Now ousted Nepal PM KP Oli has issued his first response on Wed (Sep 10) after fleeing his country amid violent protests. He revealed that he is currently at the Shivapuri barracks of the Nepal Army. Without responding to the violence that has engulfed his country or the social media ban that triggered the protests, Oli went on an anti-India rant and said that he lost power because he ‘opposed the birth of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.” He also said that he would have remained in power had he not raised the issue of – Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura – that Nepal claims to be a disputed territory with India. While multiple reports on Tuesday claimed that he had fled the country, he is now saying that he is in Shivapuri which is in the north of Kathmandu.

“By nature, I am a little stubborn. Without that stubbornness, perhaps I would have given up long ago, amid all these challenges. It was with that same insistence that I demanded social media companies operating here follow our rules and register locally. I insisted that Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura belong to Nepal. I maintained that Lord Shri Ram was born in Nepal, not India, as the scriptures say. Had I compromised on these stands, I could have chosen many easier paths and reaped many benefits. If the map of Nepal, including Limpiyadhura, had not been sent to the United Nations, or if I had let others decide for me, my life could have been very different. But instead, I gave everything I owned to the state. For me, position and prestige were never what mattered,” he said in his letter.

Nepal Protest

Nepal is witnessing a youth-led protest over digital censorship that soon spiralled into a full-blown political crisis. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped down. Several ministers were assaulted, chased and their homes were set afire by angry protesters. Rajyalaxmi Chitrakar, wife of former PM Jhalanath Khanal, died after her home was torched. Protesters also stormed and set fire to key government buildings, including Parliament, the PM’s residence, and the President’s house.

While the trigger was a sweeping government move on September 4, when 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Whatsapp and X were blocked, protesters, mostly youngsters, also came to the streets over rising corruption, a lack of accountability and inequality from the top echelons of the nation. Termed by many as the ‘Gen Z Protest’ or even the ‘Gen Z Revolution’, Nepal on Tuesday witnessed widespread unrest marked by vandalism, violent clashes, and assaults on public officials. At least 19 people were killed in a deadly clash between protesters and security forces in Nepal as protests intensified. Moreover, Nepali police said that more than 13,500 prisoners broke out of jails across the country during anti-government protests.