India is Blowing Hot and Cold with Bangladesh

SALEEM SAMAD

India has multiple reasons for disliking Bangladesh. In the aftermath of the event of the ouster of all-weather friend Sheikh Hasina from power in August 2024. If we look into previous regimes, Delhi developed heightened relations with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1972-1975) and her daughter, Sheikh Hasina (1976-2001 and 2009-2024).

Why? The Awami League party was literally “owned” by the Sheikh’s family was tilted to India when their government was in power. The people did not like it, and thousands of critics, dissidents, opposition, and also journalists were severely punished by both the autocratic regimes.

Not only the Awami League, but also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jatiya Party. When the military junta of liberation war veteran General Ziaur Rahman (1977-1981) and the other by General Hussain Muhammad Ershad (1982-1990) floated their parties and recruited politicians mostly from the former defunct Muslim League and pro-Maoist parties. Interestingly, the South Block in Delhi had love and hate relations with both the Rahman and Ershad, but both regimes were suspicious and careful of the giant neighbor.

India reciprocated ‘not-so-warm’ diplomatic relations, but each other’s leaders were on reciprocal official state visits to Delhi and Dhaka. Presently, Delhi is not happy with the sudden change of regime in Dhaka. The 36-day Monsoon Revolution street protest by Gen Z forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to quit and flee. She sought political asylum in India.

India has not been able to accept the change in Bangladesh because it “did not like” what the students did during the uprising last year. “We have problems with India right now because they disliked what the students have done,” remarked Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the Interim Government.

He was speaking at an event organized by the Asia Society and the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York last week, which was moderated by Dr Kyung-wha Kang, president and CEO of the Asia Society. He said India’s hosting of Hasina has created all sorts of problems in the country and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of young people, and is not helping bilateral ties between the neighbors.

The United Nations human rights body (OHCHR) claimed that nearly 1,400 people, including students, daily wage earners, vendors, public transport drivers, and children. “This issue creates a lot of tension between India and Bangladesh. Also, lots of fake news is disseminated from the other side [of the border]. This is a very bad thing,” Yunus lamented while attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

He flagged a piece of fake news claiming that the youth who brought about change in Bangladesh are Taliban. “They even said I’m a Taliban too. I don’t have a beard. I just left it at home,” he quipped. Yunus said SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) is supposed to be a bloc of very close family members, and the idea was born in Bangladesh.

“You can invest in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is going to invest in your territory. That’s the whole idea of SAARC,” he said. “All of us benefit from that… This is what we should be doing.” Yunus said SAARC’s idea was to bring all the countries in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) together so that young people can get in touch with each other.

The chief adviser said, “Our history allowed us to make that happen, but somehow it didn’t fit into the politics of someone’s country [not naming India], so it had to stop. We feel very sorry for that.” However, Yunus said Dhaka is willing to revitalize SAARC. “We want to make sure that we open it up and bring people [of South Asia] together. That is the only way to solve our issues.”

“I said, why don’t you look at neighbors, like Nepal, Bhutan, and also the seven northeast states of India. In the eastern part of Bangladesh, seven states don’t have any access to the ocean. These are landlocked regions,” he said, hinting at possible fields of economic cooperation. The Indian ‘Godi media’ are saber-rattling when Yunus mentioned that Bangladesh would give access to a new deep-seaport being built by the Japanese in the Bay of Bengal. So did the leaders of the radical Hindutva, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when Yunus spoke of giving access routes to landlocked northeast India states.

The Godi media and BJP stalwarts blamed Yunus for interfering in India and attempting to stir a separatist movement in the landlocked states, which will usher in China’s military presence in the conflict. He also mentioned Nepal and Bhutan. The countries welcomed the proposal, which will facilitate their exports through Bangladesh.

Earlier regional studies suggested that both Bangladesh and Northeast India need to scale up their multi-modal connectivity, which would not only help the region to raise its competitiveness but also narrow long-standing regional development gaps.

The port would immensely benefit economically and create jobs in Northeast Indian states, and Japan proposed a plan for road infrastructure for fast communication to the Bay of Bengal, and also developed backward linkage industries.

Japan has proposed developing an industrial hub in Bangladesh with supply chains to the landlocked northeast states of India, Nepal, and Bhutan beyond by developing a port and connectivity in the region, under the Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative.

The connectivity will bring synergy in trade facilitation and build express corridors for the transshipment and transit of goods from northeast India to the Bangladesh port in Chattogram.

The former Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Vision, focused particularly on emerging economies and developing countries in the Indo-Pacific region and territories vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters.

