How Nepal's Gen Z hero Balen Shah lost his political shine in just 150 days

It has been 150 days since Balendra 'Balen' Shah took office as Nepal's prime minister on March 27. He looked like a man who had finally broken Nepal's political cycle dominated by the old guard. That image, though, seemingly did not survive even the first 150 days of his rule.

A former underground rapper, structural engineer and Kathmandu mayor, he rode a Gen Z-Wave, the world's first such revolution to throw out a prime minister, that toppled a sitting government. In the March election, he defeated four-time Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on the veteran's own Jhapa turf and helped his Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) secure a majority.

Young voters who had seemingly never connected with the revolving-door politics of the last 17 years saw in him accountability, energy, and also a break from the old guard.

By July, however, the same generation that carried him into office was back on the streets of Kathmandu, demanding his resignation.

The biggest warning sign, however, is not on the streets but inside the institutions Shah now leads. His growing distance from Parliament and even his own party has raised questions about how he governs, and whether the political alliance that brought him to power is beginning to fray.

The speed of the reversal makes for quite a story. In five months, Balen's popularity has been eroded by a series of crises that overlap.

In April, Shah enforced strict customs rules on goods brought from Indian markets before backtracking.

Shah ordered strict enforcement of customs duties on goods bought across the open border with India. Anything above a low threshold was taxed, hitting the everyday purchases of ordinary Nepalis who depend on Indian markets for medicines, groceries and household items. The move triggered immediate public anger. Facing protests, the government quickly reversed course.

Then, in May came a self-inflicted border controversy involving India.

In June came an awkward diplomatic episode involving his own party chairman Rabi Lamichhane, who visited India, and held high-level meetings across the political spectrum. The reception Lamichhane received, made everyone take note.

Balen had refused one-on-one meetings with foreign envoys below the rank of minister, including India's foreign secretary. Then, on August 10, Shah ended his self-imposed restriction and met Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming separately at Singha Durbar in Kathmandu.

The failures of Balen's governance were also highlighted in July, when a ride-share driver, Ganesh Nepali self-immolated over issues with the municipal police. Then, public frustration was seen in protests over the government's eviction of landless squatters and informal settlements without adequate rehabilitation.

To top it all, in July last week, communal clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups in the southern districts near the Indian border left three people dead, forcing Shah to deliver his first major public address as PM. This appeared to be the moment that finally shattered Balen's image as an outsider who could change things.

Confrontation had served Balen well in opposition, but governing requires a different skill set, like managing relationships and knowing when to compromise.

Let's have a look at the pattern that has emerged in the last 150 days.

THE PM WHO HAS STAYED AWAY FROM PARLIAMENT AND HIS OWN PARTY

The questions around Shah's style of governance are no longer limited to his relationship with the public, Parliament or foreign affairs. There are now signs of friction within the political organisation that brought him to power.

His limited engagement with the RSP has raised questions about how closely the PM remains aligned with the party, and whether the political alliance that propelled him to office is beginning to develop cracks.

Shah skipped a key Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Central Committee meeting in Kathmandu last on August 21 (Friday) as the party discussed preparations for the upcoming local-level elections, reported MyRepublica, a Nepali English-language news site. Instead, Shah left Kathmandu for Pokhara and later travelled to Mustang on a holiday.

The report also said Shah has made only occasional appearances at RSP meetings and at the party's central office since joining the party days before the March 5 elections. His latest absence has renewed questions about his relationship with the ruling party and, in particular, whether ties between Shah and RSP president Rabi Lamichhane are under strain, MyRepublica reported.

Some RSP leaders have reportedly even accused Shah of lacking faith in the party system itself, and there is already disagreement within the party over who deserves credit for that sweeping mandate of two-thirds majority that the RSP got with Balen as its prime ministerial candidate in March, reported MyRepublica.

Balen's distance from the institutions he now leads has also been visible in Parliament, where his absence has increasingly become a point of contention.

Last week, on August 19 (Wednesday), Speaker DP Aryal ordered Shah to appear in the House on August 26 for the question-and-answer session. Shah has attended just five of the 39 sittings since taking office in March. The Speaker's ruling came after opposition lawmakers repeatedly protested his failure to appear and demanded answers on various issues, including his remarks on the Nepal-India border.

So, Shah might finally face questions from lawmakers this week.

THE OUTSIDER WHO ARRIVED WITH A MANDATE

At 35, Shah was Nepal's youngest PM in decades. A civil engineer who had once rapped about urban decay and corruption, he became the independent mayor who actually tried to fix Kathmandu's garbage and infrastructure problems.

But the instincts that made Balen an anti-establishment icon did not translate into effective governance.

The first major rupture came in early June. During a parliamentary discussion on the long-running dispute over Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, Shah observed that Nepal had crossed into Indian territory at various points. He suggested historians, surveyors and even the United Kingdom might help sort out colonial-era maps.

The statement was diplomatically naive. India's position has been consistent for decades: the areas are under long-standing Indian administration, the claims are not supported by historical evidence, and boundary issues are strictly bilateral.

