Nepal’s first female PM had earlier fought corruption and high-handedness in an earlier avatar as the first female Chief Justice of the country.
On Friday, 12 September, Sushila Karki (72) was sworn in as Prime Minister of Nepal after the overthrow of the unpopular K.P. Sharma Oli by a two-day, violent, youth-led agitation.
Karki’s appointment is unique inasmuch as she is the first female PM of Nepal. She had also been the first female Chief Justice of Nepal.
As Chief Justice, Karki showed a deep sense of justice and admirable grit in cases involving the powerful – qualities that are the need of the hour when Nepal has to build a new polity and society liberated from injustices, arbitrariness, high corruption, and misuse of power.
As Chief Justice, Karki was behind a ruling to impeach a powerful head of Nepal’s anti-graft body in 2016. She wrote in her judgement that the person concerned had “neither the moral character nor qualifications for the post”. Even before she became Chief Justice, Karki was one of the two judges on a bench that convicted the sitting Minister for Information and Communication, Jaya Prakash Gupta, for corruption in 2012. Then, in 2016, a bench including Karki ruled against granting amnesty to former Maoist lawmaker and convicted murderer Bal Krishna Dhungel.
Karki was the choice of Gen Z that led the revolt against Prime Minister Oli. She also has the backing of the army.
The army is said to be very popular in Nepal for the work it has done during national disasters like earthquakes. It has remained in the barracks since parliamentary democracy was introduced in 2008. The fact that it is the single largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping forces has inhibited it from taking a political role or staging coups.
During the latest Gen Z uprising, the army did not intervene and take over, as many non-Nepalese commentators expected. It restored order without killing a single protester. In fact, it was the army chief, Gen. Ashok Raj Sigdel, who started talks with Gen Z protesters, political party leaders, and President of Nepal, Ram Chandra Poudel, to set up an interim government.
Karki’s Political Background
Karki has a political background. She was jailed for participating in the 1990 People’s Movement to overthrow the Panchayat system set up by the monarchy. Growing up in Biratnagar, Karki was close to the family of B P Koirala, Nepal’s first elected prime minister in 1960. Her husband, Durga Subedi, was part of a group of underground Congress activists who hijacked a Royal Nepal Airlines plane in 1973, flying it to India to snatch cash belonging to the Nepal Rastra Bank in the cargo hold. The money was used for the party’s pro-democracy campaign.
Army’s Role
Karki has the backing of the army. The army is said to be very popular in Nepal for the work it has done during national disasters like earthquakes. It has remained in the barracks since parliamentary democracy was introduced in 2008. The fact that it is the single largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping forces has inhibited it from taking a political role or staging coups.
During the latest Gen Z uprising, the army did not intervene and take over, as many non-Nepalese commentators expected. It restored order without killing a single protester. In fact, it was the army chief, Gen. Ashok Raj Sigdel, who started talks with Gen Z protesters, political party leaders, and President of Nepal, Ram Chandra Poudel, to set up an interim government.
Hami Nepal Movement
Apart from Prime Minister Karki, President Poudel, and the army chief, there is an NGO called “Hami Nepal” which could play a role in restoring constitutional rule. Hami Nepal was part of the Gen Z movement but condemned the descent into unbridled violence. However, it was the first to start the negotiating process despite the charge that it was jumping the gun.
Hami Nepal emerged from the rubble of the 2015 earthquake. It is a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting communities and individuals in need, guided by its motto “For the People, By the People”. Its core mission has been to assist individuals and communities in need, particularly during emergencies and crises, with a focus on directly connecting donors with recipients and delivering aid efficiently and transparently.
Hami Nepal is led by 36-year-old civic activist Sudan Gurung, and mentored by renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Sanduk Ruit. Gurung started the organisation after he lost his own son in the 2015 earthquake. Hami Nepal now has hundreds of thousands of members, and is growing by the day.
Hami Nepal’s earliest visible campaigns include donating more than 400 blankets to Bir Hospital’s Covid unit in 2022, creating a plasma and oxygen bank during the pandemic, and distributing school jackets to children in rural districts. More recently, it mounted a relief effort in response to the 2023 Jajarkot earthquake, reaching over 13,000 families with shelter, food, and medical support.
The organisation was also associated with the two-month “Save Ghopa” campaign, demanding effective and smooth administration of the BPKIHS (B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences) in Dharan. It was also actively engaged in providing rescue and relief during the Kagbeni and Sindhupalchok floods this year. It even sent aid to Turkey after its 2023 earthquake. Following the Kavre floods last year, Hami Nepal donated solar lights.
Following the death of a Nepali student, Prakriti Lamsal, at KIIT University in Odisha (India) earlier this year, Hami Nepal advocated for justice using its Instagram account, raising concern about the safety of Nepali students abroad.
Funding for Hami Nepal comes directly from public donations, with a policy of channelling 100% of received funds for aid distribution. Volunteers self-finance administrative costs, and the group publishes detailed expenditure figures, regularly sharing updates and transparency reports through their social media and website, which it launched at its Annual General Meeting in Bhaktapur last year.
Hami Nepal supported Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah and not Sushila Karki to lead the country for the next five years. This was another point of contention with Gen Z.
High-Pitched Demands
The Gen Z, being Gen Z, is pitching high in terms of demands. One of the demands is that parliament should be dissolved and changes in the constitution made incorporating wide-ranging reforms first, before holding elections. But experienced Nepal watchers warn that changing the Constitution will mean another shaky rigmarole like in the 2008–2015 period.
A transformative transition like this also means a lot of uncertainty, with competing interest groups trying to take advantage of the fluid situation. However, the Nepalese are no strangers to uncertainties and instability. They have seen 13 Prime Ministerial changes in 17 years.
They have gone through upheavals before (although not on the scale we saw this week) during the 1990 People’s Movement and the 2006 Peace and Democracy Movement. Each time, there was hope that finally, the elected leaders who fought and suffered for liberation and freedom would deliver on their promises. But every time, only disappointment was in store for both the agitators and the common man.
Then there is a wild card to contend with, an elephant in the room, as it were, the competing strategic interests of India, China, and the United States.
As a senior Nepal watcher wrote, time is of the essence now. The longer the confusion drags on, the more difficult it will be to find common ground and start rebuilding, he warned. The burden is squarely on the shoulders of Prime Minister Karki, President Poudel, and the army Chief Gen. Ashok Raj Sigdel. But veterans as they are in their own different ways, the trio are expected to deliver the goods this time round.