It comes after Kishida visited India in March 2023, where he touted the idea of a new industrial hub for the Bay of Bengal and Northeast India that could bolster development in the impoverished region of 300 million people.

After Kishida visited India, Japan approved $1.27 billion to Bangladesh for three infrastructure projects – including an enormous commercial port in the Bay, which will be equivalent to the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka or the Port of Singapore in terms of water depths, said a JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) official in charge of the project.

After the Japanese Prime Minister’s official visit, top Japanese officials visited New Delhi, Guwahati (Assam), Agartala (Tripura), and in Dhaka (Bangladesh). When Japan proposed the port and the economic emancipation of the majoritarian ethnic communities in the Northeast in 2023, the Indians cheered, after Japanese top officials made presentations in the Indian cities.

Japan wants her physical presence in the Bay of Bengal. As prestigious Japanese media Nikkei Asia writes, Bangladesh’s ambitious deep-sea port promises a strategic anchor for Japan and India.

A mega seaport under construction is shaping up to be a strategic linchpin for Japan and India as the QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) partners (Australia, India, Japan, and the United States) aim to counter Chinese influence in the South China Sea.

The Red Sun, as Japan is branded, plans to build a Bengal – Northeast India industrial value chain in cooperation with India and Bangladesh to foster growth in the region.

A mega deep-sea port at Matarbari, in southeast Bangladesh waters, is expected to be completed in 2027. The complex will take a major load off of the country’s main Chattogram (formerly Chittagong) port and a trade gateway for northeast India, which would be less than 100 kilometers from the massive port facility.

Whatever the geopolitical strategy, the deep-sea port project has the potential to improve regional trade ties, boost investment, create jobs, and support infrastructural development, spurring economic growth for Bangladesh, Northeast India, Nepal, and Bhutan, as well as the surrounding areas of the Bay of Bengal.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 27 September 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

US Military Presence in Bangladesh Worries India

SALEEM SAMAD

In 1996, Bangladesh agreed to the “war on terror” against the rogue Jihadist regime in Afghanistan, officially the Global War on Terrorism, a global military campaign initiated by the United States following the 11 September attacks in 2001, and is one of the most recent global conflicts spanning multiple wars.

The US military arrived for three joint military exercises with its counterpart, the Bangladesh military. The US officers checked into a Bangladesh Army-affiliated Radisson Blu Hotel in Chattogram (formerly Chittagong) on September 10 for an exercise in the coastal region of the south.

For the fourth year in a row, the Bangladesh Army and US Army Pacific conducted Exercise Tiger Lightning for preparedness on counterterrorism, peacekeeping, jungle operations, medical evacuations, and countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs), says the US Embassy in Dhaka on 20 July.

Since 2009, the ongoing exercise will feature patrol boat handling and small arms marksmanship, strengthening warfare diving and salvage, as well as the para-commandos’ ability to respond to crises.

In  the hallmarks of defense relationship between the two countries, the US built C-130 fleets that are critical in disaster response, airdrops, and air mobility operations. The exercise included Search and Rescue (SAR) and Aero-medical operations, further developing Bangladesh’s ability to respond to humanitarian disasters.

The United States, with Bangladesh’s Army and Navy, develop an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) capability for Bangladesh, and operated the new RQ-21 Blackjack system. The effort enabled Bangladesh to monitor its maritime domain, secure its borders, and conduct peacekeeping missions.

Whereas, hundreds of social media accounts loyal to the ousted regime of Sheikh Hasina burst into outrage, deep into conspiracy theories that the Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus Interim Government has opened the floodgate for “clandestine operation” to enable Bangladesh military forces to militarily strengthen the Myanmar rebels to oust the military junta in the capital Naypyidaw. The social media was abuzz that the US military officers had “secretly” arrived in Bangladesh and did not register their names at the hotel.

The second conspiracy theory, which was widely floating in social media and many suggests that the US military presence was to determine a suitable base which would make their presence felt in South Asia and also monitor South-East Asia. Well, the Bangladesh authority did not bother to counter the conspiracy theories that attempted to undermine the joint military exercise.

In August 2016, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during a meeting with former Secretary of State John Kerry in Dhaka, expressed a “very clear” desire to cooperate with the U.S. “very, very closely” on fighting terrorism. Kerry announced the two countries had agreed to “additional steps by which our intelligence and law enforcement will work together to try to get ahead of this.”

