Sudan Gurung: The architect of Nepal’s 2025 youth unrest and his calculated ascent to electoral politics

By Kamala Shrestha

While, international media outlets, including Reuters, Al Jazeera, the Carnegie Endowment, India Today, and Business Today, have largely framed Sudan Gurung as a sympathetic grassroots figure: a former DJ and disaster relief worker who parlayed community organizing into leadership of Nepal’s historic 2025 Gen Z protest movement. Yet this sanitized narrative stands in sharp contrast to the deep skepticism and damning allegations that dominate Nepali social media, local news platforms, facebook political groups, reditt forum, X and other digital forums. To his critics, Gurung is not a champion of youthful idealism, but a savvy propagandist and opportunist who weaponized public anger, cultivated questionable foreign-linked networks, and transformed a nationwide uprising into a personal launchpad for political office.

The unrest that shook Nepal began on September 8, 2025, when the administration of then-Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli banned 26 social media platforms, citing alleged tax non-compliance. The decision ignited long-simmering public fury over systemic corruption, chronic unemployment, economic decline, and civil liberty restrictions. For Gurung, founder and coordinator of the youth NGO Hami Nepal, the moment presented a strategic opening. Working through encrypted platforms such as Discord, he and his allies organized what they marketed as peaceful demonstrations, complete with standardized uniforms and symbolic book-carrying protests, while privately anticipating violent confrontation that could be politically weaponized against the state.

The crisis escalated catastrophically on September 8 and 9, as demonstrators stormed Nepal’s parliamentary complex, set fire to government facilities and the presidential residence Shital Niwas, and clashed violently with security forces. The official toll reached 78 deaths and more than 1,600 injuries. Within 24 hours, Oli’s cabinet resigned, with the Nepali Army facilitating his safe exit from the capital. Gurung openly boasted of Hami Nepal’s role in coordinating protest routes and on-the-ground safety logistics, framing the deadly unrest as a successful popular uprising.
What followed was a carefully calibrated campaign of political theater and propaganda. Gurung publicly demonstrated deference to interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki following her swearing-in on September 12, only to adopt a confrontational stance days later at a Reporters Club event that descended into chaos, including an assault on a journalist by one of his supporters, and Gurung’s own threats of sustained civil action. He amplified his public profile by claiming assassination plots, staging visits to the charred Shital Niwas on Constitution Day, and demanding the resignation of Home Minister Aryal, all while deflecting growing accusations of being a “sellout” and manipulative opportunist.

In a September 27 interview with Al Jazeera, Gurung openly declared his long-term ambition to become Nepal’s prime minister and controversially rejected the legitimacy of future electoral victories by established political parties, undermining the democratic system he claimed to uphold. As scrutiny intensified, he executed a series of tactical reversals: he downplayed Hami Nepal’s role as the sole protest organizer, severed formal ties with the broader Council of Gen-Z to refocus the NGO on humanitarian work, and filed legal charges against Oli and other former officials for their role in protest fatalities, even as the UML party filed counter-accusations of incitement to violence.

Throughout this period, Gurung faced persistent, explosive allegations of foreign entanglement, particularly with U.S.-affiliated networks and the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu. Nepali security services placed him under surveillance over suspected links to the TOB Group, an organization associated with pro-Tibet activism and anti-China sentiment. His NGO’s website publicly listed Students for a Free Tibet, a group funded by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, as a supporting partner, while local investigations pointed to discreet coordination between Gurung’s inner circle and U.S. Embassy personnel during the height of the unrest. Gurung repeatedly dismissed such claims as disinformation spread by a state-aligned “cyber army,” yet his blanket denials did little to quell suspicions of geopolitical meddling.

His selective activism further eroded his credibility. Gurung remained conspicuously silent on corruption allegations linked to Gen Z-associated hydropower projects, issued directives at flood relief meetings as if he held public office, and ignored sustained demands for transparency regarding Hami Nepal’s funding and operational spending. He repeatedly threatened to disrupt the 2026 national elections and launch a “Phase 2” of civil unrest if his demands were unmet, holding state governance hostage to his political agenda.

By early 2026, Gurung’s ultimate objective became unambiguous: he abandoned extra-parliamentary agitation to pursue formal electoral politics. In January, he announced his candidacy for the Gorkha-1 parliamentary seat representing the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). The choice of Gorkha-1 was deeply symbolic, historically tied to Nepal’s national unification, and represented a calculated effort to repackage his protest-era image into nationalist, electoral appeal. His campaign relied on viral publicity stunts, community outreach, and the residual notoriety of his role in the 2025 unrest.

To his supporters, Gurung’s transition from protest leader to parliamentary candidate reflects the organic evolution of a youth activist seeking institutional change. To his critics, however, it represents the culmination of a cynical, opportunistic project: a man who engineered and exploited national chaos, cultivated questionable foreign ties, and deployed relentless propaganda to transform a movement born of public grievance into a personal political career.

The polarization surrounding Gurung encapsulates a deeper national divide in Nepal. One camp views the 2025 protests as an authentic expression of youthful idealism and democratic demand; the other sees a manipulated demonstration marked by geopolitical insensitivity and calculated self-promotion. Although Sudan Gurung is recognized for rallying Nepal’s youth and spearheading the Gen Z protests, the prevailing narratives paint him as an opportunist who leveraged the unrest for personal political gain, courted dubious foreign connections, and presided over a movement that escalated into violence.