“I think the political culture is being is being shifted or needs to be shifted,” he says. “The old guard, a more hierarchical, clientelist kind of politics we have seen since the countries in South Asia gained independence – that old system fails to address the aspirations of young people. “Obviously when a protest movement happens in one part of the world, it does have repercussions and domino effects. “There’s a gradual decline in the democracy practices in South Asia; I’m saying this based on different democracy indicators and data on different South Asian countries,” Dr Subedi says. But in any case, across the region, Dr Subedi warns effective conflict management infrastructure is vital for protecting democracy.