Secretary of State, said the US and the West are deeply worried after evidence of the presence of Islamic State jihadists operating in Iraq and Syria has sleeping cells in “eight entities around the world, and one of them is in South Asia.” He deliberately did not mention the name of Afghanistan. He, however, disclosed that Islamic State extremists are in contact with some operatives in Bangladesh, and there was no argument about it from the government officials he met with here, including the prime minister.

Hasina’s government was blamed by scores of terrorism analysts and security experts for ‘having its head in the sand’ about such links, repeatedly terming the attacks as homegrown. Meanwhile, popular India Today media published a documentary titled: Strategic Drills In India’s Backyard: US Footprint In Bangladesh Rising.

Another media News Arena India on 15 September wrote in an article that India’s intelligence circle, the US troops’ arrival has fueled speculation amid a noticeable uptick in American military activity in Bangladesh following the fall of the Hasina regime. The same article was widely quoted on social media that the US military officers refrained from registering their names with the front desk and slipped into pre-booked rooms.

“The purpose of the exercise remains vague, with officials mentioning Cox’s Bazar as a likely location. The Bangladesh Army has largely remained cagey about the presence of US forces, apart from acknowledging formal collaborations such as Operation Pacific Angel and Tiger Lightning-2025,” wrote News Arena India without mentioning the source of information. The presence of C-130Js has reinforced speculation about the scope of US military activities in Bangladesh, etcetra, etcetra.

In the mid-60s, the radical left students to imbibe dissent against the military dictator General Ayub Khan of Pakistan said that he had leased Saint Martin’s island in the southeast tip of the country to the United States to build a military base to counter India.

The conspiracy theory of St. Martin given away to the Americans has cropped up several times since its independence in 1971. They were deliberately blamed for different regimes for facilitating inroads for America to counter the regional influence of India and China.

Bangladesh’s only coral island, Saint Martin, the Department of Environment (DoE) in 1999 declared the 8 Sq Km isles an “Ecologically Critical Area (ECA)”. It warned that the geo-class of a tiny island cannot be changed without the permission of the DoE. A British team of surveyors in 1900 included Saint Martin’s island as part of the British Raj in India and named it after a Christian priest, Saint Martin.

Green activists and environmentalists say the island is home to several globally endangered marine turtles and birds, including the rare Pacific reef-egret, red crab, dolphin, and vulnerable olive Ridley sea turtles, which are also on the verge of disappearance.

Professor Kawser Ahmed, dean of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Dhaka University, in his article published in Ocean Science Journal in 2020, predicts that coral species will completely disappear by 2045.

Earlier, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, environment adviser to the Interim Government, doubted whether an ecologically threatened island would be suitable for any military purpose. Political historian and researcher Mohiuddin Ahmad, quoted in the largest circulated Bangla newspaper, Prothom Alo that he first heard in February 1971 about leasing Bhola’s Monpura island out to the USA.

The rumor took wings after the then fiery opposition leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had parley with the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Joseph Simpson Farland, on 28 February 1971 – a month before the genocidal campaign ‘Operation Searchlight’ launched by the Pakistan military, which sparked the liberation war.

Indian media quoting Hasina from a press conference in July 2023, she asked, “How did [opposition] BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) come to power in 2001?”? She continued that they came to power by pledging to sell [natural] gas [to India]. Now do they want to sell the country [to the United States] or come to power by pledging to sell Saint Martin’s island,” she told loyalist journalists. Her words spread like wildfire and were injected into the minds and hearts of millions of supporters that Americans have an interest in the ‘critically endangered’ tiny island.

She blames BNP for negotiating with Washington, DC, to give away the ‘critically endangered’ coral island to America for a military establishment to watch over a huge swatch of the Bay of Bengal, which merges with the Indian Ocean in the far south. BNP countered her statement and said, “No country signs a deal with the opposition; it is signed with the government.”

On the other hand, the United States State Department’s former spokesperson Matthew Miller scoffed at the rumor centering on the island and the USA. In a press briefing in Washington, DC, he confidently said, “We have never engaged in any conversations about taking over Saint Martin’s island,” he remarked. Despite the denial by the US official, the loyalist of Hasina still blows the horn that the American military presence is interpreted as the establishment of a strategic naval base in the ocean of Bangladesh.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 24 September 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Nepal-India’s ‘Love & Hate’ Neighbor

SALEEM SAMAD

India is in a diplomatic quagmire with its neighbors in a series of political crises of ‘youth quake’ by Gen Z (generation Z), which have struck Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal in South Asia.

South Block in New Delhi, before it could understand what was happening in Kathmandu, Nepal’s elected government, headed by Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, collapsed and fled to an unknown destination. India miscalculated its steps in response to the uprising among its neighbors. Delhi is having hiccups with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal joining the bandwagon, after its recent political turmoil.

