Just as the state killed Gen-Ji now, it killed people of different races a few years ago. Federalism was brought by those castes by fighting. Federalism should not be abolished.
Since the first week of September, 'naming and saying' was trending on social media. The impact of the digital campaign in Indonesia was that. Meanwhile, the government of Nepal decided to close some social networks.
The youth came to understand that the government shut down the social media to suppress the campaign that was going on through the recent trending in Nepal.
Their displeasure came to Facebook via TikTok, Reddit, Discord, Instagram. A date of 8 September (23 August) was fixed for the demonstration. It was a date that came about during discussions rather than in a planned way. Therefore, even though the date was fixed, the time of the performance was being discussed differently.
On August 21, a minister's vehicle from Koshi Pradesh hit a girl in Lalitpur's Harisiddhi. But the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the incident was normal and said not to politicize it. I think it fueled the angry youth.
'Naming and Naming' is also not a campaign carried out out of hatred towards any person. There are many examples of youth discontent compounding. Like, for a long time in Nepal, the government is being formed under the leadership of a certain party and its certain leader. People have seen corruption even in the ward. Even a small incident has made them nervous. So many young people came to the movement.
That movement belonged to Jen-G. Many were attending such a program for the first time. Most of them were young. But some were of older age group as well. No one can be told not to come. Our movement was over by going to Everest Hotel in Naya Baneshwar. Even when we were making plans and sharing information on social media, we said that we would only reach from Maitighar Mandal to Everest Hotel. So the movement ended after reaching there.
We had put out a notice saying 'Today is a success, let's go back home'. But many friends were coming to the movement for the first time. All were not even under our control. Some friends broke the 'barricade' and left. But the state repressed. Many friends died.
The incident of 24 August should be understood from two angles. After the death of Jen-G the previous day, the issue of disbanding the Oli-led government and forming a civilian government was raised. This was Zen-ji's demand. The next day many people came to the streets. That was natural. Because, as the youth was killed the day before, the people are responding to it. Those whose sons passed away, whose friends passed away, there was anger among them.
Second, someone else seems to have taken advantage of the outrage. It seems that the self-interested group also entered into Jen-Ji's natural anger. This is something that should come from research. No matter how many photos and videos are seen of people involved in arson, they are not included in Gen-G. State structures were burned. While our main issue is that the taxes paid by the people should be put to good use. We know that the building that was set on fire was also built with the people's taxes. Such arson is against the spirit of our movement. All this will be known after true investigation.
So now our demand is that the incidents of 23 and 24 August should be investigated separately. But I think that the incident of the previous day is more important than the incident of 24 August. Because we can rebuild buildings. But we cannot bring back the dead. Again, people in the government are involved in the incident of 23 August.
so it should be prioritized. But saying that the incident of August 24 is also being tried to be imposed on Jen-G, that is also wrong. I also participated in the movement like other friends. Not the one who came forward with leadership. Three days before the start of the
movement, we launched an Instagram page. We opened this account to open a common platform because there was a lot of excitement in Discord at that time. We intended that it would be easy to give information to everyone in one place and also to include information from other places in one place.
In this we started sharing content on how we can do the program in a peaceful manner. We also put 10 points on dos and don'ts. We were also afraid because parties like RSVP and RPRPA and people like Durga Prasai had given solidarity. That's why we made public what to do and what not to do.
After the incident of 24 August, my friends and I went to meet the general. We went with an 'urgent demand'. The way people were setting fire to private and public property is not acceptable. We asked the army to control the fire by the morning of 25th August as it has disturbed the peace and statelessness of Nepal.
At that time, the general told us that we will not do coup. However, we did not ask directly, but indirectly. He himself said "we will not attack". Later he called Durga Prasai as a stakeholder again, which raised different arguments.
We went to ask to mobilize the army to protect the structure from the fire and to maintain peace. But according to the situation at that time, we further said that the Gen-G movement demanded that corruption should be investigated and social networks should be opened. But the government collapsed.
Now friends have to be declared martyrs. There had to be an investigation. The fire had to be brought under control. A civilian government had to be formed. Similarly, we are not trying to throw away democracy. So don't misunderstand our movement. We are in favor of democracy. But in the current situation, we said that we need a civilian government.
12 of us went to meet the commander. Yujan Rajbhandari, Raksha Bam, Purushottam Yadav and others were there. They asked us to come the next day with whatever demands we have. We asked for 48 hours. Because there was a movement all over the country at that time. Everyone's voice should be heard. It had to be formulated. So we said we will come with the demand after listening to everyone. We said that the next time we come, not only the army, but also the president. Because, according to the constitution, the place for "negotiation" is not the army. We have a constitution, a president. That's why we negotiate with the president within the constitution. So we left that day.
From the next day, all those young people seemed to be gone. What we have to remember is that at that time a campaign had already started - make the president public. 'Negotiation' should be in the form of a paper document. But nothing is known about what happened at that time. No idea how we got here. Jen-Ji doesn't know what the concrete 'negotiation' was about.
Therefore, we are also demanding that the process at that time should be transparent. Because our movement is to seek transparency and accountability with the government. Therefore, the agreement reached at this time should also be transparent. There is no problem with whoever the army negotiated with. Now we have found the civilian government we were looking for. But at least it should be transparent.
because if the consensus is not clear, it is against the spirit of the movement. Many friends have talked about repealing the constitution. But this was not the demand of our movement. Nepali got this constitution after 10 years of struggle. Society changes and evolves. There is an option to amend the constitution. Can be amended as per requirement. I think this constitution should be maintained. Amendments should be made as required.
The youth should get a chance through elections, but this system should work. The issue of a directly elected prime minister has also been raised. But as populism is taking over in Nepal. At such a time, how appropriate is it to adopt a directly elected prime minister system? There is a question. So I think the current system should work.
Although many people want a directly elected prime minister, it should be according to the constitution. Now there is an election. After that, the coming parliament should only amend the constitution and implement it. Whatever is to be done, it should be based on the constitution. No unconstitutional act is acceptable. Federalism should not be abolished. Must be maintained.
Because Nepal is not a place where only one ethnic group lives. How many people lost their lives in the Madhesh movement and the Tharu movement in the past. Even then, he was killed by the state. We must not forget that.
Just as the state killed Gen-Ji now, it killed people of different races a few years ago. Federalism was brought by those castes by fighting. Therefore, we should reflect on the events of history and understand that this country is not just one caste. Federalism should not be abolished. The movement did not even ask for that.
(dialogue with Kishore Dahal)
