The revolution started on social media. It ended with protests, violence, and an online poll to pick the new prime minister.
Tulsi Rauniyar
At 11:30 pm on Tuesday, September 9, Rakshya Bam stepped down from an army jeep outside military headquarters in a pitch-dark, locked-down Kathmandu. The 26-year-old hadn’t slept in more than a day. Her eyes were red-rimmed and glassy, the whites threaded with thin lines of fatigue.
A wave of youth-led protests had rocked Nepal, born on Discord servers, TikTok feeds, and encrypted messaging apps. In just a few days, Bam had seen friends gunned down, watched parliament buildings smolder, and witnessed the collapse of the Nepalese government. Prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli had resigned, and the army had stepped in to try to restore order. Now, Bam was one of 10 young activists who had been summoned to an unprecedented meeting.
As she walked through the gates of Nepali Army headquarters, flanked by soldiers in full combat gear, Bam could feel her phone buzzing in her pocket. Online, misinformation was spreading fast. Bam’s phone barely stopped buzzing. “The king is here.” “The army has staged a coup.” Discord was alive with chatter. Diplomats were calling, urging, “Save democracy!”
Inside a sterile meeting room—no phones allowed—the 10 Gen Z activists were greeted by Army General Ashok Raj Sigdel, a stern-looking man in a crisp dark green uniform, medals gleaming on his chest. For three hours, Sigdel questioned the protesters on their motives and their backgrounds. Finally, he presented them with an ultimatum. It had been their youth-led movement that had sparked the protests, he said, so they were the ones responsible for shaping the interim government. Just days earlier, these activists had been ordinary young people, lost in the grind of their daily lives. Now they were being asked to help choose Nepal’s next prime minister.
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