For 14 months since becoming the prime minister of Nepal last July, Sharma Oli kept knocking on the door of South Block in New Delhi. This September, the door was supposed to swing open to let him in. His political mistake with its giant neighbor, according to New Delhi, the newly elected Prime Minister Sharma Oli made his first official visit to China, instead of her neighbor India.

China’s inroads into Nepal with mega projects, offers, and connectivity irked India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership. China’s massive infrastructure investments under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including projects like the cross-border railway and road networks, are seen by Nepalese as tangible signs of development and economic opportunity, further enhancing China’s appeal over India.

“Oli knew his premiership would remain shaky without New Delhi’s backing. India, which has deep trade and cultural ties with landlocked Nepal, has traditionally been a big determinant of the longevity of governments in Kathmandu,” wrote The Diplomat news portal.

Alas, the planned visit of Sharma Oli to Delhi has been dented by a two-day youth-quake by Gen Z (Genji) street protest. Interestingly, China’s response to Gen Z to the current political developments appeared cautious and calculated, reflecting its broader regional strategic interests.

Finally, on 10 September, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson issued a statement saying, “China and #Nepal are each other’s traditional friends and neighbors. Hope the various sectors in Nepal will approach the domestic issues properly and restore order and stability in the country soon.”

After 2008, Beijing has carefully treaded with the Communist leadership in Nepal to deepen its diplomatic ties and goodwill in Nepal. The move has been viewed as a key element for strategic influence over the region. Leaders like Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda did not hesitate to use the China card to stoke the nationalistic sentiments in Nepal.

Rishi Gupta, commentator on Global Affairs with India’s The Print portal that a day after the protests began in Nepal on 8 September, India stated the next day that it was “closely monitoring the developments in Nepal…(and) our thoughts and prayers are with the families and deceased. India also added that “as a close friend and neighbor, we hope that all concerned will exercise restraint.”

The same evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives. The stability, peace, and prosperity of Nepal are of utmost importance to us. I humbly appeal to all my brothers and sisters in Nepal to support peace.”

In the same statement, India had urged that “issues on which there are differences should be resolved through dialogue in an atmosphere free from violence and intimidation and institutionalized in a manner that would enable broad-based ownership and acceptance,” as it was deemed as external interference. It would not be an exaggeration to say that small-state syndrome became an intense public mood in Nepal as it approached relations with India, especially after Nepal promulgated the constitution in 2015, wrote Gupta.

There was a divided crowd on social media about India’s approach, whether it was helpful and friendly or interventionist, but this came as no surprise, as the so-called border blockade of 2015 had already set the social media toolkit on India with hashtags like #BackoffIndia #GoBackIndia, wrote The Print.

For most who are watching Nepal closely, glimpses of the street protest and follow-up that unfolded in Kathmandu were reminiscent of the uprising that gripped Bangladesh in 2024 and Sri Lanka in 2022. In four years, three street protest movements showed how public anger against political corruption toppled the heads of government of Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, and led to their capitals.

The three South Asian countries are bedecked with corruption, nepotism, and favoritism by party leaders, lawmakers, and their family and relatives, who enjoyed the luxury and comfort from the perks from state exchequers, handsome commissions from government contracts, and sharks of bank loans.

Though Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also India’s closest South Asian neighbors, Delhi’s relationship with Kathmandu is special because of historic people-to-people, economic, and strategic ties, wrote the BBC news portal. The protests in Nepal were initially seen by India’s political leadership as just young people upset at not being able to use social media. Delhi woke up when the government collapsed after the uprising escalated quickly.

On September 11, Kantipur, the country’s leading daily, reported that while Western media explored corruption, unemployment, and the social media ban as triggers, much of the Indian media pushed conspiracy theories – claiming either foreign powers like China and the US or a “deep state,” a conspiratorial term denoting bureaucracy and security forces, were behind the protest.

Nepal’s government has officially announced a total of 72 fatalities from the recent protests led by Gen Z. The total casualty of the nationwide Gen Z protests has reached 72. Newly appointed Prime Minister Karki of the caretaker government has declared that bereaved families of those killed in the protests will be compensated, while 191 still receiving treatment in hospitals will be treated for free.

The protesters killed during the Gen Z movement have been declared martyrs and cremated with due state honors. On 17 September, the nation paid tributes to the fallen protesters and declared the day a national holiday.

