When protesters in Nepal torched Parliament, the Supreme Court and the homes of five former Prime Ministers' on Tuesday, no one seemed to be in charge of a country in anarchy. Then, that night, General Ashok Raj Sigdel, the chief of the Nepali army, appeared in a short video, urging calm in the streets.
His soldiers took control at 10pm, and violent protests in the capital, Kathmandu, had begun to fizzle. That same night, army officers were sitting down with the young and little-known leaders of the self-declared Gen Z protest movement to hash out a plan for peace.
The Nepali army was the only institution left standing to negotiate with the people behind the uprising. That has put the army, an internationally famous fighting force, in an unfamiliar position. It has never held power on its own and commands respect within the country, but now it is caught in a difficult transition for Nepal.
Harka Sampang, a social activist who serves as mayor to a small city in the east, said he "had come to Kathmandu to talk to the army chief". He implied that there was not much choice, "after thousands of people requested it". Eventually the protest leaders told the general that they wanted Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, as the leader of an interim government.
Whatever comes next, the power vacuum will likely be filled by an agreement between the angry and inchoate youth movement on one side and the military leadership on the other.
Nepal's existing power structures went up in smoke during two days of violence, with the country's Prime Minister fleeing and other top officials resigning. The nation's President was nowhere to be seen. A similar compromise was forged in Bangladesh just over a year ago when a student-led protest movement and the army chose an interim government led by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
"The army will definitely create a secure environment until the election is held," said Major General Binoj Basnyat, who retired from the Nepali army in 2016. When he began his service, it was called the Royal Nepalese army, and General Basnyat shares his pride in the army with most Nepalis, 91 per cent of whom trust it more than any other institution in Nepal, according to a poll conducted by the Asia Foundation in 2022.
The people can trust the army, General Basnyat believes, because its leadership is committed to remaining under the civil authorities, he said. It was armed police who fired on Gen Z protesters on Monday, he said, not the Nepali army. At least 19 people were killed that day.
New York Times News Service