Leaks Reveal US Hand in Nepal and Bangladesh Chaos

Poonam Sharma 
For decades, the political rhythm of Nepal was dictated by the grueling climb of mountain revolutions and the slow grind of parliamentary maneuvers. But in September 2025, the gears of the state were not ground down by time; they were shattered in a week of choreographed chaos.
While Western headlines painted a picture of a spontaneous “Gen Z” awakening—a digital-native generation finally breaking the shackles of an aging leadership—leaked internal documents suggest a far more clinical architecture behind the uprising. Files from the International Republican Institute (IRI), a subsidiary of the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), reveal a years-long, multimillion-dollar project to cultivate a “shadow army” of youth activists designed to serve as a kinetic tool for American interests in the Himalayas.

The “Yuva” Architecture: Engineering a Generation

The blueprints for the September upheaval appear to have been drafted as early as 2021. Under a program titled Yuva Netritwa: Paradarshi Niti (Youth Leadership: Transparent Policy), the IRI funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into “tutoring” Nepalese youth. On paper, the goal was civic engagement. In practice, the leaked files describe a curriculum focused on the “strategies and skills in organizing protests and demonstrations.”
The IRI didn’t just want voters; they wanted a “network” capable of exerting “pressure on Nepali political decision-makers.” This was a long-game strategy of “social engineering.” By recruiting from media, civil society, and political youth wings, the IRI built an Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA). These recruits weren’t just taught rhetoric; they were trained in “resource mobilization” and “protest management,” specifically leveraging digital tools to bypass traditional state controls.
Ironically, the IRI’s own research anticipated the very frustration it would later exploit. In 2022 focus groups, young Nepalis complained that they were “often used and discarded” by political parties to “bolster demonstrations and riots.” One 24-year-old male participant presciently noted that youth were used to “safeguard the positions of leaders” but had no say in nation-building.

The Bangladesh Template: A Regional Script

The patterns in Kathmandu suggest it was not an isolated incident, but a refined version of a strategy deployed just months earlier in Dhaka. In August 2024, the ouster of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina followed a remarkably similar trajectory of youth-led mobilization and deep-seated US institutional support.
In Bangladesh, the NED and USAID maintained a massive footprint, committing nearly $270 million over 15 years to “political engineering” through partners like the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The “July Revolution” was spearheaded by Students Against Discrimination, who displayed a sophisticated mastery of digital tools—using VPNs and Telegram to bypass state blackouts—skills that mirror the “Digital Democracy” modules taught in IRI training manuals.
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Geopolitics Under the “Jolly Roger”

To understand why Washington would invest so heavily in the political sensibilities of South Asian 20-year-olds, one must look at the map. Both nations occupy vital ground in the Indo-Pacific strategy. The ouster of Hasina removed a leader who refused to cede control of Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal; similarly, the removal of Oli in Nepal neutralized a government opening doors to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
When the September protests erupted in Kathmandu, the aesthetic was strikingly familiar. Protesters flew the “Jolly Roger” flag from the anime One Piece, a symbol of rebellion previously seen in US-aligned movements. But behind the pop-culture optics was a harder edge: video footage showed “youth” protesters wielding semi-automatic rifles, targeting every organ of state power except two: the military and the former royal palace.

A Constitutional Vacuum and the Return of the Old Guard

The resignation of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, following the deaths of 76 people, has left Nepal in a constitutional twilight zone.1 In a move that feels more like a Silicon Valley experiment than a sovereign transition, Oli was replaced by an interim leader chosen via an anonymous poll on Discord. This digital “democracy” is a startling regression for a country that spent decades transitioning to a federal republic.
The most unsettling outcome is not who took power, but who is waiting in the wings. While the homes of ministers were torched, the palace of former King Gyanendra Shah remained untouched. The military—historically the bedrock of the monarchy—has begun integrating pro-monarchist figures into “stability” talks.

The New Face of Intervention

The events in Kathmandu and Dhaka serve as a template for 21st-century regime change. It is no longer about tanks in the streets; it is about “Digital Democracy” workshops, focus-grouped grievances, and the weaponization of youthful idealism.
The tragedy for the youth of Nepal and Bangladesh is that their genuine desire for transparency was seemingly mapped out years in advance in office buildings in Washington D.C. As the dust settles, these nations find themselves led by “interim” figures far more aligned with Washington’s regional goals, while the actual levers of power are quietly handed back to the very institutions the previous revolutions sought to dismantle.