Viral videos on TikTok and Instagram have contrasted the lavish lifestyles of political families, with trends and hashtags #NepoKids #NepoBabies, #PoliticiansNepoBabyNepal involving designer clothes, foreign travel, and luxury cars, with the harsh realities faced by young people, including unemployment and forced migration.

Nepal is fraught with frequent political instability, and each prime minister’s tenure has lasted just a year or two since the new constitution came into effect in 2015. The country abolished its monarchy in 2006, after a violent uprising that forced its former king to give up his authoritarian rule, the American-based Associated Press (AP) writer said.

South Block and the ruling BJP are intensely watching political developments across the border, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi swiftly reacting to the unfolding events and writing his feelings on Twitter (X). “The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives,” Modi wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

The Gen Z youth leaders protested during a scheduled meeting with the country’s Indian trained military chief, Ashok Raj Sigdel, over why Indian media had been given clearance to attend the meeting at the military headquarters, where a planned dialogue was scheduled, while Nepali media were barred.

While selecting the possible candidates for the prime minister, the youth leaders struck names for the premiership, who are pro-Indian and have close ties with Delhi. What angered the Gen Z protesters was that the Indian television channels declared the protests they had joined were not about inequality but about restoring Nepal’s monarchy.

While right-wing television led the charge, newspapers and digital outlets also amplified the narrative. In the process, their coverage downplayed the protesters’ actual grievances, corruption, inequality, and economic hardship by focusing on the theme that was never central to the demonstrations.

Nepali youth demanding accountability versus Indian media, especially outlets close to the ruling BJP, eager to weave the protests into its own narrative, wrote an Indian media outlet.

Indian pro-establishment “Godi Media” was actively downplaying the Gen Z movement in Nepal. Fuelling the narrative are allegations from Indian broadcasters and politicians that rioters vandalized Nepal’s Pashupatinath temple, a revered Hindu site in the Himalayan nation, BBC reported.

“Some rioters, hiding within the crowd of protesters, attempted to vandalize the temple, and it was only after this incident that the army was deployed,” an anchor for the right-wing Zee News, a staunch ‘Godi Media’ television channel, said in a report featuring a clip of people climbing onto the temple’s gate and violently shaking it. KN Swami, a respected monk in the Pashupatinath temple, also posted clips on social media to refute claims it had been attacked by protesters.

Jivesh Mishra, a member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in eastern Bihar state, which shares a border with Nepal, told reporters last week, “An attack on a temple is an attack on (the) Hindu faith.” Hundreds of social media posts have claimed without evidence that the protests were “instigated and funded” by “anti-Hindu forces and Islamists” to attack religious sites.

The French news agency, AFP fact-checkers, traced the footage to a religious ritual called Naxal Bhagwati Jatra, filmed weeks before the violence. Similarly, the Godi Media have been actively doing the same with political developments in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Other posts viewed thousands of times on Twitter (X), Instagram, Threads, and Facebook have compared the unrest in Nepal with protests in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where a student-led revolt ousted long-time leader Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the founder of Bangladesh.

Why is India worried about the instability in Nepal? Delhi deems direct and indirect security threats to India’s interests. In the political crisis in Nepal, the 1,700-kilometre open border with India could be a security threat to the region. Political chaos and a breakdown of law and order can lead to a surge in cross-border smuggling, human trafficking, and an increase in the activities of anti-India elements, wrote the popular NDTV network’s opinion column.

The potential for a security vacuum in Nepal could be exploited by hostile actors, particularly Pakistan’s ISI, to foment trouble in India, cautioned opposition Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, a popular writer and commentator.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, 17 November 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

https://stratheia.com/nepal-indias-love-hate-neighbor/

Nepalese Protesters Cries 'Don't Mess With GenZ'

SALEEM SAMAD

We know that the Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has resigned and fled on a military helicopter to an unknown destination amid the nation reels from its worst two-day unrest in decades, and 19 people have died in the streets of the capital Kathmandu. The 73-year-old Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, known as K P Sharma Oli, leads a coalition government that includes the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and the staunchly pro-Indian Nepali Congress.

Many South Asian political scientists and observers have noted that the people’s uprising against corrupt and autocratic governments has shadows that occurred in Sri Lanka (2022), then Bangladesh (2024), and now Nepal.

The curious question is, where will the people’s revolution strike next? The uprising will spark only where social media is curbed and corruption among politicians in alliance with bureaucracy and police administration becomes unbearable for the ‘aam janata’ (general public), says Dr Rakim Al Hasan, Executive Director of Centre For Partnership Initiative.

Nepal’s political legacy is no different from the South Asian nations. The country erupted into riot after a social media ban was clamped as an online anti-elite movement was gaining traction.

