It has been more than one and a half month of the gen Z revolution, and general people's initial enthusiasm for change has gradually been fading away. They had expected the newly formed interim government would take an immediate action to punish those who were directly involved in the murder of more than 70 innocent people on the 8th and 9th of September. Unfortunately, there arose so many other issues to be addressed which blanketed the main issue of finding out the guilty people. This has created frustration in general public, and they are skeptical to get justice.
The current scenario of the country is full of uncertainties.
There is no doubt that the government is trying its best to maintain normalcy
but there are many challenges. In the first place, the council of ministers has
not been complete yet and time is ticking out. More than this what is
ridiculous is that several people who the Prime Minister recommends as minister
to the President turn not to be with clean image. I think there must be
extended research before taking any decision so that it should not be changed
time and again. In addition, the process of selection could also be accelerated.
Once the cabinet is full, then the government's sole focus would be on the main
issues, which are to find out the guilty people involved in the mass massacre
during the gen Z protest, to start working on anti-corruption and to hold
elections successfully on time, i.e., on the 5th of March, 2026.
The government has formed a three-member probe commission headed by a former Supreme Court Judge Gauri Bahadur Karki to investigate everything related to gen Z protests and the commission has been given three months to complete the probe. I am hopeful that without being influenced by anything or anybody the commission has been working fairly to reach its goal.
The Nepali people are witnessing many unprecedented
happenings during such a volatile situation of the country. Among them the most
annoying thing that I am experiencing is that how people are spreading
negativity using the social media platforms. They are posting fake news
instigating awful comments. There is the use of foul language, swearing words
and what not.
Sadly, the same bad language used in the cyber world
has come to the real world as well. It seems as if the Nepali people use this
sort of language in their everyday life, which is not true. A language is
related to people's identity, so using the taboo language what sort of identity
we are creating? What will be an impact of this on little children who are in
the process of learning the language and being massively exposed to swearing
words?
We have recently seen different groups of unauthorized
people entering the government offices with their demands and threatening the
officers. They even asked for their resignation. It was absolutely a wrong
doing in the name of so-called gen Z youths. A responsible gen Z group would
never involve in such a filthy task. There must be a protocol to follow if you
want something to be done in a formal organization which was breached by a
bunch of young people who had pretended to be an authority themselves.
Activities like theirs create terror and insecurities in people; and how can
they work peacefully in their work place? After a couple of such incidents, the
government has arrested some of the people who were terrorizing the government
personnel. Let's hope this kind of irresponsible activities will not repeat
again.
An acute blame game has also been developed after the gen Z revolution. If we believe what people are claiming, there is not a single person we can find in the country with a clean image. Whether you consider the great personality Dr. Sanduk Ruit, the Prime Minister Sushila Karki, the Minister of Home Affairs Om Prakash Aryal, the Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Kul Man Ghising or anyone who has done something good for the country, they are being criticized baselessly. Some renowned e-papers are also selling the same sort of stories. The interim government has a lot of tasks to do within a limited time. These nonsense stories may distract its main focus, and this may be the intention of rumormongers.
Journalism is regarded as a very sacred profession. It comes after the three branches
of democracy - executive, legislative and judiciary. So, it is called the
fourth branch. These days some journalists have also failed to follow their
work ethics. I think such journalists are not journalists in real sense but
they are self-proclaimed ones. I remember a so-called journalist who was
shouting at one of the gen Z representatives to take accountability of every
damage that had happened on the 8th and 9th of September. The poor gen Z boy
was trying to clarify that the probe commission has already been formed to
investigate the incidents of killing and vandalism happened on those dates but
that pathetic journalist was unable to process this information. His stubbornness
was ridiculous.
For the past some days Balen Shah's poem had got an
entire attention on the social media platforms. In that poem only an expression
'as dirty as a farmer' was being attacked . A majority of people interpreted this
expression denotatively instead of connotatively. They stated that Balen Shah
insulted farmers saying that they are dirty people and they vented their anger upon
him. More interestingly, the All Nepal Peasants' Federation even issued a press
release asking Balen to remove this expression from the poem. The word 'dirty'
reminded me my PhD days. At that time my research supervisors used to tell me
to dirty my hands while conducting my study, then only I could succeed. Doing
PhD and farming are equally daunting and without working hard neither PhD
scholars nor farmers reach their goal.
All these examples are the evidence of our mental level on an average. We do not have practice of critical thinking, as a result, we are unable to differentiate between facts and rumors. During this critical time we, as responsible citizens, must be united for a common cause to relieve the country from all the problems that she is facing right now.
(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, October 31, 2025 )
