Young activists who toppled Nepals government now picking new leaders

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KATHMANDU - A former DJ and his obscure Nepalese non-profit used a social media app popular with video gamers to drive massive protests and become the unlikely power brokers in installing the countrys new interim leadership.

Sudan Gurung, the 36-year-old founder of Hami Nepal (We are Nepal),used the Discord messaging app and Instagram to mobilise massive demonstrations that forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign, in the deadliest political crisis to hit the Himalayan nation in decades, a dozen people involved in the demonstrations said.

The group used VPNs to access banned platforms and issued calls to action that reached tens of thousands of young people, they added. Representatives for Oli could not be contacted for comment.

I was invited to join a group on Discord where there were about 400 members. It asked us to join the protest march a few kilometres from the parliament, 18-year-old student Karan Kulung Rai, who is not part of the group, told Reuters.

Hami Nepals early social media posts on Discord became so influential that they were referenced on national television.

As protests grew violent, the group also identified messages it termed fake news and shared hospital phone numbers.

Hami Nepal members, who asked not to be identified as they had used proxy names online for security reasons, said Gurung and the groups other leaders have since become central to high-stakes decisions, including the appointment of the new interim leadership till elections are held on March 5.

They have already convinced the countrys president and army chief to appoint former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, known for her tough stance against corruption, as Nepals first woman prime minister in an interim