The Himalayan country is currently witnessing one of its most widespread youth uprisings in modern history, triggered by a government-imposed social-media ban and later followed by growing anger over corruption and nepotism. What sparked Nepal’s Gen Z protests and the rise of the ‘Nepo kid’ campaign?

The ban came just as a viral online movement targeting political elites and their children – dubbed “nepo kids” was gaining traction. Borrowing from the Hollywood term “nepo baby,” Nepali users began exposing the lavish lifestyles of politicians’ children, accusing them of misusing public funds.

Posts on TikTok and Reddit, some viewed over a million times, highlighted foreign trips, luxury purchases, and perceived entitlement, sparking outrage among young citizens. While the social-media shutdown served as the immediate catalyst, protesters say the deeper issue is systemic corruption, inequality, and discrimination.

The Kathmandu government argued it is not banning social media but trying to bring them in concurrence with the Nepali laws. The social media users in the Himalayan country challenged the constitution and traditional laws of the state.

The uprising broke out after the government last week blocked access to 26 platforms – including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube, China’s Tencent, Snapchat, Pinterest, and X (formerly Twitter) following a directive requiring all social-media companies to register with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Thousands of young Nepali people, many in their 20s or even younger, got together to protest in the capital Kathmandu and other cities in the Himalayan country. Many of the protesters were students and joined the demonstrations in their school or college uniforms. The organizers called the protests “demonstrations by Gen Z”.

The government quickly lifted the ban and launched an investigation, but it is too little and too late. The agitating youths demanded the removal of political parties from power and the establishment of a civilian government. The youth representatives have urged during the dialogue with the state party and the Chief of Nepal Army Staff, Ashokraj Sigdel.

The army has urged the protesting youths to remain calm and hold peace talks, but said the youths that after Parliament has been dissolved. The army has been deployed since 10 September morning. The curfews remain in place as discontent continues to simmer.

The army has warned of strict action against vandalism, arson, looting, and violent activities in the name of agitation as punishable crimes. As a result, life in the valley is gradually returning to normal, and the situation has significantly calmed down.

Many of the youth protesters have voiced support for Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah, a former popular rapper and engineer by profession, to lead the dialogue for peace and security, which covers issues such as forming a civilian government, dissolving parliament, and holding fresh elections.

Meanwhile, the chaotic city of Kathmandu has begun to be cleaned up after the violent protests. Locals and agitating youths are taking to the streets to clean up the mess after the street riots. Last week, Nepal’s government blocked access to several social media platforms after the companies missed the deadline to register under new regulations, aimed at cracking down on misuse.

A government notice directed the regulator, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, to deactivate unregistered social media. The services will be restored once the platforms comply with its order, the government said. Local media reported that the banned platforms include Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Alphabet’s YouTube, China’s Tencent and Snapchat, Pinterest, and X. Blocking the platforms had hit content creators, influencers, and cut small businesses from reaching customers.

The government says it took the action after repeated warnings to the platforms to open offices in Nepal, a Cabinet decision last month setting a deadline, as well as a 17 August Supreme Court ruling that undermines Nepal’s open society, and also requiring them to register and pay the requisite taxes.

However, the Bill cited in the ban, ‘The Operation, Use, and Regulation of Social Media in Nepal’ has not yet been passed by Parliament. Some social media platforms, which were already paying taxes in Nepal even though they are not officially registered, have also been blocked.

The Regional Director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Beh Lih Yi said ‘Nepal’s sweeping ban on social media sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. Blocking online news platforms vital to journalists will undermine reporting and the public’s right to information.’

The rights activists have said that while there is a need for the government to regulate extreme content and hate speech, officials appear to be more intent on clamping down on free speech and trying to force platforms to share the revenue.

Nepal’s youngsters say the protest is an expression of their widespread frustration over the social media ban. The widespread arson was sparked by the killing of at least 19 young protesters as they tried to storm the century-old old magnificent parliament building.

A peaceful rally by youth against corruption and nepotism by Nepal’s Gen Z (Generation Z) movement in Kathmandu escalated after the killings. With the prime minister and other ministers having fled the capital, the government not visible and the security forces in retreat, protesters have had the run of the three cities of Kathmandu Valley – Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, and Kathmandu.

As protests spread, police withdrew from guarding official buildings, and thousands of protesters entered the federal government secretariat at Singha Darbar, ransacking and setting fire to buildings and the Parliament building, homes of ministers, hotels and other properties.

