Nepal's rapper-turned-PM criticised for disaster response

He is the former rapper that rose to become Nepal's prime minister with massive gen Z support.

Now Balendra Shah and his new government are grappling with one of the worst disasters the country has seen.

The 36-year-old, popularly known as Balen, is the world's youngest national leader and was elected just six months ago.

His ongoing response to the crisis that has killed at least 1,410 people and left another 5,651 people missing in Nepal and Tibet is being watched closely.

For some his government has not done enough.

Himal Thakur's mother, father, older sister and older brother were working in Timure, Rasuwa district, when the flood hit.

He said he immediately asked the Nepal Army and local authorities for help, but "everyone I tried to ask for help seemed helpless".

"I got no help from anywhere," he told the ABC from Dhanusa district in Nepal.

Days later, his older sister's employer, Machhapuchchhre Bank, secured a helicopter flight so he could search Timure himself.

Three of his family members are still missing, with the body of a man believed to be his brother found recently.

In March, the 23-year-old flew back from Cambodia, where he was working, to vote for Mr Shah's party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party.

He said the government's handling of the flood response made him "regret voting".

"There is a lot more rescue and relief needed in the hill areas, but it hasn't reached there. People haven't received anything there yet. Most of the relief items seem to only reach as far as Nuwakot and not the epicentre of the flood," he said.

The Nepal government was contacted for comment.

Himal Thakur's family was still missing more than two weeks after the flood hit Nepal. (Supplied)

Nepal's prime minister has experience with disaster recovery, using his structural engineering qualifications to help rebuild homes destroyed in the 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people.

But this disaster is different, with Nepal's army still rebuilding roads and installing pre-fabricated bridges supplied by India and China to reconnect communities.

Rescue teams and specialist equipment can only get in to many places once access has been restored.

In a frank admission, Bikram Timilsina, Nepal's minister for information and communication, told DW that "on the very first day, we got a bit confused as to how to deal with the crisis".

"[From the] second day onward, we have been putting all our efforts into swift search, rescue and relief works," he said.

Parts of Sabin Shrestha's childhood town Betrawati has been devastated by the floods.

He said the government mobilised the army, police and private helicopters as quickly as they could, but it should have been more open to outside help.

Sabin Shrestha has been broadly happy with the government's flood response. (Supplied)

The Shah government initially believed its own authorities could respond to the disaster, declining offers of assistance from seven countries including China, the US and India, before later accepting them.

"At the end of the day, the question should not be who is providing the help. The question should be whether that help can save lives," Mr Shrestha said.

Coordination between local governments and the central government could have been better, he said, with experienced community-based groups used to find people in remote areas.

Rebuilding communities destroyed by the flood has been estimated to cost billions of dollars. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)

Despite the scale of the crisis, Mr Shah has not given an address to the nation.

He waited a week to address Nepal's parliament after the flood, but he posted daily to his millions of followers on Facebook, X and Instagram.

He shunned the mainstream media as a hip-hop artist rapping about corruption and inequality in Nepal, then as the independent mayor of Kathmandu and now as prime minister.

But relying on social media to communicate has seemingly not dampened support for his government.

Shah receives 'outpouring' of trust

More than 13 billion rupees ($123 million) has been donated to the prime minister's disaster relief fund so far, something Kathmandu local Toran Pandit said was a sign the public trusted his government.

"His communication was grounded and empathetic — he treated the disaster like a shared national problem rather than just a localised issue, which clearly resonated because people and businesses immediately stepped forward to donate directly to the government's relief fund," he said.

"The way he managed the sheer scale of the situation on the ground, while also pivoting to stand up for Nepal on the global climate stage, really earns my respect. It makes me feel good about backing his team."

Balendra Shah was heavily backed by young people in Nepal. (Reuters: Adnan Abidi, file)

Kathmandu local Sujata Sharma agreed.

"Having to deal with a catastrophic disaster like this within six months of the tenure could have been a disaster in itself," she said.

Professor Krishna Shrestha, global development expert at the University of New South Wales, told the ABC that it was a unique moment in Nepali politics because there was "an outpouring of trust" in the national government.

Sujata Sharma says the government did well considering the scale of the crisis. (Supplied)

"People are not really questioning whether this money will be spent and how it will be spent," he said.

He said the reaction was very different to the 2015 earthquake, because of distrust in the political establishment and deep concerns about corruption.

But not all supporters are happy with Mr Shah's style.

PM skips gen Z vigil

Last Tuesday marked one year since Nepali security forces opened fire on protesters in Kathmandu, killing 76 people.

Young people heavily backed Mr Shah in the first election after the uprising, believing in his anti-establishment and anti-corruption messages.

However, the prime minister did not attend Tuesday's memorial, with other government ministers attending instead.

Pratish Shrestha represented injured protesters at the vigil and said the government could not forget them, or the promises they made about jobs, healthcare and transparency.

"The government is sitting in those chairs because of our blood, sweat and sacrifice," the Kathmandu Post reported him as saying.

"Forgetting us is like cutting off your own roots."

Professor Shrestha said not attending could be a sign of an inexperienced government, but ultimately Mr Shah's response to the floods would define his prime ministership.

"At the moment, it is more gung-ho, this is the action-oriented leadership, regardless of what is happening in the public. I think this can make him isolated and increasingly seen negatively by the public down the track if it's continued," he said.

Mr Shah took to X mark his respects on Tuesday, saying that he hoped the anniversary would "inspire us all to move forward towards building a fair, transparent, and opportunity-filled Nepal".

Several days after the flood, Himal Thakur received a call from a police officer telling him they had found his brother's ID card on a body.

Mr Thakur could not identify the body, and the hospital would not release it because of questions over DNA test results, delaying Mr Thakur's wish to give his brother traditional burial rites.

That was not his only concern.

"There are a lot of helpless people, including me. I have my younger sister, my brother's son and my sister-in-law. I am still young and don't feel grown up myself, so I have no idea how I am going to look after them," he said.

"I can't even expect too much from the government because I'm not sure how many people they can look after. There are so many people who need help."

Translation by Ram Kandel

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