Not to mention corruption. About 15 years ago I got dragged along to a lunch in Kathmandu. My host[0] was meeting with some officials to discuss embezzling from an infrastructure project. It speaks to their impunity that they carried on in public in front of a basically unknown foreigner.
[0] Last I checked he was recently arrested on various corruption offenses.
Then I immediately went and worked for an even bigger turd where I quit by lunch time on the first day.
Mix that with the rise of Hindutva, a bad economy, and divisive discourse across the border for the 2024 elections and things can probably get ugly if precautions aren't taken.
Shutting down TikTok is a small price to pay to prevent actual communal violence.
Most of these incidents and flareups are happening in the Terai areas where ethnic communities straddle the India-Nepal border. While the secessionist movement seems to have largely been tamped down, I wouldn't be surprised if many people who were in that milleu ended up becoming more fundamentalist.
And it's extremely worrisome that events and discourse like this is much more common, despite not existing 20 years ago.