KATHMANDU : A series of revelations have surfaced indicating that leaders and cadres of the main opposition, CPN–UML, were directly involved in instigating and fueling the recent GenZ movement that swept across Nepal. Ironically, the same party — including its chairman KP Sharma Oli — had repeatedly accused “foreign powers” of orchestrating the protests.

According to disclosures made by Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa in an interview with Kantipur Television, one of the individuals involved in setting fire to his residence was a local UML leader close to KP Oli. Similarly, reports suggest that members of UML’s youth wing played a key role in the attempted arson at the residence of former President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

These revelations have sparked intense criticism of Oli and the UML leadership. Observers say the claims undermine the UML’s long-standing narrative that “foreign elements hijacked the GenZ movement.” Instead, mounting evidence now suggests that the unrest and violence were fueled internally by UML-affiliated forces.

Political analysts argue that “the Oli leadership appears to have deliberately conspired to divert public attention from the movement’s genuine goals, blame the youth for the chaos, and conceal its own political failures.”

Sources claim that through its youth organization and certain local networks, the UML infiltrated the protests, planning to spread disorder and push the demonstrations toward violent escalation.

Questions are now being raised about why KP Oli — who once blamed external forces — has remained silent as evidence mounts implicating his own party’s cadres in arson and vandalism. Critics ask whether the UML deliberately acted against the state to destabilize a movement originally led by young citizens demanding reform.

The political discourse in Kathmandu now echoes a single refrain:
“It was not foreign powers — it was UML’s internal conspiracy that added fuel to the fire of the GenZ uprising.”