Less than two days after she was sworn in as Nepal’s prime minister, Sushila Karki promised on Sunday to relinquish power in half a year, when fresh elections are called.
Amid burned-out government buildings in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, Ms. Karki — the first woman to hold the role — told top civil servants that she had stepped in reluctantly as a caretaker leader after the immolation of the Himalayan nation’s government last week.
“I’m not here because of my personal wish,” Ms. Karki said. “People from the streets and everywhere said, ‘Give responsibility to Sushila,’ so I was compelled.”
She stressed that she had never expected to lead the country. For one thing, she had retired from a long legal career: Ms. Karki was also the first female chief justice of Nepal’s Supreme Court, where she earned a reputation as an anti-corruption crusader. For another, she is not a politician. But to her supporters among the military and the youthful protest movement that overturned the previous government, that was the point.
“We are not here to take the taste of power or high position,” Ms. Karki said.
Nepal’s descent into political anarchy was as swift as it was unexpected. On Monday, security forces killed student protesters who had gathered to protest official corruption and a ban on social media platforms. (The ban was quickly overturned.) On Tuesday, mobs fanned out nationwide, burning and looting government properties and the residences of politicians.
Thousands of buildings were targeted in a frenzy of arson that incapacitated Nepal’s ability to govern itself. More than 70 people were killed in the violence, the nation’s chief secretary said on Sunday, a death toll that included protesters, police officers and inmates trying to escape prison.
By the end of Tuesday, the prime minister had resigned, the military had imposed a curfew and cabinet members were taken to army barracks, where they were held incommunicado for days.
Ms. Karki’s appointment on Friday was accompanied by the dissolution of Parliament and, a few hours later, an announcement of elections on March 5. But on Saturday, eight of Nepal’s political parties, including the three that have dominated politics for more than 15 years, had labeled the entire process unconstitutional.
Ms. Karki’s official assumption of her duties on Sunday took place in one of the few buildings in Nepal’s vast government complex not to have been damaged by the arson attacks. She addressed a crowd, nearly all male, of top civil servants and police officers.
Unlike Ms. Karki’s rushed oath-taking late Friday night, when so-called Gen Z protesters knelt at her feet and snapped selfies, there was little jubilation on Sunday, save an exuberant bouquet. Outside, dazed civil servants wandered through the government compound, with its 20 or so ministries. Most of the buildings were blackened by smoke, some stripped to skeletal form, including the ornate prime minister’s office.
Ms. Karki, whose first public act on Saturday was to visit injured protesters in hospitals, said her government would pay $7,000 each to the families of those killed. She ordered the police to create makeshift offices with wood, bamboo, or whatever materials they could find. And she mourned the wholesale destruction of a government that she has, for a limited time, committed to lead.
“This has pushed us to the point where we don’t even want to show our face,” she said.
Hannah Beech is a Times reporter based in Bangkok who has been covering Asia for more than 25 years. She focuses on in-depth and investigative stories.
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