Dr Nishchal Pandey Director Centre for Sout Asian Studies, Kathmandu joined the students of MPhil & Phd DSS to discuss the current socio political transformations in Nepal through his talk on Nepal’s Gen Z Movement & the Way Forward. Dr Pandey very aptly explained the circumstances and triggers that led to the September revolution in Nepal, which resulted in the deaths of not less than 72 people, attributing them to political instability, socio economic downslide, misgovernance and the countrys’ inability to recover from Post Covid economic challenges, unemployment and above all the impact of social media.
Talking about other revolutions and civil unrests worldwide, he termed the gen z as an angry and hungry generation and owing to the impact of the social media, elections and the ability to govern is becoming a challenging task, where the governors have to get elected everyday and prove their ability to administer better, with 19 governments changing in 19 years, people in general were now restive regarding their future. However, the purpose of the Nepali Gen Z was to oust and ensure the removal of a non delivering corrupt coailition government, and after the removal, lacked clarity about what next would happen. Many vested interest groups thereby took advantage of the situation. the need now is for massive governance, judicial, institutional reforms and implemtation.
During the very engaging Q&A session, he responded to the role of external elements, role and regulation of social media, role of culture and ideology, what would be the future Nepali political spectrum, and also talked briefly about SAARC. while concluding he stated that everyone is a judge and jury on social media and we need to comprehend the rapidly changing dynamics of contemporary politics for affective governance. Dr Salma Malik concluded the webinar with a vote of thanks amidst a round of applause from the audience.