Nepal, April 21 -- Addicted to the algorithmic aphrodisiac of populism, the post-truth government of Prime Minister Balendra Shah is performing almost exactly as scripted in the regime-change playbook of the Mahendra era in the 1960s. Acts of vengeance excite supporters and demoralise opponents, so it began its term by going after high-profile politicos without adhering to due process.

There is no potion as powerful as patriotism to raise the jingoistic pheromones of Khas-Arya ethnonationalists. The name of Mahendra Rajmarg was restored, a Madheshi minister was arbitrarily dismissed, and the colonial-era 'buffer state' trope was resurrected to recast Nepal as a passive shock-absorber-denying it the agency of a yam, the defiance of a rock...