The US Deep State's involvement in the ongoing violent Nepali protests that overthrew the KP Sharma Oli government in the Himalayan state on Tuesday can't be ruled out, though there is no clear evidence to back such claims, an expert has said.
"The Gen-Z protests in Nepal may appear organic, but when you peel the layers, the imprint of the US Deep State is hard to ignore. The sudden ban of 26 social media platforms acted as a trigger, but the scale, speed, and narrative management of these protests suggest external orchestration. The US Deep State has a pattern — it exploits genuine youth anger, amplifies it through covert networks, and directs it towards destabilising governments that don't align with their strategic interests," Savio Rodrigues, a former spokesperson of the Goa unit of India's federally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told Sputnik India.
For India, the implications are serious. Nepal is not just a neighbour; it's a civilizational partner. Any instability there directly impacts our security, trade, and social harmony across the open border. A destabilised Nepal creates fertile ground for anti-India forces, for example, Western meddling through NGOs and think tanks, he added.
What does the Deep State gain? Simple. An unstable neighbourhood for India means New Delhi is forced to firefight in its backyard instead of projecting strength globally. It weakens its regional leadership, complicates its diplomacy, and creates pressure points to manipulate its strategic choices, the Indian politician underlined.
"India must remain alert. The Deep State thrives where democracies look away. Nepal's crisis is not just Nepal's — it's a test for India's vigilance against the invisible hand shaping South Asia's destiny," Rodrigues reckoned.
Meanwhile, Nabraj Lama, who serves as the Director of Research and Development at the Kathmandu-based think tank Himalayan Strategic Institute, believes that there is no substantive evidence to suggest that the protests were orchestrated by external forces such as the so-called 'US Deep State'.
"Solidarity expressed by members of the Nepali diaspora—particularly in the US—was largely emotional and moral in nature. This movement, at its core, is an organic eruption of public frustration, born of domestic grievances and a generational demand for accountability," he observed.
"The recent resignation of PM Oli amid widespread protests in Nepal must be understood not as a consequence of external manipulation, but as the culmination of deep-rooted internal discontent. Contrary to some media portrayals, the trigger was not merely the government's ban on major social media platforms, but rather a public outcry against longstanding and systemic corruption. The attempt to suppress digital platforms acted only as a spark in an already volatile environment," Lama said in an interview with Sputnik India.
Multiple actors—ranging from political dissidents to royalist sympathisers—had previously attempted to mobilize protests, but none succeeded in galvanizing the public until the youth-led, decentralized Gen Z movement emerged, he stressed.
"Nonetheless, the protests in Nepal share several clear similarities with previous protests in Indonesia and other South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In all cases, the movements were youth-led, decentralised, and fueled by deep frustration over corruption, economic inequality, and lack of accountability," Lama underscored.
Like Indonesia's student protests — where pop culture symbols such as the One Piece flag were used as rallying icons — Nepali protesters also adopted similar cultural imagery, signaling a generational shift in protest language and solidarity.
Social media played a central role across these movements, both as a tool for mobilisation and a symbol of state repression—particularly in Nepal, where the government's ban on platforms like Facebook became the final spark in an already tense environment, the geopolitical analyst pointed out.
Additionally, these protests lacked centralised leadership but gained momentum through grassroots digital coordination, emotional resonance, and a moral narrative driven by state violence, especially the killing of youth. While each country's context is unique, the underlying pattern remains consistent: young people rising against entrenched systems, using modern tools and cultural identity to demand political change from within, he noted.
Santosh Poudel, the Co-Founder of the Nepal Institute for Policy Research (NIPoRe), a policy research institution in the Nepali capital, explained that, unlike Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the protests in Nepal have been against the system, not just a party or an individual and the leaders, offices, and private homes targeted are part of that system that the protesters believe has to be dismantled.
"While Nepal changed the political system then, the leaders, attitudes, and the system basically functioned as before. Part of the frustration was displayed in the last election, when new parties like the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) or regional parties in the Madhesh province won significant seats. Thus, the pent-up anger, long held back, was bursting to open. The targeted attack on many mainstream leaders' homes and even individual physical attacks point towards the same," Poudel asserted in an interview with Sputnik India.
"When it comes to a foreign hand in Nepali politics, I would never say never, but the way this has sprouted up, the scale it has taken, that too without established leaders, and the abruptness of it all show that it was a grassroots movement," Poudel summed up.