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GEN Z REVOLTS AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NEPAL!
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GEN Z REVOLTS AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NEPAL!

Sep 13- Sep 19, 2025, Stray Thoughts September 12, 2025 , by

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the ongoing revolt by Generation Z in Nepal should be a wake-up call to the political and business elite in India. For a Saturday following the week when why there is so much opposition to providing land for the Indian Institute of Technology in Goa. For a Saturday following the week when the director general of the Directorate of Health Services, Dr Sunita Sharma has withdrawn the directive about physiotherapists being barred from using the prefix of “Dr” to their names. For a Saturday following the week when on the attempt to rewrite history in the Hindutva mould in Goa.
AND a few stray thoughts on when the ongoing revolt by Generation Z in Nepal should be a wake-up call to the political and business elite in India. The revolt is triggered by the rampant corruption among the ruling class in Nepal. This cuts across political ideologies as both the Nepali Congress and the Maoist governments led by Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist chief Prachanda are facing the rap of the Nepali youth.
The revolt by GenZ was sparked off by a ban imposed on social media by Nepali Prime Minister PK Sharma Oli. The young protesters set on fire the private residences of the prime minister and also attacked the properties of President Ramachandra Paudel. The youth mobs set a house belonging to former prime minister, Jhala Khanal, leading to the death of his wife.
The protestors also freed over 1,000 prisoners. The Nepali PM and his cabinet have been forced to resign and the army has taken over the task of maintaining law and order. Among the major triggers for the social media ban was an incident involving one of the ministers. The convoy of the minister ran over an 11-year old girl. Prime Minister Oli angered the protestors by claiming it was a normal incident. The photograph was splashed on all the smartphones and Facebook, leading to the ban on social media.
There has been a total disconnect between the leaders and the young generation is infuriated by the lavish lifestyle of what they call the “Nepo kids” – the children of politicians. The children of politicians have been flashing Gucci bags, high end sneakers, flashy phones and cars. This at a time when there is severe employment in Nepal. It has been estimated that as many as 8 lakh Nepali leave the country for jobs primarily in India. Like all the Nepali watchmen and security guards we see even in tiny Goa.

WAKE-UP CALL
THE revolt by GenZ should be a wakeup call to India. India is also dominated by a corrupt ruling class which acts in collusion with industry. The most recent show of money power was the takeover of the famed Lal Bagh Raja by the Ambanis. We learn that the Lal Bagh Raja, which is the grandest Ganesh Pandal in Mumbai was entirely bank-rolled by the Ambani clan and most specifically the much publicized blue-eyed boy Anant Ambani. There has been outrage that Anant Ambani was accompanied by a large group of armed bodyguards at the immersion of the Lal Bagh Raja at Chowpatty on Anant Chaturthi day.
It is not the Congress which has been plagued by the “Nepo” phenomenon. The BJP is always targeting the Nehru Gandhi family with Rahul and Priyanka being painted as the worst kind of Nepos. What is not widely known is that nepotism is very common to the political class. There are any number of cases of dynastic succession in all political parties in India. There are the kin of Laloo Prasad Yadav targeting the chief ministership in Bihar. Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar has been projecting his daughter Supriya Sule.
IN Goa of course we have Yuri Alemao, the son of Joaquim Alemoa in the Congress and Vishwajit Rane and father who are both on the BJP. The dumbo sons of BJP leaders also occupy high positions without any qualifications for their jobs. Jay Shah, son of Amit Shah, became the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which is the richest sports organization in India. Jay Shah is now the chairperson of the International Cricket Council too. Pankaj Shah , an MLA in Uttar Pradesh is the son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Union Minister Anurag Thakur, is the son of the former Himachal Pradesh chief minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal. Poonam Mahajan is the daughter of late Pramod Mahajan.
In Tamil Nadu MK Stalin has succeeded his father Karunanidhi and is grooming his son Udaynidhi Stalin. In Maharashtra, Aditya Thakeray, the grandson is getting ready to don the mantle of his grandfather Balasaheb Thakeray.
IN the business community Akash, Isha and Anant Ambani, the children of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, are the new superstars of business wheeler dealing. Karen Adani succeeds Gautam Adani. The heirs of the Birla empire are Aryaman Vikram Birla and Anaya Birla. The Godrej family has also inducted genZ into leadership roles. In Bollywood the “Nepo kids” are Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor and Jhanvi Kapoor.

