people and places have felt it. Power shifted both in Sri Lanka and in Bangladesh. And believe it or not, it’s happening in Nepal, too; has already happened.
The massive protests in Nepal are a clear cut indication Nepal also went the Sri Lanka and Bangladesh way and the youth behind the forced metamorphosis haven’t shown regret despite 19 killed and scores more injured.
Shoot-at-sight order tells the story of the seriousness of the situation. Political equations have crumbled. Politicians, both ruling and opposition, are running for cover. But there is no cover left to run to. The demonstrators have burned their homes and even the fire in the hearths have died down.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s house was burned and he had called an all-party meeting, scheduled for Tuesday evening. Many of the politicians who were to be at the meeting had also been rendered “homeless critters” as somebody put it and quite a few of them would have drawn plans to flee the country.
Here in India, opposition politicians are voicing what can be called a reverse nostalgia,They remember Sri Lanka and today they are looking at what’s happening in Nepal and are wondering when would it happen in India ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
But it is more than what the eye can see or the ears can hear. What’s happening and has so far happened in Nepal has to do with the now and here; has to do with today’s geopolitical situation. What’s happening has to do with US President Donald Trump’s tariff war against the world. It has to do with the global response to Trump’s war.
And India happens to be right in the middle along with China, Russia and BRICS, the whole shebang. Is Nepal boiling over the American deep-state playing games? China cannot be behind “Nepal” nor can India unless NSA Ajit Doval is double the devious Tulsi Gabbard is?
A vast section of India is wishing there would be a Nepal in India, a Nepal like “regime-change”. It all depends on the “Gen Z” of India, is there a Gen Z in India. Problem is Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is not “Gen Z” and neither is Tejashwi Yadav for his own reasons.
None of the opposition leaders of India have the mojo in them to be “Gen Z”. Rahul Gandhi tried to buoy Gen Z spirits with his yatras and calls for “Mohabbat ki dukaan” but it didn’t work. He tried it again with the slogan “Vote Chori” and “Vote Adhikar Yatra” along with Tejashwi Yadav. Did it work?
One thing is for sure, there would be no Nepal happening in India. When Sri Lanka and Bangladesh didn’t happen in India and with India, it is hardly likely that Indian youth would do a Nepal in India.
