GUWAHATI, April 12: Durga Prasai, Nepal’s most polarizing royalist agitator and a former Communist Social gathering ally, was arrested in Assam’s Baksa district, ending a two-week manhunt and reigniting debate over Nepal’s rising monarchist undercurrent. Tracked to Tamulpur—deep in northeastern India’s BJP-dominated belt—Prasai was extradited to Nepal, the place he now faces expenses tied to violent unrest in Kathmandu.
He was flown to Kathmandu by way of Buddha Air after being handed over on the Kakarbhitta border by Indian authorities. Upon arrival, he was taken to the District Police Workplace and is ready to seem in court docket for a custody extension.
Prasai had been on the run since March 28, the day a royalist protest turned violent in Kathmandu’s Tinkune space. Demonstrators clashed with police after breaching barricades. Prasai drove a car by way of a restricted zone, escalating the standoff. Police responded with tear gasoline, water cannons, and stay rounds. Two folks have been killed, and a minimum of 20 have been injured.
Within the days that adopted, Prasai launched movies claiming he was nonetheless in Nepal. His arrest has since confirmed hypothesis that he had fled throughout the border, probably with help.
The March 28 rally was organized by the Joint Folks’s Motion Committee for the Restoration of Monarchy. Prasai, calling himself the “Folks’s Commander,” used the occasion to ship incendiary speeches attacking Nepal’s secular republic and calling for the return of a Hindu monarchy. Authorities now accuse him of inciting violence.
However Prasai’s story runs deeper than one protest. It displays a dramatic ideological pivot in Nepal’s political panorama.
Simply a decade in the past, he was a little-known businessman from Jhapa, finest recognized for working B&C Hospital. A former Maoist sympathizer turned ally of the Communist Social gathering of Nepal (UML), Prasai as soon as held a central committee submit below get together chief KP Sharma Oli.
His political trajectory modified in 2018, after a now-notorious photograph confirmed him eating with Oli and Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda). To critics, it symbolized the backroom dealings of a disconnected political elite. Round this time, activist Dr. Govinda Okay.C. publicly denounced Prasai as a part of Nepal’s “medical mafia” over alleged profiteering in the non-public well being sector.
When his B&C Medical Faculty failed to safe affiliation, Prasai’s frustration with the institution grew. After being denied an election ticket in 2022, he broke with Oli and turned sharply monarchist.
By 2023, he had reinvented himself as a grassroots royalist agitator. His fiery YouTube speeches railed in opposition to federalism, secularism, and corruption—messaging that resonated with disillusioned youth and rural conservatives alike.
Whereas older royalist figures like Rajendra Lingden and Kamal Thapa have struggled to construct momentum, Prasai’s confrontational type and populist enchantment have stuffed the vacuum. His “Nation, Nationality, Faith-Tradition, and Citizen Rescue” marketing campaign has blended nationalism with anti-establishment anger, making him each a image and a scapegoat.
On March 27, simply a day earlier than the protest, the ageing monarchist bloc appointed Prasai its “Public Commander,” signaling a strategic pivot to populism over protocol.
His sudden flight to Assam, a BJP stronghold, has raised eyebrows. Whereas no formal ties to India’s right-wing teams have been confirmed, the optics recommend ideological overlaps between Hindu nationalists throughout the border.
Again in Nepal, his arrest has triggered blended reactions. Mainstream events welcomed the transfer as a step towards restoring order. However royalist factions have decried it as political persecution, even hinting at mass protests. Nonetheless, the royalist camp stays fragmented, hampered by infighting and lack of group.
Whether or not Prasai’s detention marks the top of his political ascent—or transforms him into a martyr—is unclear. However his rise has already reshaped the nationwide discourse.
From a Communist backer to the face of Nepal’s royalist revival, Durga Prasai’s arc is a examine in ideological volatility—and in a nation gripped by political fatigue, his title nonetheless instructions consideration, even in custody.
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