In the weeks before Tuesday’s violent protests in Nepal, photographs that allegedly showed the luxurious lifestyles enjoyed by the children of the country’s political elite were widely shared on social networks.
They were marked with the #Nepokids hashtag, suggesting young people who benefited from their families’ connections, and were condemned by many Nepalese as disconnected from reality in a country where 1 in 4 people live below the national poverty line.
It is unclear whether these images were real or manufactured, but they have symbolized the corruption that many Nepalese say they have expanded inequality and enriched employees and their relatives.
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The indignation has been one of the motors of the protests, which were triggered by a ban on social networks, but fed by years of resentment against those in power.
As part of the #Nepokids trend on Nepal’s social networks, users post videos and publications on Tiktok and X that allegedly show the children of Nepalese political figures on a luxury vacation and wearing expensive clothes, opposed to scenes that show the daily struggles of ordinary nepales.
Among the most shared images was a photo that claimed to show the son of a minister posing with labeled boxes Louis Vuitton and Cartier, arranged in the form of a Christmas tree. Another video gathered photos that the user claimed to be the son of a former judge having dinner in sophisticated restaurants and posing next to a Mercedes car.
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“Thousands of these videos are on the rise in Nepal’s digital ecosystem,” said Raqib Naik, the center’s director for the Study of Organized Hate, a Washington -based surveillance group that monitors online extremism and misinformation in southern Asia and their diasporas.
The contrast “between the privilege of the elite and the difficulties of everyday life has deeply touched generation Z and quickly became a central narrative that drives the movement,” he said.
Nepal’s “Nepo Kids” tendency, using an abbreviated version of nepotism, is similar to the popular concept in the West, where this term and “Npo Babies” are used to refer to the privileged children of celebrities and other public figures.
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In many publications, images of these so -called “Npo Kids” are interspersed with images that show the difficulties faced by the common and poor Nepalese, expressing a generalized feeling in Nepal that the wealth of the country’s political class occurred at the expense of the general population.
International transparency, an independent non -profit organization, has classified Nepal as one of Asia’s most corrupt countries. Despite the frequent scandals, usually involving collusion between elected politicians and allegedly independent employees, few accusations resulted in successful processes.
For example, a parliamentary investigation revealed that at least $ 71 million was diverted in the construction of an international airport in the city of Pokhara. And in another case, Nepalese leaders were caught charging money from young people who aspired to find a job in the United States under the pretext of refugee status, which was intended for ethnic nepales who had been deported to the force of neighboring Butão.
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In particular, young people revolted against a small number of elite Nepalese seen vast properties for their children, with many asking the state to open investigations into how these properties were acquired.
The brief prohibition of the government on social networks further antagonized protesters, who saw it as an attempt to control criticism of inequalities against which they continue to protest.
