The future government of Nepal will be an extraordinary success only if RSP chief Rabi Lamichhane and would-be prime minister Balen Shah get rid of their habitual arrogance, treachery, abuse of power, corruption, and nepotism—allegations that are widely discussed in the political sphere but haven’t been resolved in court.
The local media have surprisingly refrained from mentioning this related information in the news since the 2025 uprising, apparently to uplift their public image at home and abroad ahead of the March 5 elections.
After quitting journalism, Rabi floated the RSP and supported the coalition governments of Prachanda and Oli until his arrest in the cooperatives graft case. The Gen Z protesters forced the authorities to release him hours before Oli’s resignation by waging a violent demonstration outside the jail.
Balen Shah and some 30 members of his team and Sudan Gurung contested the elections with RSP tickets, raising questions over the blueprint behind the regime change. Some top leaders also quit the RSP in protest against failing to get nominations.
Over the last six months, since the student uprising that unseated the CPN-Congress coalition government on September 9, 2025, Gen Z has become hopeless after seeing their patrons indulge in the same old political traditions of infighting and craving power.
The duo’s political identity is new, but Balen and Sudan had long been working closely with the West-backed Rabi Lamichhane, who formed the RSP in 2022 and won seven direct seats and 13 proportional seats in the House of Representatives. In the following years, the trio worked separately in their respective fields but campaigned against the coalition government on similar issues, such as authoritarian rule, corruption, nepotism, and the extravagant lifestyles of the “Nepo Kids”—the flashy children of political elites.
Their campaigns echoed the narratives of foreign rights groups, controversial Western donors like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), USAID, Open Society Foundations of George Soros, civil society leaders, journalists’ blocs, and opposition parties. Seminars, street protests, and critical reports dominated the political arena in the Himalayan nation of some 30 million people, most of whom maintain a nationalist spirit and are not as politically conscious or revolutionary as Gen Zs.
Before the cooperatives case, Rabi was implicated in several other cases and faced allegations of favoritism and abuse of power before and after becoming the deputy prime minister and home minister. He is accused of inciting the suicide of a journalist, for not following due process in obtaining a new Nepali citizenship after renouncing his American citizenship in 2017, having dual passports unlawfully, and misusing funds raised through his Ravi Lamichhane Foundation, established to build a hospital in Raskot, Kalikot.
He is also accused of having an extramarital affair with a foreign woman while still married to Isha Lamichhane. His ex-wife claimed that this affair resulted in the birth of a son outside their marriage. Before his divorce from Isha, Lamichhane was also linked to Nikita Poudel. Reports alleged that while Isha was living in the United States, he was engaged in a relationship with Poudel, whom he married just days after his divorce in 2019.
Division among Gen Z patrons
Even after the mindless violence, the situation did not spiral out of control as it did in Bangladesh, thanks to timely intervention by the Nepal Army. Thereafter, the interim administration led by former chief justice Sushila Karki took effective steps to restore normalcy: it formed a high-powered commission to investigate the deaths and arson attacks, arrested over 400 anarchists, and appointed figures with clean images as cabinet colleagues.
Within weeks, the Gen Z leaders and patrons divided into dozens of groups over issues of leadership, the formation of the interim government, and election modalities. Patrons like Balen and Sudan faced opposition even during press conferences. Sudan was upset for not being able to become the interim prime minister. His followers regularly met with the prime minister, Sushila Karki, and ministers to press their demands—a trend denounced by Karki. She told the media in December that Nepal would not be Bangladesh, implying the reign of mobocracy after Muhammad Yunus took office in August 2024.
In the run-up to the elections, social media platforms were flooded with allegations of corruption, abuse of power, reckless and discourteous behavior, foreign backing, and unethical practices by Gen Z leaders. But the mainstream media, as well as the architects of the regime-change blueprint, remained silent on these allegations in an attempt to make them more acceptable to the common people.
Foreign Influence
In recent years, Nepal has seen the rise of a new force outside traditional parties: foreign-funded NGOs, journalists, youth civic groups, and social media influencers. They called for drastic changes in governance and politics to promote democratic values and human rights, stop repression, censorship, corruption, and abuse of power, and encourage accountability and transparency among political leaders. Funds were also channeled to generate debate around China’s influence on Nepal’s democratic institutions, involvement in infrastructure projects and the non-governmental sector, and exposure of procurement issues.
