Nepal, Sept. 8 -- Come September, painful memories of 9/11, 2015 in Madhesh-when forces of the state had gone on a shooting spree, killing young and old alike in Janakpur-ooze out of the heart like a deep wound that refuses to heal. Perpetrators were never brought to book, and impunity of the security forces was masked as authority. But when it was repeated in the Chartreuse Revolt in 2025, the conscience of civil society was shaken, the political class yielded, and the old order was set aflame at its symbolic headquarters, Singha Durbar.

Has society and polity learnt any lessons? Perhaps, but it remains doubtful. Ultimately, nobody learns anything from human or natural failures. The disastrous mishandling of Covid-19 failed to provoke e...