- Hami Nepal used Discord app to mobilize protests.
- Sudan Gurung and Team suggest changes in the cabinet.
- Protests against corruption lead to 72 deaths.
Kathmandu: A former DJ and his unclear Nepalese non-profit used a social media app that was popular with video players to run massive protests and become the unlikely brokers in installing the country’s new temporary management.
Sudan Gurung, the 36-year-old founder of Hami Nepal (we are Nepal), used the Discord Messaging and Instagram app to mobilize massive demonstrations that forced Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign, in the deadliest political crisis to hit the Himalayan nation for decades, said a dozen people who were involved in the demonstrations.
The group used VPNs to access banned platforms and issued calls to action that reached tens of thousands of young people, they added. Representatives of Oli could not be contacted for comment.
“I was invited to participate in a group of disagreement where there were about 400 members. It asked us to join the protest marsh a few kilometers from parliament,” told 18-year-old student Kulan Kulung Rai, who is not part of the group, told Reuters.
Hami Nepal’s early social media post about Discord became so influential that they were referred to on national television.
As the protests became violent, the group also identified messages that it called “fake news” and shared the hospital’s phone numbers.
Hami Nepal members who asked not to be identified as they had used proxy names online for security reasons, said Gurung and the group’s other leaders have since become central to high efforts, including the appointment of the new temporary leadership until election is held on March 5.
They have already convinced the country’s president and army chief to appoint former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, known for his harsh attitude against corruption, as Nepal’s first female prime minister in a preliminary capacity, three members of the group said.
“I want to make sure that the power lies with the people and brings every corrupt politician to justice,” Gurung said at his first press conference since the protest on Thursday.
On Sunday, Gurung and his team were in meetings to decide key cabinet positions and suggested that some government officials appointed by the previous administration be removed, members of Hami Nepal said.
“Meetings are ongoing between the Carky and Members of the Group. We will end the cabinet soon,” one of the members said. Gurung and Karki did not immediately respond to questions sent to their mobile phones.
“The process is carried out carefully so that it consists of talented and talented young people,” Hami Nepal said on Instagram.
From DJ to Revolutionary
Monday’s protest from young adults is loosely categorized as a “Gen Z” movement when most participants were in their 20s, turned deadly within hours and quickly brought the government down.
The protests were aimed at perceived government corruption and started following a ban on multiple social media platforms – a directive that was turned. Protesters collided with the authorities on the streets, leaving at least 72 dead and over 1,300 wounded.
Gurung, older than the Gen Z Age Bracket, and his team has promised not to take on any cabinet positions, but wants to be part of the future decision making.
“We don’t want to be politicians. Sudan Gurung only helped the group ‘Gen Z’ and we are only the nation’s voice and not interested in taking leadership positions,” said Ronesh Pradhan, a 26-year-old volunteer for the group.
Gurung, who was a DJ before he founded Hami Nepal, organized bourgeois relief when the worst earthquake in Nepal’s history killed over 9,000 people in 2015 and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Team members running the Instagram account whose supporters are swollen to over 160,000, and discord positions along with Gurung include 24-year-old cafe owner Ojaswi Raj Thapa and Law Graduate Rehan Raj Dangal.
Thapa that quickly appeared as a leader of vocal protest movement, told Reuters In an interview that the judiciary was not independent and ensures that its freedom was an important priority when the temporary government was introduced.
“We may need some changes to the constitution, but we do not want to dissolve the constitution,” he said on Thursday.
