Change beyond the ballot

This is not a moment to wait anxiously for election results; the responsibility to change rests with us.

Nepal’s return to ‘normal’ after the Gen Z movement is deeply unsettling. Most leaders have resumed lying, squabbling and frantic alliance-building. The upcoming March 5 elections threaten to restore the same discredited status quo . For a nation of revolutions, this is a familiar moment of disillusionment. If the Gen Z movement is not to be futile, we must confront what earlier movements failed to. At the heart of Gen Z’s mobilisation is Nepal’s failed post-2006 transitional justice initiative. For too long, the state failed to hold perpetrators accountable and address the structural injustices that fueled conflict in the first place. From this past come lessons that must now guide the path forward.