Kathmandu Valley was shrouded in smoke under heavy monsoon clouds with a pungent smell in the capital. Many people in Nepal think corruption is rampant, and the government of Prime Minister Sharma Oli has been criticized by opponents for failing to deliver on its promises to tackle graft or make progress in addressing longstanding economic issues.

All members of the opposition RPP (Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) is a constitutional monarchist and Hindu nationalist political party in Nepal, and the RSP (Rastriya Swatantra Party, a National Independence Party) have resigned from parliament. The headquarters of all three main political parties were also set on fire.

Some of the protesters also want an end to federalism, which was also the demand of opposition parties like the RSP and the pro-monarchist RPP. Although the protests were sparked by Gen Z protesters, disparate groups, including monarchists, anti-federalists, disgruntled Maoists, dissidents from the mainstream parties, and others, have joined the protests.

One thing that united them is extreme frustration with the mainstream parties and their leaders, past and present, who have taken turns running and ruining the country. Nepal has struggled with political instability for decades and has seen 14 governments in 17 years.

Nepal’s people’s revolution in 1950–1951, called the Anti-Rana Movement, reduced the king to a figurehead. With support from India and Nepali Congress activists, the revolution ended the Rana autocracy.

The 1990 People’s Movement, a mass uprising, forced King Birendra to end the absolute monarchy. Nepal became a constitutional monarchy with multi-party democracy. The 2006 People’s Movement, after King Gyanendra seized direct power in 2005, ignited mass protests. In April 2006, the king was forced to restore parliament and hand power to the people.

This paved the way for the monarchy’s abolition in 2008, when Nepal became a federal democratic republic. Thus, the final revolution against the king was in 2006, and the monarchy was officially abolished in 2008. Once again, the revolt against corruption, nepotism, and inequality has gripped Nepal.

Nepal is not alone in regulating social media. Most of the dictatorial, autocratic, and totalitarian regimes, including China, ban most Western platforms, and Russia and Turkey regulate them and require platforms to locate their data servers in the country. The regimes in Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan have shut down social media apps and blocked current affairs news. Gulf countries allow social media but keep tight control on dissent.

Nepal’s uprising is expected to bring freedom, but history warns. After the revolution and street protests, the countries have fallen back to the same old tradition of politics and governance. Meanwhile, neighboring India and China, the regional powers, are monitoring the unrest that toppled the Sharma Oli government due to potential implications for regional stability.

The GenZ movement in Nepal is entering a critical juncture in its transition to democracy. The task of restoring law and order, addressing youth-led reform demands, and navigating political transition, all under close regional scrutiny.

Himalayan GenZ protests toppled a failed political order but left deep scars of destruction, loss, and chaos. The real test now lies in whether the youth can transform their zeal for protest into the discipline of governance, wrote Nepal’s popular English daily The Republica.

First published in Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 12 September 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Why is Bangladesh-India Relations Cliff-Hanging?

SALEEM SAMAD

Last week, Bangladesh stated that there are no barriers from Dhaka’s end to improve relations with New Delhi, but progress requires the cooperation of both sides, remarked Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.

Why has Bangladesh publicly declared a willingness to improve bilateral relations, and what does this reveal about the nature of the current impasse? Delhi and Dhaka often boast of a century-old heritage, tradition, and cultural relations. Suddenly, both countries have ceased flowery diplomatic jargon. A stark indicator that the relationship is sailing through a rough sea.

South Asia researcher Sohini Bose with an Indian based Observatory Research Foundation (ORF) said, Bangladesh resets its foreign policy post-Hasina, India faces a rising challenge – a friend turning uncertain and Pakistan gaining ground. She deliberately did not mention developing relations with China, the United States, and the European Union. It is understood why she is playing with the Pakistan card.

The bilateral relations only a year ago were passing through a ‘Golden Era’. The so-called relationship was limited to two persons (Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi) and the Awami League and Bharatiya Janata Party.

India has developed love and hate relations with its neighbors. Bilateral and regional relations are sailing smoothly with Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, of course, with Bangladesh and Pakistan, which are often looked at with suspicion and distrust.

The Indian pundit wrote that Bangladesh and India are connected in multiple ways, extending beyond just the bilateral relationship between their governments. They share an enduring bond through their common history, culture, land, transboundary rivers, and adjacent maritime zones. Overjealous Indian leaders contemplate that Dhaka is getting closer to Islamabad and sticking close to New Delhi. Which is a half-truth!

