Former rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah was sworn in as Nepal’s prime minister today and will be tasked with restoring political stability and creating jobs in this impoverished Himalayan country that for years has had fragile governments and few prospects for growth.
The 35-year-old Shah became prime minister after his centrist three-year-old Independent National Party (RSP) won the parliamentary elections with characteristic ease, securing 182 of the 275 parliamentary seats in the March 5 election, the first since the Gen Z (Generation Z) anti-corruption protests in which 76 people were killed last September.
A former mayor of the capital Kathmandu, Shah is Nepal’s youngest prime minister in decades and the first “Madheshi” (the name given to the people of the southern plains bordering India) to lead this Himalayan country sandwiched between Asian giants India and China.
Shah, who wore tight black trousers with a matching jacket, his trademark Nepalese cloth hat and sunglasses, was sworn in at the presidential palace in the presence of diplomats and senior government officials.
“The first test of the new government lies in providing transparent and prompt services to the people, who expect early signs of good governance even from Sunday,” said political analyst Puranjan Acharya.
Sunday is a working day in Nepal. Acharya said Shah’s initial challenge is to implement the report of a commission that investigated violence during anti-corruption protests, a key demand of victims’ families. The report recommended the prosecution of those responsible for the crackdown, including then Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. The youth-led protests were fuelled by a lack of jobs and endemic corruption in the country of 30 million people, where a fifth of the population lives in poverty and about 1,500 people leave the country every day for work abroad.
Political instability is a scourge, with 32 governments taking office since 1990 and none completing a five-year term.