IIT GOA
AND a few stray thoughts on why there is so much opposition to providing land for the Indian Institute of Technology in Goa. The residents of Codar in Ponda taluka, which is the latest proposed venue for the location of the IIT Goa, are strongly against the acquisition of land for the IIT. The IIT campus is now located in the campus of the Goa Engineering College at Farmagudi.
IIT Goa started more than five years ago and the first two batches have already passed out. There have been several attempts to find a permanent home for IIT Goa which is part of the IIT chain set up the country over, to promote excellence in technical education. Several locations have been proposed but have been given up due to strong opposition from the locals.
The government of Goa first identified land at Malauli in Satteri taluka. The IIT requires a 100 hectares for its campus. Before identifying Malauli other locations in Sanquem and Canacona were also considered. All had to be reconsidered in the light of very strong opposition from locals. The proposal to locate the campus in Satteri taluka was reportedly opposed by the Rane family.
The opposition to the acquisition of land for the IIT Goa stems from the fact that it is not perceived as benefiting local Goans in any way. The IIT is an elite institution where admission is purely on merit. Admission to the IITs is through a common joint entrance exam with several lakh students competing for a limited number of seats. In the past less than a 100 students from Goa have managed to gain admission to the IITs.
The more important factor is Goa already has as many as five major engineering and technology institutions. Besides the Government Engineering College at Farmagudi there is the National Institute of Technology in Canacona, and the BITs Goa campus in Vasco taluka. The Pilar Society and Don Bosco group also have engineering and technology colleges in Goa. Between them they turn out more than 5,000 plus engineering graduates in several mechanical, electronic and even information technology areas.
In the absence of any major industry and the small size of the Goan economy there are no job opportunities for the graduates of these engineering institutions. All of them are forced to go to Karnataka or Pune for jobs. Unlike in the case of the industrial units the IITs do not provide any employment opportunities to local residents. Forget about the IITs. Even Goa University is struggling to find qualified faculty for its science departments.
The domicile requirement cannot be applied to national institutions like the IITs. Moreover recruitment for national institutions is done on an all-India basis. It was recently discovered that the National Institute of Oceanography has been hiring young people from Uttar Pradesh even for clerical posts. There is of course another factor which is to do with the cost of land. The price of land in Goa has shot up to the sky. Ponda is one of the last bastions where land is available for development. The government both at State and Center pay very low rates for land acquired for national projects. Understandably, the village residents of Codar do not want their land to be acquired.
Moreover, the biggest opposition to the IIT in Codar comes from the large tribal population of the villages in the area. The villagers have declared that they would continue their agitation until the government reviews its decision to set up IIT Goa campus at Codar. Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant is upset about the opposition to IIT in every part of Goa. It looks as though IIT will have to pack up its bags and look for a friendlier location. Maybe Pramod Sawant will find less opposition if he sets up an Ayurveda College at Codar in Ponda taluka.