New Delhi rejected any third-party role. Inside Nepal, the reaction was drastic.

Student groups and opposition parties, still smarting from their electoral defeat, seized on the remark as an abandonment of national claims. Protests erupted under the slogan of protecting sovereignty. Lawmakers disrupted proceedings and demanded resignation.

Nepal's foreign ministry tried damage control, insisting Shah had only meant localised "Dasgaja" no-man's-land issues, but the clarification came too late. For a leader who had once hung a "Greater Nepal" map in his mayoral office, the perception of being a naive leader stuck.

Nepal's political leaders have long used the India border issue to fuel nationalist sentiment. Shah, by not treating it as a sacred grievance and making a casual remark, handed his rivals a unifying cause just when they needed one.

RED CARPET WELCOME IN INDIA, BUT FOR RABI LAMICHHANE

Almost simultaneously, Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the ruling party and co-founder of the RSP, arrived in New Delhi to an unusually warm reception. He was in India on an invitation from the BJP.

Meetings with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, EAM S Jaishankar, and BJP leadership were accompanied by drumbeats, flower petals and public praise.

Commentators in both countries noted that previous Nepali delegations had rarely received such reception. The timing was impossible to ignore. It followed Shah's controversial remarks and his earlier reluctance to engage Indian officials at senior levels.

Analysts in Kathmandu and New Delhi began asking whether India was deliberately cultivating an alternative channel.

Lamichhane has no history of anti-India rhetoric, speaks Hindi comfortably, and lacks the institutional ties to China that mark some of Nepal's older leaders. Shah, by contrast, had delayed foreign travel, declined certain meetings, and projected a prickly independence. The visit did not formally undercut the PM, but it underscored that New Delhi could maintain productive relations with the force that actually runs the government even if the man in the top office remained distant.

For a young leader still consolidating authority inside his own party, the optics were damaging.

By late July, Shah was seemingly adjusting the course. He announced he would meet the Indian and Chinese ambassadors separately, abandoning the earlier protocol. The climbdown suggested that the outsider style had become a liability.

The India relationship, meanwhile, has produced a more complicated picture.

GORKHAS DEMANDING JOB IN INDIAN ARMY AS AGNIVEERS

Days before Indian Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth's Nepal visit, former Gorkha soldiers and their supporters protested in Pokhara, demanding that Kathmandu allow the recruitment of Nepali youths into the Indian Army under the Agnipath scheme. The recruitment of Nepali Gorkhas has remained suspended since 2020, and the protesters argued that Indian Army service offered young Nepalis a better alternative to low-paid work in the Gulf.

General Seth visited Nepal from August 16, met Shah and other senior Nepali leaders, and was conferred the honorary rank of General of the Nepali Army, continuing the longstanding military tradition between the two countries. But the Gorkha veterans' demand for the resumption of recruitment remains unresolved.

For Shah, this is a reminder that Nepal's relationship with India cannot be ignored or taken for granted.

WHEN THE STREET TURNED ON ITS OWN CHAMPION

The decisive break with the Gen Z base came in July. A 25-year-old ride-share driver, Ganesh Nepali, set himself on fire after a prolonged confrontation with Kathmandu metropolitan police over a parking fine and wheel-lock. He died of his burns.

Two more self-immolation attempts followed within days. The incidents, whether related or not, crystallised accumulated grievances like punitive municipal enforcement, lack of social protection for informal workers, and the sense that the government was as remote as the ones it had replaced.

These might not look like major issues at first glance. But Nepal is a small country, roughly comparable in size to an Indian state, and seemingly minor disputes escalate into matters of national politics.

Protests returned to Maitighar, a central landmark and protest site in Kathmandu. Young demonstrators who had once celebrated Shah now carried placards calling the government fascist and demanding justice.

Opposition MPs in Parliament told him to "take off the dark glasses" and face the people.

Parallel demonstrations by displaced squatters over eviction drives without adequate rehabilitation added to the pressure.

The government responded with a probe committee, suspensions and a compensation package, but the political costs were already paid.

HINDU-MUSLIM UNREST ALONG THE BORDER DEEPENED THE DAMAGE

In late July, communal clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups in the southern districts of Sunsari and Siraha left three people dead.

The violence began in a market area near the Indian border after a dispute over loud music and religious flags during a Hindu procession. Police opened fire to disperse crowds, killing two men; a third died later during protests in neighbouring Siraha despite a curfew.

Authorities imposed indefinite curfews across several towns.

Shah, who has barely made any public appearances since he became the PM, delivered his first major televised address as PM, appealing for calm, patience and national unity, and promising a fair investigation.

This unrest added another layer of pressure on a government already struggling to contain street anger in Kathmandu, and growing friction within the party.

If one looks at the trajectory of Balen Shah as PM in the last 150 days, his decline seemingly doesn't look like an outsider making mistakes. It looks like he is struggling to govern on every front. Just five months have shown how quickly a popular mandate can turn into a political crisis.