‘Pro-Monarchy Rallies Reflect Popular Sentiment For Return To Hindu Nepal’

NEW DELHI: Recent rallies by pro-monarchy groups in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu are less about nostalgia for those days when the king ruled. Rather they reflect popular sentiment that the country must return to its Hindu roots, says Prithvi Shrestha, senior journalist with The Kathmandu Post.

In an interview on The Gist, Shrestha also makes the point that the protests may have the support of India’s RSS and leaders like Yogi Adityanath, who was in Kathmandu some years ago. Whether India’s ruling BJP is involved is not clear.

More than anything else, he says, the pro-monarchy rallies are about governance or the lack of it. The country’s economic condition is serious given inflation, growing unemployment and the daily exodus of an estimated 1000 people seeking jobs in other parts of the world.

Tune in for more in this conversation with Prithvi Shrestha, senior journalist of The Kathmandu Post.