With the Nepalese Army taking charge of security, a semblance of normalcy returned to capital Kathmandu on Wednesday following two days of violent protests resulting in the death of 22 people.
Army personnel have been deployed to guard all government buildings which were stormed by protesters on Monday and Tuesday. Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu has been closed indefinitely. Army has imposed nationwide curfew till Thursday morning.
A statement from the army said: “In the name of movement, various lawless individuals and groups are still infiltrating and committing acts such as vandalism and arson, violent attacks on individuals, and attempts to intimidate” and keeping this in mind, curfew has been imposed.
Nearly 2,500 Indian tourists are presently stranded inside Nepal. They have been asked to stay indoors till the situation returns to normal.
The question now is: what next? Who will run Nepal now? Who will emerge as the new leader? There could be two options.
One, either the army takes over or a new leader is allowed to form a government. Kathmandu Mayor and famous Nepali rapper Balendra Shah seems to be the frontrunner. Youths in Nepal are diehard fans of this rapper.
Balendra Shah fought the Kathmandu mayoral election as an independent in 2022 and won hands down. He has the image of a good administrator who worked hard to cleanse the city administration of corruption.
Question also arises about how thousands of youths came out on the streets without having a leader or an organisation? Who are the masterminds behind this anti-corruption protest?
There are several speculations being floated. Did the US Deep State worked because the ousted PM K.P.Sharma Oli was known to be pro-China? Did the pro-monarchy leaders, who wanted the King back, incite the protesters? Or, did China have a hand because of rising American investments in Nepal?
I think most of these questions are speculative. The anger that was simmering in Nepal among the people was over popular disenchantment with the system.
The people, through ballots, gave opportunity to all the mainstream parties to govern. From Leftists to Maoists to Rightists, most of the leaders proved to be corrupt. Their acts of corruption are the staple of comments floating on social media.
For example, there was corruption in purchase of Airbus planes and no action was taken despite much hue and cry. Secondly, children of many top leaders in Nepal were flaunting their extravagance and studying in foreign lands, and on the other hand, there are no good schools or colleges in Nepal and lakhs of youths are jobless.
All these grievances accumulated in the minds of people over the years and the result was the fire that was lit when the government banned all social media platforms. The fire continued to spread and police appeared helpless in tackling the agitators. The army played a balancing role.
All hopes now rest with the army. It is essential that peace is restored across Nepal. The army can perform this task either by making an appeal, or by applying the rod.

V-P poll result : A shocker for opposition

The election of Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan as India’s 15th Vice-President was a foregone conclusion. He defeated the INDIA bloc candidate B. Sudershan Reddy by a margin of 152 votes.
CPR, as he is popularly known, got 452 votes, while Reddy got 300 votes. This result is a clear setback for the opposition and a booster for NDA. At least 14 opposition MPs cross-voted.
When the election process began, NDA was ahead by a margin of 103 votes compared to the INDIA bloc, but Modi’s candidate CPR won by a margin of 152 votes. Congress and other opposition leaders were claiming that many from the NDA would cross-vote in favour of Reddy.
Some busybodies even wrote that Rahul Gandhi had arranged a secret meeting during his Malaysia visit with Janata Dal-U and TDP leaders by driving them on scooters.
All such speculations proved to be baseless. The claims fell flat and it was the INDIA bloc which faced cross-voting. Rahul Gandhi and his managers will now take months to find out who among the opposition MPs deserted and voted for Modi’s candidate.
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