"From Volunteers to King Makers": Wrote This With My Conspiracy Hat On, Take It With A Giant Grain of Salt And Point Out All My Fallacies

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"From Volunteers to King Makers"

On September 8, GenZs across the country called for a simultaneous protest against the KP Oli-led government following the Social Media Ban, demanding social media unban and freedom of expression, the establishment of an independent and transparent anticorruption probe, and resignation of the then PM Oli. 


Out of the many Gen Z organisers across Instagram, WhatsApp, Viber, TikTok, the most visible ones were gen.znepal and Hami Nepal on Instagram.

Volunteers or Organisers? 

From the very beginning, Gurung and Hami Nepal have gone an extra mile to establish themselves as just volunteers “providing water and medical support” to the GenZ protestors. However, upon revisiting the videos on k/Hami Nepal and Gurung’s Instagram feed, it is evident they have always been more than just “volunteers”; they have been ONE of the organisers. Why hide that fact?


First calls for the protest seem to appear on September 6 on Social Media sites like Instagram. One of the groups calling for the protest was gen.znepal on Instagram. Gurung and Hami Nepal also called the protest across their Instagram handles the same day. Of course, like many social media influencers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, Gurung and Hami Nepal could have also been helping to amplify the protest through their platforms. One could also probably make the same concession about the “Youth Against Corruption” discord server launched by Hami Nepal as the central command for the protest, which seems to have appeared on the afternoon of September 7 as an effort to help make the protest more effective and efficient. 


All these were acts of volunteering; any hints of being an active organiser are just misinterpretations on our part. They were not coordinating or calling for protests as an organiser would. Of course, they had no intentions whatsoever of joining the movement, less so of leading it. Maybe they were mere coincidences.


It was in the height of the tension following the harrowing events of the 8th and the 9th that an emotional Gurung said that he wasn’t a politician and wouldn’t vie for any political leadership position. He didn’t want a ministerial berth. And like he said, he didn’t take a position in the Sushila Karki-led cabinet. 


But controversy arose when Gurung said, if the people so desire, he won’t back down and would participate in the elections and would not back down from being the Prime Minister. That is perfectly understandable; things change as situations change, and so do people’s beliefs, understandings, and objectives. It’s only natural. 


It was in a similar fashion that Gurung became the face and the de facto leader of the Gen Z movement– despite being a “mere volunteer” and a millennial in his mid-thirties. He was thrust into the leadership position and thus, only then, became the face of the movement, accidentally, as no one else appeared to step up.


Now, let's get back to the Al Jazeera interview. Remember Gurung’s claim that he and Hami Nepal were just volunteers? Gurung clearly mentions in the “How to Protest” video posted on Instagram on September 6, “we [Hami Nepal] are organising and coordinating”. Similarly, his response to the Al Jazeera reporter when asked, “How and why did you decide to use Discord as a tool?” is very telling. Gurung’s response highlights how it was a deliberate, tactical, and calculated move that they had learned from protests in Hong Kong to “confuse the security forces”: 


 “We took an idea from the Hong Kong protest where they used like Signal and Discord to change the location of the protest to confuse the security forces.” 


Why the need to confuse the security forces in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest? Why the need to “change the location of the protest to confuse the security forces”?


The Tibetan Angle

The Dalai Lama, once the head of Tibet,  the spiritual head and the most prominent voice of the Tibetans-in-Exile, had never before congratulated any Heads of State. But he was one of the very first Heads of State to congratulate  Sushila Karki on her appointment as the head of the interim government. Could it be just a show of support for a nation in pain? A show of support for the nation of the Buddha from a Buddhist holy emperor. 


However, it wasn’t just the Dalai Lama. The message from the head of the Tibetan Government in Exile, Sikyong Penpa Tsering, in particular, was interesting. He said, “All our efforts over the years have been in vain, but your leadership brings us hope.” This could be interpreted as a very politically charged statement, especially since Nepal adheres to the One China Policy. In international diplomacy each an every word is carefully weighed (see here). 


What calls this into question, at least in my mind, is the involvement of one of the major players in the protest and in the formation of the interim government– Hami Nepal– with pro-Tibetan institutions. Students for a Free Tibet is one of the partners/donors of Hami Nepal. As is the Tharung Tashi Yangtse Monastery, popularly known as Namo Buddha Gumba, which also happens to be of a Tibetan heritage. It has, however, been removed from the list of donors on the Hami Nepal website in the days following the protest.


What sort of alignment or common interest these institutions share or the communities they serve is in the air. The ball is entirely in Gurung’s and Hami Nepal’s court to release the financial details, including funding agreements and project reports, to quell any suspicions of wrongdoings or conspiracies.


Delegitimisation of the Falgun 21 Elections

In the same interview, he attempts to delegitimise the Falgun 21 elections, which are yet to take place. According to Gurung, the elections are legitimate, thus valid in case of only one outcome, which is a clear victory of possibly the Gurung-led “GenZ” party. What if people chose otherwise? 


When questioned, “ What if the people vote for the old parties again? Will you accept the result?” Gurung is clear, “ …no Nepalese want them back. If you ask any true Nepalese, patriotic Nepalese, who wants to see their country prosper, they will say no to them. So we don't want them back.” 


This rhetoric of true Nepalese is a dangerous and divisive strategy often employed by populist dictators around the world. This rhetoric employs the powerful but dangerous idea of a "true Nepalese" to categorise opponents. By claiming that no "true" or "patriotic" Nepalese would vote for the old guard, Gurung implicitly dismisses any vote for an opposing party as illegitimate, unpatriotic, and essentially invalid. The outcome is only acceptable if it reflects the will of his defined "true" segment of society.

He then doubled down, rejecting the very notion of a valid opposition victory: “No, it's not going to be people's vote because these guys are, you know, they can do anything... Even though they win, we'll not accept them, not anymore.” The conclusion is inescapable: the elections are legitimate and thus valid, only in the case of a clear victory for the new political order. There’s only one acceptable outcome.

The Ball is in Their Court

The question of whether Gurung and Hami Nepal were just volunteers or a strategically coordinated political strategy intertwined with sensitive foreign agendas remains unanswered. The continued public partnership with Students for a Free Tibet, the other removed donors, and the strategic admission of Hong Kong tactics leave a trail that demands scrutiny. Given the gravity of the implications for national policy, the ball is entirely in Gurung’s and Hami Nepal’s court to release the full financial details, including all funding agreements and project reports, to quell any suspicions of wrongdoings or conspiracies. Without transparency, the narrative of "volunteers" will forever be challenged by the evidence of "calculated deceitful tacticians.” https://www.thetibetpost.com/news/exile/tibetan-leaders-congratulate-sushila-karki-on-her-appointment-as-pm-of-nepal#:~:text=All%20our%20efforts%20over%20the%20years%20have%20been%20in%20vain%2C%20but%20your%20leadership%20brings%20us%20hope.%22 https://youtu.be/qUz5N-CpQlE


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