Police hose down anti-Oli rally

Riot police on Monday countered a rally against Prime Minister Oli, with water cannons and baton charges. 

The protesters began their March from Kamal Pokhari and were advancing towards the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar when police stopped them. 

The rally was led by Narayan Wagle, Raghu Panta, Sanjeev Upreti and others. 

“The nature of this suppression of a peaceful protest is proof that the third People’s Movement has begun,” journalist and novelist Wagle said. 

Ironically, also on Monday even as the protestors were preparing to march on Baluwatar, Prime Minister Oli visited Pashupatinath to offer prayers. 

There was widespread ridicule on social media that a Communist leader went to one of the holiest shrines in Hinduism to seek blessings. 

Some analysts said he was now politically so isolated that he was leaning on support of Nepalis who are opposed to Nepal’s secular, federal republican constitution—forgetting that Communists are supposed to be agnostic.