The giant neighbor has indeed helped Bangladesh gain independence in 1971 from Pakistan. Time and again, the jealous leaders were intermittently reminded of India’s contribution to the independence struggle. India has provided shelter to ousted Sheikh Hasina, who is living in exile somewhere in Delhi. Like King Kong, Indian leaders should beat their chest and proudly claim hosting the most-wanted person of interest – Sheikh Hasina! Unfortunately, they are not doing it.

Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain lamented that there was no update from India on the request for former Sheikh Hasina’s extradition to face the music of justice for crimes against humanity. “We [Bangladesh] wrote once, and updates will be shared if another request is sent,” Hossain said his government would continue to pursue Hasina’s extradition.

After Hasina fled her country in August 2024 after the collapse of her tyrannical regime following a mass uprising dubbed as Monsoon Revolution, Dhaka sent a diplomatic note to Delhi last December, formally requesting her extradition.

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, chief of the Interim Government, recently told an international media outlet that he may authorize the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the trial of Sheikh Hasina and top officials of her government for committing crimes against humanity during her tenure (2009-2024) – especially the July-August revolution.

The trial in the ICJ would be based on a fact-finding investigation conducted by the Geneva-based United Nations human rights agency (OHCHR). The report has evidence of Hasina ordering his security forces to use excessive force and shoot and kill the street protesters. The fact-finding report claims nearly 1,400 people, mostly students, youths, vendors, day-laborers, public transport drivers, restaurant staff, and garment workers, during 36 days of the Monsoon Revolution.

Delhi remains conspicuously tight-lipped and gives no sign from the South Block in New Delhi of their mind. The Indian government made several remarks about the persecution of the Hindu population and urged protection and safety guarantees for the community. India also urged Bangladesh that the Interim Government should hold an exclusive and credible election in the upcoming national elections in February 2026.

The remark was made after the oldest party, Awami League, which inspired the independence of the country, the political activities were restricted, and its student wing, Chattra League, was banned for committing violence against the protesters during last year’s July-August street protest.

India has seen Bangladesh through the prism of Hasina. That was the reason Delhi is paying heavily, said Professor Sriradha Dutta of OP Jindal Global University in India. Satisfied with what India had received from Bangladesh. Delhi deliberately ignored the simmering discontent of the opposition, dissidents, critics, and rights groups, reflected in the media.

India turned a blind eye when Hasina ensured that no opposition contested elections and held sham elections in 2014, 2018, and 2024, according to independent election monitoring groups, reported in mainstream media. Obviously, India was always the first country to felicitate Hasina for being reelected in landslide victories, with full knowledge that the elections were fraudulent and were not free, fair, and inclusive.

When Hasina was elected for her fifth term through vote fraud, Modi did not hesitate to congratulate and shower blessings on her in January 2024. Several political scientists and political historians predicted that she would not be able to survive for another six months after the 2024 election. South Block was not reading the pulse of the people, who were bearing the brunt of the repressive regime.

Independent media, civil society, and rights groups had been beeping alarms over Hasina’s autocratic regime, which was monitored in Delhi – but largely disregarded. Sohani wrote in ORF that the Indian government gave lots of priority to the bonds of partnership with the former Awami League administration in Bangladesh, led by Sheikh Hasina.

Not only was this exhibited by their expanding portfolio of areas of cooperation, ranging from connectivity, security, to collaboration in public health, but also by their ability to continue nurturing bilateral ties in several domains, despite lingering contentious issues such as the Teesta Water sharing dispute, border killings of Bangladesh nationals, lopsided trade deficit, human trafficking, stop Hasina addressing on social media, which Dhaka interprets as jeopardizing the relations further.

A decade of this partnership had thus ushered in near-permanent amicability in the India-Bangladesh relationship, providing a strong foundation for New Delhi’s aspirations to ‘Act East’ by putting its ‘Neighborhood First’, stated Sohani. The overthrow of Hasina from power abruptly halted this partnership. Bangladesh’s new government’s foreign policy reflects uncertainty about India amidst struggles to secure its own legitimacy.

Both neighbors are suspicious, lack trust, and shed doubts on each other’s relationship. This has been further heightened by Indian Godi media disseminating anti-Bangladesh rhetoric. “Godi media” coined by Indian journalist Ravish Kumar, which describes the Indian media that are overtly biased and loyal to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The term comes from the Hindi word “godi,” meaning “lap,” and refers to the media’s sycophantic, “lapdog” behavior towards the government.

Apparently, India is the second-largest trading partner, one of the top 15 sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and a foremost development partner with a development portfolio of US$8 billion, says ORF. As India’s Minister for External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in a recent statement, “Bangladesh must decide what kind of ties it wants with India.”

First published in Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 9 September 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad