Balen Shah and the media
On Prime Minister Shah's express refusal to engage publicly with the media
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. This is Issue 238 of Kalam Weekly, the only newsletter you need to keep updated with everything happening in Nepal.
In this newsletter:
Balen Shah’s walkout sparks outcry over decorum
What is in the government’s plans and policies?
Opposition moves to block ordinances in National Assembly
Recommendations
The deep dive: Balen Shah and the media
Balen Shah’s walkout sparks outcry over decorum
On Monday, Prime Minister Balen Shah handed over his government’s planned policies and programs for the upcoming year to President Ram Chandra Poudel. As is established practice, President Poudel then read out the policies and programs to a joint session of both Houses of Parliament. This was an opportunity for all lawmakers to hear the government’s plans and respond to them in the upcoming session of Parliament. However, half an hour into the President’s readout, Shah stood up and walked out with no explanation.
Almost immediately, the opposition, the media, and civil society took Shah to task for his breach of decorum, accusing him of disrespecting the institution of the President and the federal Parliament by walking out mid-speech. Criticism was also leveled at his choice of attire, a dark suit over a t-shirt with blazing white sneakers. Shah, as is his wont, said nothing, allowing civic space to go into paroxysms, trying either to lambast him or justify him. His party members even attempted to claim that Shah had left because of health issues, but the assertion was walked back as quickly as it was issued.
Thursday’s meeting of the House of Representatives was chaotic. The prime minister, as is established practice, was supposed to attend the meeting to answer questions from parliamentarians regarding the policies and programs. However, Shah refused to attend, instead delegating Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle to take his place. Opposition members obstructed House proceedings, demanding that Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal compel Prime Minister Shah to attend Parliament and answer questions. Aryal, who was a member of the same Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) as Shah before becoming House Speaker, refused, citing the parliamentary rules that allow the prime minister to nominate a minister in his stead.
Despite the uproar from members of the opposition, Thursday’s meeting endorsed the policies and programs as the RSP holds a significant majority in the House. It appears the party members remain unwilling to break from their prime minister and are duly following his lead. Shah continues his practice of not speaking to the public, whether to the media or even to the elected Parliament. His silence has been defended by his supporters and party members as emblematic of someone more interested in the work than in rhetoric, but his critics say that Shah is undermining democratic accountability by refusing to engage. Indeed, democracy is debate. Prime Ministers and ministers must convince the opposition and the citizenry of their plans through dialogue, not through diktat. It is unfortunate that Shah is already attracting so much controversy barely two months into his tenure as prime minister. If this trend continues, things don’t look good for the upcoming five years of RSP rule.
What are the government’s policies and programs?
The policy and program document is the blueprint that the RSP government will follow for the upcoming fiscal year. It outlines the government’s broad aims and ambitions, which will feed into the federal budget to be announced later this year. The document thus serves as an important indicator of the government’s priorities. You can read the entire document here (in Nepali), but allow me to summarize.
The government has set an ambitious target of an average 7 percent growth over the next decade. This is the minimum year-on-year growth rate required to achieve the RSP’s stated goal of reaching a $100 billion economy in five years and transitioning Nepal to middle-income status. To achieve this rate, the government has outlined what it calls the ‘new phase of economic reform,’ which includes mass digitization of public services, investment promotion, strengthening the private sector, and significant tax rate adjustments. The government also plans to formalize the economy into a digital-first, cashless, and transparent economy that eliminates revenue leakage and corruption.
These are ambitious goals indeed. Nepal’s growth rate was just 4.6 percent in 2025 and is expected to contract further to 2.3 percent in 2026, according to the World Bank. Achieving a 7 percent growth rate amid disruptions to tourism, fuel, and fertilizers due to the conflict in West Asia seems nigh impossible, but economists say it is difficult but possible if the government makes significant investments in capital expenditure. Nepal never spends the full amount allocated to capital expenditure in the federal budget. In fact, it spends less than 30 percent. This year, the budget allocated to capex was Rs 407.88 billion, but with just two months to go before the fiscal year ends, the government has spent only Rs 98.51 billion, or 24.15 percent. It will be a gargantuan task for the RSP government to overhaul the systems in place to mobilize the full capex budget. Again, not impossible but very difficult.
