Kathmandu, November 3: UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel has accused Western capitalists of using the new generation to weaken governments that disagree with them.

Speaking at a program held in Kathmandu on Monday, he said that Western capitalists, under the concept of the “deep state,” have deliberately shaped the psychology of the younger generation to make them feel different from ordinary people.

According to him, the Gen-Z movement in Nepal emerged because the older generation failed to understand the psychology of the youth, allowing the West to exploit them for its own interests.

He said that although the demands of the youth were not unreasonable, they were never allowed to reach the then government. Claiming that the Gen-Z movement did not even have a formal leadership, he stated that the government did not get a proper opportunity for dialogue or negotiation.

Regarding the regulation of social media, he admitted that the then government had failed to act effectively. He acknowledged that there was a lack of coordination between the government’s regulatory efforts and the youth’s growing engagement with information technology, a weakness that, he said, was exploited by harmful elements.

He added, “Our youth have become so addicted to information technology that they could live without food or family, but not without their mobile phones. Those negative forces succeeded in provoking such tech-dependent youths. The government’s shortcoming was that it failed to understand the depth of this addiction and attachment, allowing those elements to exploit it.”

People’s News Monitoring Service.