‘DR’ FOR PHYSIOTHERAPISTS?
AND a few stray thoughts on when the director general of the Directorate of Health Services, Dr Sunita Sharma has withdrawn the directive about physiotherapists being barred from using the prefix of “Dr” to their names.
We can personally testify from experience that physiotherapists are full-fledged medical professionals, like graduate doctors in Allopathy, Ayurveda and Homeopathy who also go through a four-year course in medicine. They also have to do internship in government and private hospitals to qualify for their degrees.
The orthopedic and neuro surgeons may give you a hip replacement or operate on you post a stroke emergency. But they cannot make you walk again or even stand or sit on a wheelchair on your own. Patients need a physiotherapist to mobilize them post any surgery. It is physiotherapists who are experts at cardiac resuscitation in the first 60 seconds after a heart attack, in this window period your best bet of survival is a trained physiotherapist at hand. The Medical Council of India in its new guidelines permits physiotherapist to prefix their names with “Dr PT” instead of MBBS or BMAS, Bachelor of Ayurvedic Sciences. Even homeopathy doctors are allowed to attach the prefix “Dr” to their name.
It is the Indian Medical Association which is a union of doctors, which has been opposing the demand for equating physiotherapists on par with medical professionals. It is not right to treat physiotherapists as para-medical staff, equating them with medical technicians. The IMA which absurdly fears competition from physiotherapists, has even gone to court to prevent physiotherapists from getting their legitimate status. The IMA has gone to the extent of claiming that physiotherapists are not qualified to provide independent medical care to patients. That they can only treat patients on the recommendation of doctors.
The denial of status as medical professionals to physiotherapists is very unfortunate. The overwhelming majority of doctors recognize the role of a physiotherapist. Just like Allopathy doctors, physiotherapists can also specialize at the post-graduate level, including cardiac and pulmonary medicine. It is the physiotherapists who assist in the ICUs to restore lung function in patients recovering from a heart attack or any heart incident. I recall the contribution of the physiotherapy department at Asian Heart Hospital in Mumbai in rehabilitating the better half, post open-heart surgery. It is the physiotherapists who can rehabilitate patients post any surgery, be it a patient who has recovered from TB of the spine or any other case.
In the case of a simple or complex fractures you will need the help of a physiotherapist to recover usage of your limbs. We believe that senior Allopathy doctors should speak up and speak out against any discrimination against physiotherapists.

HINDUTVA MOULD
AND a few stray thoughts on the attempt to rewrite history in the Hindutva mould in Goa. The Pramod Sawant cabinet recently approved the development of a “Koti Tirth” corridor at the Saptakoteshwar temple on Divar island. The claim is that the original Saptakoteshwar temple was destroyed by the colonial Portuguese regime.
In the Narendra Modi’s BJP government agenda many old mosques and even churches are sought to be demolished on claims that they have come up on Hindu temples demolished by colonial regimes. The most notorious example is the demolition of the Babri Masjid to build the Ayodhya temple. In the recent past there have even been claims that the famous Ajmer dargah is built on relics of a Hindu temple. In Goa ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre and the State there has been a lot of talk of Hindu temples destroyed by the colonial Portuguese rulers.
It is a fact of history that Hindu temple deities in the Old Conquest areas of south Goa got shifted to the Ponda taluka, to escape the proselytizing zeal of the Portuguese. Some cases in point are the Mardhol temple and the Shantadurga and Mangueshi temples. The Shantadurga temple in Cuncolim was shifted to Fatorpa.
There is no concrete evidence that any or all churches came up on the ruins of older Hindu temples. In any case history cannot be reversed. The BJP government is free to build new temples wherever it chooses, but best to avoid demolition of existing religious places of minority communities . Goa has been an oasis of communal harmony for long and should not be disturbed in the name of restoring Hindu pride.

MARRIOTT HOTEL MIRAMAR
AND a last stray thought on the Dattaraj Salgaocar-owned Marriott Resort & Spa at Miramar, Panjim winning its case for preserving a retaining wall protecting its property against erosion from waves of the river Mandovi. The high court of Bombay at Goa has dismissed a petition filed by Goa Foundation demanding demolition of the retaining wall. The petition was filed way back in 1993. The high court has rejected the public interest litigation filed by Goa Foundation, claiming that the authorities failed to implement an earlier order.
Indeed, the Salgaocar Group had only responded to an invitation from the Goa government to build the luxury hotel on the old Gasper Dias or Miramar beach. The Salgaocars were granted a 99 years lease to build the Marriott here. In any case this is a major victory as few corporate have managed to get the better of the Goa Foundation, which has targeted virtually every seafront and riverfront 5-star luxury property including the Cidade da Goa and the Grand Hyatt at Bambolim beach.

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