The pledge to review the tax structure to reduce the burden on entrepreneurs and middle-class families is welcome. Taxes in Nepal are extremely high, which would be warranted if the state-provided services were high-quality and far-reaching. Instead, citizens, especially the middle class, get barely anything in return for the taxes they pay. The government has also pledged to promote voluntary tax compliance, digital administration, and a fast-track tax dispute resolution system, all aimed at supporting the private sector, especially small and medium enterprises.
The policy and programs document also signals a shift away from labor export toward a service-oriented economy via a ‘decade of employment promotion.’ The government has plans for a National Employment Policy that will make it easier for Nepalis to work remotely for foreign corporations and bring those earnings back to Nepal through digital payment gateways. Returning migrants will also be documented via a digital skills passport that tracks their abilities and provides international certification. Foreign employment has not been totally disregarded though, with plans to promote safer and higher-value migration for labor
Besides the economy, the policy and programs prioritize health and education as critical pillars of development. Healthcare will be expanded while remaining cost-effective. A Center for Disease Control will also be established to track and reduce the burden of communicable diseases. Education, too, will be made more responsive to contemporary realities with tech integration, e-learning, virtual classrooms, and AI-assisted education. The Nepali year 2085 will also be declared ‘Visit Nepal 2085’ with a focus on promoting tourism to Nepal. All tourist visas and experiences like community homestays will be digitized.
In all, ambitious plans and ambitious targets. The policy and programs are basically a rehashing of promises made by the RSP in its election manifesto and the government’s 100-point agenda. Things will become clearer once the federal budget is announced and we get to see a real roadmap of how the government plans to achieve its stated goals.
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Opposition moves to block ordinances in National Assembly
The National Assembly, as I’ve said consistently in this newsletter, is the real thorn in the side of the RSP government. The party has no representation in the Upper House, given that it refused to field any candidates in the provincial elections in 2022. The Upper House is primarily elected by a mix of the seven Provincial Assemblies and local governments, with a few members appointed by the President on the advice of the government. Currently, the largest party in the 59-member National Assembly is the Nepali Congress with 24 seats, followed by the Nepali Communist Party with 18 seats, and the CPN-UML with 11 seats. With the Upper House stacked with the RSP’s opponents, it was only a matter of time before it cut the RSP government down to size.
And so, on Wednesday, May 13, parties in the National Assembly registered notices rejecting some or all of the eight ordinances promulgated by President Ram Chandra Poudel last week. The ordinances were issued after the Balen Shah government called off a scheduled meeting of the House of Representatives and instead proceeded with them, which are akin to executive orders that the government can issue without parliamentary endorsement. However, ordinances must be tabled in both House of Parliament at the next meeting and promulgated within 60 days. If not promulgated, the ordinances become null and void.
The ordinances were presented as bills in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, May 11. The CPN-UML has moved to reject all eight ordinances in the National Assembly, the Nepali Communist Party four, and the Nepali Congress two. All three parties have opposed the amendment to the Constitutional Council Act. Under this amendment, last week, the Shah government nominated Manoj Sharma as chief justice, bypassing Sapana Pradhan Malla, the senior-most justice in the Supreme Court, to much public outcry from the judiciary. The ordinances also removed nearly 1,600 politically appointed officials from their positions.
However, even if the National Assembly rejects the ordinances, the chief justice nomination and the removal of the 1,600 officials are unlikely to be reversed immediately. Although the law states that rejected ordinances automatically revert to the original provisions, nominations and mass removals will remain until they are challenged at the Supreme Court. There is precedent to this. In 2021, KP Sharma Oli’s 52 nominations remained despite the ordinances being rejected. The Supreme Court eventually upheld the nominations, arguing that the officials had already been discharging their duties and removing them would affect service delivery. Ultimately, despite the opposition in the National Assembly, the Shah government will have achieved its ends.
Recommendations
Opinion: A difficult question for David Attenborough by Bibek Raj Shrestha, Nepali Times
Article: Indecent behaviour, indecent justice: How police misuse the law to arbitrarily detain citizens by Tufan Neupane, The Kathmandu Post
Film: Ek Mutthi Badal, directed by Sahara Sharma
The deep dive: Balen Shah and the media
(Illustration: Subhin Rajkarnikar)
On Sunday, May 10, the digital news portal Ukeraa published on social media the front cover of its premium magazine. The cover portrayed Prime Minister Balen Shah in his trademark sunglasses, but this time, attired like the chief of the Nepal Army. The cover story, titled “Democracy under the shadow of the military,” portrayed the alleged ties between the Shah government and the Nepal Army, with articles examining the army’s growing role in civilian affairs.
The cover was reminiscent of a past magazine. In May 2019, Nepal magazine had portrayed then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as Baahubali, the titular strongman from the blockbuster South Indian film. At the time, cadres of the CPN-UML party, which Oli leads as chairman, burnt copies of the magazine in protest. Similarly, this time around, Shah’s supporters have flooded the comment section of Ukeraa’s social media pages, calling the editor and the news portal corrupt and in league with traditional political parties.
While it might seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same, there is a difference in the reaction of the party so depicted on the magazine cover. In 2019, Oli publicly ignored the cover, even if he might have privately fumed. Shah didn’t exactly respond at length; he went on Facebook and reacted to Ukeraa’s cover with a heart emoji. An almost perfect encapsulation of how Shah feels about the mainstream media – a mocking disdain.
Ever since he became an elected official, Shah’s relationship with the mainstream media has been consistently rocky. Since becoming mayor of Kathmandu in 2022 and prime minister earlier this year, he has held no press conferences or given interviews to any media outlet other than the New York Times in 2023. Instead, Shah relies on one-way communication with Facebook and Twitter as his preferred media. His posts invariably receive thousands of overwhelmingly positive reactions and comments, often within hours.
But Shah wasn’t always like this. In the months leading up to his 2022 mayoral run, he appeared on over half a dozen television shows and podcasts, answering questions and expanding on his vision for Kathmandu. He spoke with both combative interviewers like Rajendra Baniya, Dil Bhushan Pathak, Tikaram Yatri, and Rishi Dhamala, and with more supportive podcasters like Sisan Baniya and Sanjay Silwal Gupta. The latter podcast earned some notoriety for Shah’s answers to Gupta’s questions asking what Shah thought about Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. The question was already in bad taste, but Shah’s answer was even worse. He said that he wanted to learn from Hitler’s “strategic planning” and his ability to make everyone “think the same way.” This answer has now come back to haunt Shah, with his critics pointing out that he, too, is displaying authoritarian tendencies.
The Hitler comment aside, Shah was effusive in these interviews, answering questions with erudition. Drawing on his education as a structural engineer, he provided technocratic solutions to Kathmandu’s myriad problems – unmanaged urban sprawl, traffic congestion, air pollution, dismal public transport, and the lack of green, open spaces. His interviewers, even ones like Rajendra Baniya who have a reputation for grilling their guests, seemed to have been won over. The audience, who primarily watched these interviews on YouTube and social media, was delighted. Finally, here was a politician who didn’t speak in platitudes and political jargon. He spoke plainly and passionately, galvanizing a young voting public like no one ever had before.
Even at this early stage in his political career, Shah was astute. His choice of interviews and podcasts was strategic. He didn’t give interviews to the print or digital media; instead, he went on shows that would air his words verbatim. He did not provide the media with any opportunity to ‘edit’ his words on the page. At the time, his choice of interviews did not seem significant, but in hindsight, it is clear that he was deeply suspicious of the mainstream media even at that early stage of his political career.
