Kathmandu, July 10 -- Two Cabinet ministers visited his hospital bed. The prime minister's secretariat sent staff to reassure his family that they wouldn't have to worry about treatment costs. Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority kept an aircraft on standby overnight, ready to fly him to New Delhi the moment doctors cleared it. But none of it could save Ganesh Nepali.

The 25-year-old ride-hail driver died at Bir Hospital on Friday morning, roughly 22 hours after he set himself on fire outside the Department of Passports in Tripureshwar following a dispute with municipal police over his wheel-locked motorcycle. What began as a fine over illegal parking has become something the state's emergency response cannot resolve: a public reckoning, now...