By Rabi Raj Thapa
Nepal has once again become a victim of political violence and paralyzed politics. Whenever Nepali political fiefdoms crumble, the Nepal police and Nepali people suffer and become their direct victims.
There are many facets of the victimization of the police force. The first perpetrator of victimization of police exploitation and abuse is the subjective control of police agencies. Arbitrary use and abuse of Nepal Police started since the political change of the 1990s. And the latest victim of the abuse of police power is the Oli-Deuba coalition government that abused police to kill 72 young, innocent Gen-Z youth and 400 were injured.
Before Gen-Z suppression, the same government had rehearsed in Tinkune, Kathmandu, on March 28, 2025. That incident was jointly orchestrated by the Prachanda-Oli-Deuba trio, which successfully crippled the pro-Hindu and Pro-monarchy movement. That emboldened the Oli-Deuba coalition government to use the local administrative officer (CDO) and police forces of Nepal. Then, the police were excessively armed, and people were permitted to assemble without any fear or intimidation.
The prime objective of crowd control should be just to disperse the crowd peacefully and amicably; that can be done when they have safe escape routes. During the Tinkune pro-Hindu and pro-monarch mass assembly of March 28, 2025; riot control force surrounded the crowd from all sides and used intensive force without consideration to its fundamental principle of “minimum and proportionate use of force”. Then, Oli government was not satisfied. It hunted down all prominent leaders and indicted them on treason and organized crime. In Gen-Z incidents, Nepal Police showed a more aggressive posture, while they were supposed to be a softer and sympathetic approach to allow protestors to move out and go back to their normal life. When Oli and Deuba played the same trick on Gen-Z, it badly boomeranged and backfired on Oli and Deuba on the street.
Hence, Gen-Z civic protest totally exposed the hollowness of the partisan politics of federal Nepal. In no time, they not only lost all their power, but they also pulled down police pride and confidence along with them. This demonstrated the failing of subjective control of police under power mongers like Ramesh Lekhak and K P Sharma Olee.
Government manipulation and abuse of police force is not a new phenomenon in Nepal. Their master-servant relationship and Nepal lost its “Police My Friend” campaign shamefully.
Today, police leaders need to question and introspect deeply and seriously why those people whom police think of as ‘My Friend’ have lynched their police personnel? What are the reasons they set fire to police posts, loot police uniforms, and even steal firearms? It must realize how people’s power can overturn an overtly aggressive police force into a dead-wood in no time.
Here, a serious question arises – what prompted the police to shoot at uniformed, unarmed students so recklessly? Was this solely a police decision, or were they prompted and compelled to do so by the psychopathic home minister and the prime minister?
Out of three uniformed security organizations, only the Nepal Army could withstand the test of time and defied the undue pressure of the PM K P Olee’s dictate because the Nepal Army strongly abides by the Objective Control of the security forces. Had they failed to contain Oli’s lust of power by violent political maneuver Police badly failed and faced its disastrous consequences.
Now, it is a good lesson if Nepal Police and Armed Police Force learn something from behaving like pawns of its political masters.
It is a great opportunity for all security personnel to provide full support and cooperation to a newly formed three-member fact-finding commission led by highly respect Special Court Judge of high integrity Gauri Bahadur Karki and fully professional police general AIG Bigyan Raj Sharma.
One more thing to remember is that Nepal has a long history of establishing commissions of Inquiry to investigate matters of public concern. Since the 1990s political changes, Nepal has seen almost three dozen of such commissions. Let’s hope the new government will heed and implement its recommendation in time. Let’s wait and see.
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