Shah’s wariness of the mainstream media reflected a generational divide in Nepal. Although a millennial, Shah was a counterculture rapper much more in tune with the sentiments of the young. The growing rift between a generation that relied on newspapers, radio, and television to learn what was going on, and a generation raised on social media was evident to anyone who cared to look. Shah’s close friend, Victor Paudel, was running Routine of Nepal Banda, a Facebook page that had become the go-to source of information for young Nepalis. Kumar ‘Ben’ Byanjankar, another of Shah’s close friends and his future political strategist, was running Troll Nepal, a Facebook meme page that had tens of thousands of followers. Shah himself came to the public eye – not through television or radio, but a rap battle on YouTube. His music videos weren’t played on television, but garnered millions of views on YouTube.
It was this understanding of the changing media landscape that Shah marshaled in his run for mayor. Heavily supported by Routine of Nepal Banda and hordes of young fans who pushed their parents and family members to vote for him, Shah handily won the Kathmandu mayorship. The mainstream media was flummoxed. Many had assumed that Sirjana Singh of the Nepali Congress — wife of Congress stalwart Prakash Man Singh and daughter-in-law of the famed ‘Iron Man’ of Nepali politics, Ganesh Man Singh — would clinch the race. Only Setopati, a digital news portal that conducted on-the-ground surveys of voters, predicted that Shah would win in a landslide.
Although he had promised transparency and accountability during his campaign for mayor, Shah ditched both once he won. He boycotted the media, even the interviewers and podcasters who had previously given him space. While campaigning, he walked among the public, speaking to voters and shaking hands. As mayor, he walked briskly, as if he always had somewhere to be, flanked by security personnel, particularly his chosen chief of the city police, Raju Pandey. He never stopped to speak to anyone. He barely smiled. His eyes were always hidden behind dark shades.
The only time the public heard from him was during publicly broadcast meetings of the Kathmandu city councils. In these meetings, Shah came off as hostile and aggressive. When asked simple questions by other council members, he responded curtly. Gone was the pragmatic tone he had deployed during interviews. Now, he seemed to take any question as an insult to his intelligence, as if astonished that everyone was not simply falling in line.
The mainstream media did not coddle Shah. His controversial actions — demolishing private homes and businesses allegedly encroaching on public land, attempting to evict squatters without alternative housing, and removing street vendors by force — took up many column inches and home pages. Nepal’s media has never been kind to those in power and it treated Shah the same way it had treated politicians before him. The media had consistently reported on the actions of Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and Sher Bahadur Deuba. But Shah’s supporters, whether through willful ignorance or genuine obliviousness, seemed to believe that the media was unfairly targeting their leader. Shah seemed to agree, ignoring calls for comment and interviews from journalists. Instead, he took to social media.
However, he used social media less to explain himself and more to insult others. KP Sharma Oli and his party, the UML, were regular targets. When the judiciary overturned his ban on the showing of Indian films, Shah called the courts ‘Indian slaves.’ When a traffic policeman stopped a car carrying his wife for a routine security check, Shah threatened to burn down Singha Durbar. Finally, in the apogee of late-night drunk posts, in November 2025, Shah turned his anger towards everyone — “Fuck America, Fuck India, Fuck China, Fuck UML, Fuck Congress, Fuck RSP, Fuck RPP, Fuck Maobadi. You guys all combined can do nothing.”
This latter post was deleted minutes after it was posted, but the internet is forever, and hundreds had already taken screenshots. Shah never explained or apologized. While many criticized him as immature, his supporters were not fazed. To the young, Shah hadn’t done anything wrong; his insolence was part and parcel of his appeal. So, what if he told everyone to fuck off? Maybe they deserved to be told off.
