A Year After Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising, Balendra Shah Confronts the Limits of Revolt

Por Biswas Baral — The Diplomat

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Its leaders successfully dismantled an old political order but had little knowledge of how to develop the institutions or governing consensus needed to replace it.

Nepal’s Gen Z protesters in front of a government office building at Bharatpur, Nepal, September 9, 2025.

It has been a year since Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z uprising. It was spontaneous. No one could have predicted that a youth-led protest whose demands centered on good governance and reversal of a social media ban would turn so deadly, resulting in 76 deaths. Within two days, the old political establishment had been swept aside, leaving the country in a political vacuum.

The then prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, had to literally run for his life. The uprising brought to the fore its own set of leaders. They were young, ambitious, and passionate, and untested politically — and this lack of political experience shows one year later.

The movement proved remarkably successful at dismantling an old political order and clearing the path for a new one. But it had been conceived as a limited protest of the disaffected youth, not as a blueprint for governing Nepal after the old order broke down.

The post-uprising period can be seen in two parts. In the first part, following the overthrow of the Oli government, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was appointed prime minister after Gen Z leaders picked her through a vote on the messaging app, Discord. She was given the sole mandate of holding elections within six months.

The government faced formidable obstacles. Traditional political forces initially refused to participate in the electoral process as they doubted the elections would be free and fair. Meanwhile, the monarchists were getting vocal, seeking a place for the deposed king in the new setup. Many vital state institutions had been burned to the ground.

Yet the Karki government was ultimately able to take traditional political forces like the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist into confidence to create an environment for elections, and when elections eventually happened in March 2026, they were largely free and fair. Had the government failed to hold timely elections, the country could have plunged into a grave political and constitutional crisis.

In the second post-uprising phase, Balendra Shah came to power as a powerful prime minister, commanding nearly a two-thirds parliamentary majority in the March elections.

His five months in office have been turbulent. While Karki was only expected to manage immediate concerns and hold elections, expectations for the Shah government were far higher, and its delivery has been mixed.

One of its most urgent political tasks was to provide justice to the families whose members were killed during the Gen Z uprising. This entailed bringing the responsible political and security leadership to justice. But to do so, the new government had to trample on due process. No sooner had the uprising-time prime minister, Oli, and Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak been arrested than they had to be released as there was no legal grounds to hold them.

This incident highlighted the lack of experience of Nepal’s new rulers — as well as the sheer weight of expectation of immediate delivery on them. A movement built around rejection of the old order had come to power without much knowledge of how to develop the institutions or governing consensus needed to replace it.

Even before the uprising, the economy was already in poor shape. The business community also pressed the government to prosecute those involved in arson and vandalism during the two days of protests. But distinguishing arsonists from peaceful protesters proved nearly impossible. This further dampened business confidence and dried up even limited private investment.

There is no sign of the promised economic recovery or job creation, and the government is now saddled with rebuilding the country following devastating floods whose ramifications will continue to be felt far into the future.

The Shah government also fumbled on the external front by mishandling relationships with Nepal’s key international partners like India, China, and the United States through its insular approach. Back home, it has alienated sections of the bureaucracy; for instance, by fiddling with hiring and retirement rules. Its commitment to federalism and secularism, the two key tenets of the 2015 constitution, also remains questionable.

Internally, the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party is far from united, with Balendra Shah and party Chairman Rabi Lamichhane cultivating their own factions. RSP parliamentarians are questioning the party’s performance in government, its failure to maintain law and order and its attempts to muzzle critics.

Pushing aside the old political establishment, its ideas, and its fixation on power, the Shah government swept in as a breath of fresh air. There has since been some improvement in service delivery and governance. Political interference in the civil service seems to have declined. Progress has been made in digitization of the bureaucracy. School and university examination results are published on time.

The new political class must now show that it can build durable institutions. It must also learn to accommodate competing interests and govern through established processes. It can no longer solely rely on the legitimacy of the revolt or on Shah’s continued personal popularity.