The top financier, the US, suggested how Nepalis could become a more sovereign, prosperous society based on shared values as it sought partnerships with influential leaders and groups, key populations, government, and civil society. The US insisted that Nepal needed to better manage its development partnerships and decrease dependence on foreign assistance to improve resource management and service delivery to citizens. Otherwise, Nepal risked deeper economic dependence on its neighbors and the erosion of a free press, civil society, and public support for the governance system.
Mischievous Hami Nepal
Sudan Gurung’s Hami Nepal announced the demonstration by Gen Zs (aged below 28) for September 8 against corruption and demanding the withdrawal of the ban on social media platforms.
Hami Nepal claims its donors are its activists, but some backers have questionable ties. For example, Deepak Bhatta of Infinity Holding was a mediator in an arms procurement deal for Nepal Police and was accused of corruption in 2022; Shanker Group’s top official Sulab Agarwal was arrested in April 2020 on charges of black-marketing infrared thermometers; and Dr. Sanduk Ruit, founder of the Barbara Foundation, had close ties to the CIA.
It has also received support and funds from several Nepali organizations, such as Albatroos, actors and media personalities like Priyanka, Khadki, and Swasmita Khadka, and big brands like Coca-Cola, Al Jazeera, Glodster, Mulberry Hotels, and Time Pharmaceuticals.
Reckless Balen
September 2, 2023, is a memorable day for Balen Shah, a 35-year-old engineer-rapper who became a top social media influencer after being elected mayor of Kathmandu in 2022. Around 9 p.m., a municipality vehicle with government registration carrying his wife, Sabina Kafle—a public-health professional and social media figure—was stopped by traffic police for a routine check. The officer asked the driver for permission to use a government vehicle on a public holiday (Saturday). The vehicle was not detained for more than two or three minutes, nor was it searched, and the officer let it go without recording the registration number. But the mayor reacted sharply: he phoned the Kathmandu Chief District Officer to inquire why the municipality vehicle was stopped and checked. He vented his anger on social media, saying he would “set Singha Durbar on fire” if any municipal vehicles were stopped by the government next time, terming it a “thief government.”
Allegations of recklessness, corruption, abuse of power, mismanagement, and irregularities against Balen Shah have been underreported in the media, apparently because of his constant accusations against the government and the children of political elites for similar offenses.
After being elected mayor, Balen Shah aggressively removed illegal structures across Kathmandu by demolishing homes, shops, and commercial buildings. Although his actions were legally justified, his harsh and insensitive approach sparked outrage among the poor, as he did not provide adequate alternatives or compensation.
He was also labeled rude and anti-poor when he launched a campaign to remove street vendors to clear Kathmandu’s sidewalks and make space for pedestrians.
Balen Shah created hype after ordering municipal garbage to be dumped outside the office of the CPN (Maoist) party to draw attention to the city’s waste management issues, blaming political inaction. He staged a dramatic protest by piling garbage in front of the Department of Roads’ office, blaming it for negligence regarding road maintenance.
He frequently clashed with the federal government, and the constant tension between his office and central authorities hindered development work that required effective collaboration.
His plans to modernize and alter parts of Kathmandu’s traditional and cultural heritage sites drew criticism from preservationists and traditionalists.
Balen’s most sensitive controversy was displaying the map of “Greater Nepal” on the wall in his office, which depicted territories historically part of Nepal but now within Indian borders, triggering diplomatic tension.
Not only the mayor but also his close group of advisers, known as “Team Balen,” is controversial for abuse of power and corruption, thus questioning his leadership and neutrality. Team Balen includes individuals such as Kumar Benjankar, Sunil Lamsal, Santosh Pandey, Shailendra Jha, Sudip Dhakal, Arjun Ghimire, Harishchandra Lamichhane, and Bhoopdev Shah, who play various advisory roles across different departments.
In the year before the uprising, Balen Shah and his team faced an image crisis due to a flood of complaints filed with the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The allegations included irregularities in procurements at the municipal office; extortion of large sums from major commercial structures for approving building plans and awarding contracts without competitive bidding; advisers taking privileges like fuel allowances, unauthorized use of vehicles, and extensive foreign trips funded by the metropolitan office; and collecting tolls from footpath hawkers.