Nepal has been thrown into a state of profound uncertainty following a week of violent protests that led to the prime minister’s resignation. While the youth-led uprising has achieved its initial goals, the path forward for the Himalayan nation is unclear, with the potential for either fundamental reform or a descent into deeper political chaos.
The immediate future will be defined by the protesters’ next moves. Having rejected the prime minister’s resignation as insufficient, they are now calling for the dissolution of the government. This maximalist demand puts them on a collision course with the remaining political establishment. Whether they can maintain their momentum and force such a dramatic outcome remains to be seen.
The political class, meanwhile, will be scrambling to manage the crisis. They may attempt to appoint a new prime minister and form a new government in an effort to appease the public and restore a semblance of order. However, any solution that is seen as a mere reshuffling of the same old faces is likely to be rejected by the streets, potentially leading to further confrontations.
In the long term, the crisis has exposed the deep fractures in Nepalese society and the urgent need for systemic reform. The issues of corruption, youth unemployment, and political accountability can no longer be ignored. The key question is whether Nepal’s political system is capable of reforming itself, or whether it will require a more revolutionary break from the past, a path that is fraught with both promise and peril.