This faux pas, which might have destroyed the credibility of any other politician, was a mere blip on the radar for Shah. He resigned as mayor of Kathmandu in January and began campaigning for a seat in the federal parliament as if nothing had happened. The obscenities were forgotten as quickly as the social media post was deleted.
This time, while campaigning for parliament, Shah, already ensconced in the public imagination, did not go on any televised interviews or podcasts. He didn’t engage in press conferences or answer any questions from the media either. Instead, once again, he relied on one-way communication, making rousing speeches to thousands. In Madhesh Province’s Janakpur, he spoke in colloquial Maithili, his native tongue, rousing the crowd with a promise that Madhesis would no longer have to go to Kathmandu for services, just tourism. In Dhangadhi, Sudurpaschim Province, he stated that Nepal didn’t need to turn into Switzerland, as it already had the natural beauty of Badhimalika and Khaptad, a reference to politicians who often promised to turn Nepal into Switzerland.
Over two weeks of campaigning, Shah spoke publicly for an estimated 26 minutes. When asked by an Indian reporter about his media strategy, Shah responded, “The strategy is no strategy.” However, according to Reuters, he did have a strategy, which was to deliver a major speech every eight days, allowing the 600-strong team time to amplify it across social media. “If you keep giving speeches, people get confused. We let opposition parties raise some issues, and then respond once. This way, our message stays clear,” an unnamed party official told Reuters.
Shah won the election with a massive mandate and eventually became prime minister. But the same pattern now continues. No interviews, no press conferences, not even an address to Parliament. He explains himself on social media, writing long posts that justify controversies like his recent eviction of squatters or his government’s decision to outlaw student unions on university premises. His reticence to engage in two-way communication has led the opposition to threaten to boycott parliament if Shah does not address concerns about the government’s policies and programs announced on Monday. Political cartoons have appeared satirizing lines from Shah’s song ‘Balidan,’ in which he demanded that the state let him speak. The cartoons now ask Shah to please say something, anything.
Shah’s refusal to engage with the media and speak publicly has had a calculated effect. His silence has allowed the citizenry to project their values, morals, and ideals on him. If he doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t contradict anyone, leading Nepalis to attribute Shah’s silence to their own preconceptions. He maintains the mystique of a politician who doesn’t just talk but actually does the work, and the media and his political opponents end up discussing his silence more than his words.
Shah’s strategic muteness embodies a shift in how Nepali politics plays out. On the one hand, he has broken the close association between mainstream media and politicians, many of whom used the media to their own ends, issuing anonymous quotes and leaking information. Shah demonstrates that mainstream media institutions no longer possess exclusive control over political legitimacy. He has cultivated a direct relationship with young voters who feel alienated from the traditional parties and don’t trust the mainstream media.
At the same time, his antagonism toward journalists and his preference for unilateral communication raise legitimate concerns about accountability. In a democracy, the voting public, represented by the duly elected parliament, expects answers from the chief executive. Article 76 (10) of the Constitution states that “the Prime Minister and Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Federal Parliament.” No matter his intentions, Shah cannot expect the public to give him the benefit of the doubt forever. The first two months of his tenure cannot serve as a template for the next five years.
Shah’s refusal to engage with the public, whether via the mainstream or new media, might benefit him in the short term, but will harm his longevity. Already, critics are apoplectic at his silence. Even those who once supported him now bristle at his refusal to talk to anyone. How long will he be able to weather the criticism and remain silent? How long will his party members act as mouthpieces for their mute prime minister? Right now, his admirers might placate themselves by arguing that Shah values the work over empty rhetoric. But it might not be long before his silence is employed as a weapon against him. As much as his supporters argue that he is working more and speaking less, his detractors maintain that he is hubristic and has little respect for the trappings of democracy, preferring authoritarian ukases. It might not be very long before Balen Shah finds himself hoisted by his own petard.
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your inbox, with the next edition of Kalam Weekly.
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