Nepal PM marks 100 days with fast change and few words

One hundred days after taking power on a promise of sweeping reform, Nepal’s 36-year-old rapper-turned-Prime Minister Balendra Shah has upended the government while remaining an elusive public figure.



The former mayor of Kathmandu, better known as Balen, reached the milestone on July 5 and has moved quickly since taking office.



Just a day after he was sworn in, the police arrested former prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his former interior minister on the recommendation of an inquiry commission into the deadly September 2025 uprising that toppled Oli.



The two have since been released without charge while investigations continue.



Observers say the first move set the tone for the government’s subsequent actions – fast and symbolically loaded, but also often legally contested and executed with little patience for institutional processes.



Shah has kept an unusually low profile, preferring to communicate through social media and even delivering his victory speech as a rap song.