The floods and the difficult reconstruction ahead—whose bill could run to $4 or $5 billion — will make that governing test even more demanding.

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It has been a year since Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z uprising. It was spontaneous. No one could have predicted that a youth-led protest whose demands centered on good governance and reversal of a social media ban would turn so deadly, resulting in 76 deaths. Within two days, the old political establishment had been swept aside, leaving the country in a political vacuum.

The then prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, had to literally run for his life. The uprising brought to the fore its own set of leaders. They were young, ambitious, and passionate, and untested politically — and this lack of political experience shows one year later.

The movement proved remarkably successful at dismantling an old political order and clearing the path for a new one. But it had been conceived as a limited protest of the disaffected youth, not as a blueprint for governing Nepal after the old order broke down.

The post-uprising period can be seen in two parts. In the first part, following the overthrow of the Oli government, former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was appointed prime minister after Gen Z leaders picked her through a vote on the messaging app, Discord. She was given the sole mandate of holding elections within six months.

The government faced formidable obstacles. Traditional political forces initially refused to participate in the electoral process as they doubted the elections would be free and fair. Meanwhile, the monarchists were getting vocal, seeking a place for the deposed king in the new setup. Many vital state institutions had been burned to the ground.

Yet the Karki government was ultimately able to take traditional political forces like the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist into confidence to create an environment for elections, and when elections eventually happened in March 2026, they were largely free and fair. Had the government failed to hold timely elections, the country could have plunged into a grave political and constitutional crisis.

In the second post-uprising phase, Balendra Shah came to power as a powerful prime minister, commanding nearly a two-thirds parliamentary majority in the March elections.

His five months in office have been turbulent. While Karki was only expected to manage immediate concerns and hold elections, expectations for the Shah government were far higher, and its delivery has been mixed.

One of its most urgent political tasks was to provide justice to the families whose members were killed during the Gen Z uprising. This entailed bringing the responsible political and security leadership to justice. But to do so, the new government had to trample on due process. No sooner had the uprising-time prime minister, Oli, and Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak been arrested than they had to be released as there was no legal grounds to hold them.

This incident highlighted the lack of experience of Nepal’s new rulers — as well as the sheer weight of expectation of immediate delivery on them. A movement built around rejection of the old order had come to power without much knowledge of how to develop the institutions or governing consensus needed to replace it.

Even before the uprising, the economy was already in poor shape. The business community also pressed the government to prosecute those involved in arson and vandalism during the two days of protests. But distinguishing arsonists from peaceful protesters proved nearly impossible. This further dampened business confidence and dried up even limited private investment.

There is no sign of the promised economic recovery or job creation, and the government is now saddled with rebuilding the country following devastating floods whose ramifications will continue to be felt far into the future.

The Shah government also fumbled on the external front by mishandling relationships with Nepal’s key international partners like India, China, and the United States through its insular approach. Back home, it has alienated sections of the bureaucracy; for instance, by fiddling with hiring and retirement rules. Its commitment to federalism and secularism, the two key tenets of the 2015 constitution, also remains questionable.

Internally, the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party is far from united, with Balendra Shah and party Chairman Rabi Lamichhane cultivating their own factions. RSP parliamentarians are questioning the party’s performance in government, its failure to maintain law and order and its attempts to muzzle critics.

Pushing aside the old political establishment, its ideas, and its fixation on power, the Shah government swept in as a breath of fresh air. There has since been some improvement in service delivery and governance. Political interference in the civil service seems to have declined. Progress has been made in digitization of the bureaucracy. School and university examination results are published on time.

The new political class must now show that it can build durable institutions. It must also learn to accommodate competing interests and govern through established processes. It can no longer solely rely on the legitimacy of the revolt or on Shah’s continued personal popularity.

The floods and the difficult reconstruction ahead—whose bill could run to $4 or $5 billion — will make that governing test even more demanding.

Biswas Baral is a senior journalist and a columnist for The Diplomat. He writes on Nepal’s domestic politics and foreign policy.

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Fonte: The Diplomat