India, Sept. 15 -- There are decades when nothing happens and days when decades happen. Nepal has literally lived these lines from Lenin in the past week. Deeply entrenched crony capitalism and a nexus between businesses, political parties, and their close circles of party workers suddenly found themselves at the receiving end of youth-led protests.

This Gen Z Revolution is perhaps the shortest-lived groundswell in Nepal, one that started on a Monday afternoon and led to the collapse of a three-party regime the very next day. By late afternoon, the seemingly defiant Prime Minister (PM), KP Sharma Oli - who had ordered the shutdown of 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X midnight on Thursday (...