September 13,2025
Web desk
KATHMANDU/NEW DELHI: Nepal’s explosive street protests that forced Prime Minister Sharma Oli to resign this week are being painted very differently across the border. While demonstrators in Kathmandu and beyond have been railing against corruption and a controversial ban on social media, Indian hardliners have recast the unrest as a religious uprising.
Several Indian TV channels and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians claimed rioters tried to attack the revered Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu. Zee News aired footage of protesters shaking the temple’s gates, declaring it was this act of “vandalism” that triggered the army’s deployment. BJP legislator Jivesh Mishra went further, calling it “an attack on the Hindu faith.”
But the viral video was quickly debunked. Fact-checkers traced it to a traditional festival, the Naxal Bhagwati Jatra, held weeks before the violence. A respected monk at Pashupatinath, K. N. Swami, also released his own video from inside the temple, assuring followers that “everything is peaceful here.”
The protests, which began Monday in Kathmandu, were led largely by young demonstrators frustrated with corruption and government overreach. Anger boiled over after police used deadly force, sparking nationwide arson attacks on government buildings. Oli stepped down after his residence was torched.
Even so, Indian social media has been flooded with unverified claims that “Islamists” or “anti-Hindu forces” are behind the unrest, along with recycled footage of past rallies demanding a Hindu monarchy. Some posts even bizarrely suggested protesters wanted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as Nepal’s next leader.
Hashtags calling for a “Hindu Nation” trended widely, echoing a BJP slogan and stoking fears of similar youth-led uprisings in India.
Prashant Das, a South Asian University researcher, said the rush to sensationalize has blurred facts. “The urge to break news fast in India is higher, and that led to misinformation,” he explained. “What is rife now are speculations and rumours, which are natural in such volatile times.”
