199… er, 2025: Bhutan Testing Its Impunity Again
By Bhanu Khanal
In 1907, Bhutan crowned its first king, establishing over a century of absolute monarchy wrapped in ritual, tradition, and unquestioned power. Since then, the kingdom has mastered many things—controlling its narrative, selling a peaceful image abroad, and, perhaps most notably, getting away with human rights violations without consequences.
In the 1990s, the world witnessed the purge of over a hundred thousand Lhotshampas—ethnic Nepali Bhutanese—who were stripped of their citizenship and exiled from their homeland. The ethnic cleansing was methodical, bureaucratic, and devastating. And yet, it received minimal international backlash. There was no meaningful international outrage, no sanctions, no calls for justice—and Bhutan took note. The monarchy emerged untouched, cloaked in the soft glow of Gross National Happiness.
The Himalayan kingdom’s carefully marketed image of peace and happiness remained untouched in the global imagination. The doctrine of Gross National Happiness and environmental conservation continues to dazzle the international community, conveniently diverting attention from the lived experiences of those who were silenced, exiled, or erased. But happiness measured without justice is simply a mask—and Bhutan wears it well.
Now, in 2025, 1990 repeats—quietly, but unmistakably.
Twenty former Bhutanese refugees, long-resettled in the United States, were deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration. Bhutan agreed to take them back as Bhutanese nationals. When eighteen U.S. officials accompanied them to Paro International Airport, the deportees were welcomed warmly. Everything appeared formal and cooperative. Bhutan’s message to the United States was clear: “We accept them.” But little did they know, that acceptance was temporary—and performative.
Once the U.S. officials left, the tone changed. The individuals’ documents were confiscated, and they were quietly expelled again—with no papers in hand. Taxis were discreetly arranged at the Bhutan-India border, and they were escorted out, sent toward Nepal. Three were arrested for crossing into Nepal without documentation. One was stopped at the border. The whereabouts of the remaining sixteen remain unknown. Bhutan executed the expulsion with precision—hoping no one would notice.
What began as a humanitarian return of Bhutanese nationals quickly turned into a shadow replay of the 1990s. The déjà vu is chilling, and the message from the Kingdom is unmistakable: “We did it before. We can do it again.” Once again, Bhutan is testing the limits of its impunity, and once again, it expects to pass the test unscathed.
But this isn’t the 1990s.
We now live in the age of social media, where stories can break without permission and spread without official approval. While major international media have yet to shine a light on this, independent voices and smaller platforms are beginning to speak up. And as expected, Bhutan’s domestic media—including so-called private outlets like The Bhutanese—have remained silent, in a country that supposedly underwent a democratic transition in 2008. Whether due to self-censorship or pressure from above, the effect is the same: a nation without a free press cannot claim to be governed by or for its people.
When the fourth pillar of democracy is silent, power no longer answers to the public—it answers only to itself. The people of Bhutan are left without access to truth, stripped of the ability to hold leaders accountable, and denied the right to form informed judgments. In such a system, governance becomes a performance crafted by elites, while the public is reduced to an uninformed audience—even within Bhutan’s own borders.
Bhutan isn’t just testing its impunity again. It’s betting that nobody—inside or outside—will notice.
But in today’s world, where silence doesn’t guarantee invisibility, it just might be wrong.
Mr Khanal is a Bhutanese-American writer and GIS analyst based in Ohio. He writes on displacement, identity, and human rights with a focus on Bhutan and its diaspora.