When 37-year-old Prem Prasad Acharya died after setting himself on fire in January 2023, Balendra Shah was the mayor of Kathmandu, Nepal’s bustling national capital. Acharya had been frustrated by the repeated failures of his business ventures. At the time, Shah termed the incident a sign of “the state’s extreme failure.”

That comment is now coming back to haunt Shah, the country’s prime minister since March 2026.

On July 9 this year, it was the turn of 25-year-old Ganesh Nepali, a Dalit who was providing for his family by running a ride-hailing service on his motorcycle, to try to self-immolate. He chose to do so rather than pay 1,000 Nepali rupees (roughly $6.5) in parking fines. He died a day later. Nepali was seemingly under great financial stress as he had to support his family on his meager income while paying the bank installments on the bike. At the time of the incident, Nepali had been applying to work in the UAE.

Nearly two weeks later, Shah continues to feel the fallout from the incident.

The parking fine imposed by Kathmandu’s municipal police acted as the immediate trigger for Nepali, who was already under considerable financial strain.

During his term as mayor, Shah had given the municipal police dubious powers that are otherwise given only to traffic police, including the power to impose traffic fines — and those powers continue to be abused. Although the municipal police falls under the Kathmandu Metropolitan City and not under the federal government that Shah leads, its actions continue to be seen as part of Shah’s legacy as mayor.

The Ganesh Nepali controversy was especially damaging because the government at the time was defending proposals for a significant increase in the scope and amount of traffic violation fines, with top fines of 100,000 rupees for some offenses. Even before Nepali’s self-immolation, these proposed fines were widely being criticized as instruments of coercion rather than proportionate regulation.

Then there is the broader picture. Shah, who is now 36, came to power on the back of the youth protests partly fueled by concerns over unemployment and inequality. There has been no visible progress in addressing these problems. Young people remain frustrated by the lack of good jobs and are looking to leave the country the first chance they get.

There is no hard proof that the plight of those who are indebted or in precarious employment has gotten worse under the new government. Yet the youth frustration does expose the absence of a convincing government response to the old problems of indebtedness and joblessness.

Separately, soon after becoming prime minister, Shah started a campaign to raze Kathmandu’s riverside squatter settlements without any plan to resettle thousands of those who would be displaced. During the campaign, two squatters died by suicide.

Even during his tenure as the mayor of Kathmandu, the benefits of Shah’s efforts were most visible to the upper and middle classes, while their costs disproportionately fell on squatters and informal workers. The squatters were portrayed as usurpers of public land and bulldozers were turned on their homes. Other roadside vendors were also forcibly removed. His beautification and public-space campaigns were not matched by credible plans to protect housing and livelihoods.

As the prime minister, Shah has shown even less concern for the health and wellbeing of the poor. Rather, he seems determined to project an image of a ruthless executor of public plans. Critics of his government’s unjust plans and policies are often harassed by pro-Shah accounts online.

Another emblematic recent case of state excess has been the beating and detention of Majid Ansari, a young activist who had dared to speak up on the wretched plight of the displaced squatters. Ansari vociferously criticized the government when the temporary shelters where the squatters had been housed started flooding; the government had earlier moved them there despite warnings that the place was flood-prone.

Ansari was taken into custody on dubious charges — much to the anger of the Gen Z activists who had propelled Shah to power. Ansari was among the activists involved in the Gen Z movement that overthrew the old K.P. Sharma Oli government, an event that culminated in Shah’s election as prime minister in the March 2026 elections.

The Gen Z activists are not alone in criticizing the Shah government’s rather arbitrary and inhumane governance. Increasingly, even ruling-party lawmakers have been put off by the prime minister’s heavy-handedness and lack of foresight.

The government has yet to show that unemployment and inequality are among its urgent priorities; Nepali’s death crystallized the wider public frustrations.

Shah’s public image as a change agent is at risk. The prime minister always appears in public wearing his signature dark glasses. The glasses that once symbolized anti-establishment defiance have increasingly become a metaphor for a government unwilling to see those bearing the heaviest costs of its rule.