Narayan Manandhar -

The mayhem and destruction on 8th and 9th of September 2025 can be taken as Nepali version of 9-11 or the Palestine’s The Black September. Besides the death of 76 people and 2000+ injuries, the economic cost runs over Rs83 billion. Literally, the damages and destruction are irreparable, irrecoverable and irredeemable. There are psychological costs as well. The international-image of the country is at disrepute. It may take ages to reel back.

The Karki Aayog

The 3+1 month long tenure of Karki-led commission is coming to an end on 24 January. Their report is at the glare of public. And people are taking note on how the commission grapple with the incidents that took place on 8 and 9 of September. Putting a blame on PM Oli and his Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak may jeopardize up-coming elections. Keeping quiet may offend Gen-Z, some of whom are already on way demanding PM Karki’s resignation. Literally, the commission is walking on a razor blade. It has a difficult act of balancing amid Oli questioning the constitutionality of the body and its head.       

Gen-Z Euphoria

A stand-up comedian joked, “Nepalese are confused with spelling and pronunciation. You say Zen-G but write Gen-Z”. A friend from Biratnagar informed me that they now have a market for Gen-Z eggs. That is for smaller sized chicken eggs!  We do have a sense of humor.

Irritated by everyday, indiscriminate use of the phrase Gen-Z, Dr Bhagwan Koirala warned about possible risks associated with drawing minors into politics. There is also contention over its title: Shall we call it a revolt, a rebel, a revolution, a counter-revolution, a people’s movement, or simply an incident or an accident? Some other contentious issues included: Was it spontaneous or organized? Who is/are the leader(s) or culprit(s)? What were their mandates? Regime change or toppling Oli Government? Was there external backing or triggered by internal governance failure? However, there are also points of consensus and convergence: There were excesses, pointless shooting, looting and arson; it was targeted to selected political party leaders and their cadres, business people and media houses; originally student-led peaceful demonstration was infiltrated and hijacked; there were gross lapses in security forces. Even Gen-Z are sorry with what unfolded on 9th September.

Two days of mayhem and two interpretations

The public, at large, is clearly divided into two camps - shooting (8th September) and looting (9th September) camps. The shooting camp asserts, “’those responsible should first be booked before taking action against the culprits involved in 9th September. The shooting of the innocent people, on day one, led to outpouring of public outrage. This is being manifested in terms of burning and looting public and private properties next day. Excepting the cases of murder and other criminal offenses, no charges of treason be made against people simply because they participated in the demonstration. Their focus is on 8th September shooting and killing.

The people in the second camp focus on 9th September looting. They demand the state to investigate and book those thugs and criminals on rampage.This is where the Karki commission is squeezed in between.  

Logics in circulations

For the interest of the readers, I have collected and summarized here a number of Gen-Z logic in circulation.

Logic 1: Foreign Hand Interpretation. The movement is very much a part of global movement. We saw first saw it in Sri Lanka, followed by Bangladesh and elsewhere. The advocates put a blame on Nepal’s geo-politics, western or foreign hand, our immediate neighbors, INGOs and NGOs, some foundation funneling-channeling dollar money into Nepal. This is a way to rationalize our internal problems by putting a blame on outsiders. Foreign Hand hypothesis is easy to churn out and it costs nothing in Nepal. 

Logic 2: Oli-logics. Deposed PM Oli is the source of this logic. It says that incidents on 8th September were deliberately designed to create mayhem on 9th September. A peaceful demonstration by the students was, first, infiltrated and then hijacked by anti-government, anti-Oli elements. The security forces guarding parliament building were forced to resort shooting and killing. The camp also asserts that even the bullets, not available with the security forces, were being used. Gen-Z cannot do this and they will not do this. In fact, they didn’t. They have withdrawn demonstration before reaching the gate of parliament building.  

Logic 3: Saving Human Lives. This explanation comes from the security forces, the army in particular, after the security forces being accused of “doing nothing” or keeping heir hands folded, especially, when industrial scale arson took place on 9th September. Instead of saving public properties, they were busy airlifting netas and their family members. They say, “The protection of physical buildings and infrastructures would have come at a huge cost in terms of human casualties.” To avoid human casualties, police were ordered not to shoot.

Logic 4: 8th precedes 9th September. This argument is forwarded by Gen-Z fans and supporters. The mayhem and destruction on 9th September were triggered primarily by 8th September killing and murder. Even Mr Gagan Thapa, whose was also a victim of mob violence, roared during inaugural session of their Special General Convention, “the suppression (on 8th September) led to explosion (on 9th September)”.  “Burnt down Singhadurbar can be re-built but can you return the life of those killed?”, Gen-Z leaders say. 

Logic 5: Sharma’s Hypothetical Hypothesis. Mr. Biswo Prakash Sharma had this to say during Special General Convention: “Had the demonstrators allowed to burn down parliament building on 8th  September, killings and destruction could have been avoided.” This is purely hypothetical argument. One can come out with all kinds of illogical logics or ku-tarka in Nepali. Why didn’t the army took over? What would have happened if the army did not airlifted netas and their family members? Instead of Mrs Karki why not have other PM? One can go on and on but it is impossible to unwind the past.

Logic 6: The act of balancing. What I see is a dangerous possibility of trading-off or swapping out 8th  September incidents with that of 9th of September thereby canceling out cause from effects or vice versa. We, Nepalese, are typically good at looking for a compromised solution, a face saving device and name it a “’win-win” situation. In fact, this can be a kind of mutual back scratching - you scratch my back, I will scratch yours. Who knows, the report may not be released for public consumption? It may end up as a gopya dastabej.

Gen-Z Narayan Manandhar