What you need to know about repeated extreme violences, suicides and government's abuse of powers in Nepal.
❗️Only July 8, 2026, Ganesh Nepali, a hailing driver, sustained serious injuries after setting himself ablaze outside a government building as he was seeking government services in preparation to seek employment abroad. Family accuses repeated fines forced this ride hailing driver to set himself ablaze.
❗️Similar incident had occurred few years back when a small business owner accused difficultly in enforcing contracts, high interests, taxes and fees for his decision to set himself on fire.
❗️In an another incident, a squatter and a homeless man had committed suicide when Balen Shah led government conducted forced eviction with the involvement of armed policemen and military officers inn those eviction activities.
Some Tibetan refugees too have engaged in so called self-immolation in Kathmandu.
Nepal’s government has been often accused of widespread and systematic corruption, misuse of public funds and excesses by government leaders and top officials. Nepal ranks 109th out of 180 countries globally in the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International. Country ranks 94th out of 190 economies globally in the World Bank's overall Ease of Doing Business Index.
Current government was formed in back of corruption accusations against former ruling parties such as Nepali Congress, Nepal Communist Party UML, Maoists, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Madhesh province based parties. These parties and their leaders and high bureaucrats are accused of countless scams, corruption, aidding black marketing and price fixing, bid rigging, abuse of powers, nepotism, favoritism, extreme partisan, and weakening of state's institutiions. A handful of them have been convicted of crimes and imprisoned and fined.
Criminal prosecutions against corruption are often slow and perceived by the members of public as being inadequate and selective prosecutions.
Some of the basic consumers goods are taxed at 100% to 300% including taxes on healthcare, education and other services. Income tax rates and corporate taxes too are kept relatively high. Despite high level of taxes, government and public services are abysmally slow and poor and education, skill training, healthcare, benefits and other social programs are severely inadequate and leaves many unemployed or under employed.
Recent protests by Gen Z was against these corruption, abuse of power by rulling parties and top bureaucrats and the government's restrictions on social media platforms.
The current government of Ratriya Swatantra Party is led by former mayor of the capital city, Kathmandu, Balendra Shah, with the support from a U.S. returnee and former Television presenter, Rabi Lamichhane, who was previosly imprisoned during investigations and trials on various criminal charges involving fraud, forgery, organized crimes and violations of nonprofit rules. He has not been convicted of a crime yet.
Mr. Shah had previously made his city government’s main priority to force street vendors out of the city and demolish homes and buildings built allegedly illegally. While he himself was accused of immaturity, inexperience, corruption, rapid wealth gains, favoritism, government's bid rigging and excesses on public funds.
Once Mr. Balen Shah was caught ridding a luxury car costing about one million dollar provided by a businessman who has been under investigation for tax evasion, food safety violations and bid rigging. Country’s annual minimum wage is $1740 and median wage is $5760 per year. Recently, the government’s Harvard educated finance minister Swarnim WAGLE approved a budget levying additional taxes including in education and healthcare services and has allocated $$$$ billions of rupees to buy vehicles for government leaders and top bureaucrats, repeating the misuse of public funds.
The current Nepali government was formed after a hasty election 🗳️ held by an interim government. The interim government came into power after an organized violent attacks against the country’s parliament building and then government in response used live bullets to control the riot causing loss of about 19 lives. The interim government was formed with the support of protestors, mayor Balendra Shah, county’s military leaders and Restriya Swatantra Party, which had also joined the violent protests disguising itself as Gen Z while vast majority of its members were not technically Gen Z.
Riot and killings from the first day led to further arson, vandalism and attacks against police, hotels, 🏨, civilian homes 🏠 , 🏛️ government buildings in the second day. Many more people died from the rioters’ arson attacks and violence and government’s responses to stabilize the situation and stop the prison breaks around the country.
Next day, the military leaders let the violent protesters to burn down the major government buildings. Later, the military was involved in the negotiations leading up to formation of interim government by sidelining civilian leadership of the country. The military was also involved in providing security and other supports during the hasty elections, which was against the tradition how the elections were conducted.
Mr. Rabi Lamichhane’s supporters and inmates had attacked the prison compounds and guards and set him and other inmates free from the national prison.
The same violent groups and inmates were also accused of involved in further violence and arsons attacks.
Tens of thousands of these prisoners still at large despite government’s efforts to bring them face the punishment for their crimes.
The current government is accused of receiving the backing from the country’s military leaders and foreign powers as some of the current government's insiders were accused of conspiring in violent overthrow of the government.
More about these incidents at
https://kathmandupost.com/valley/2026/07/09/repeated-fines-forced-ride-hailing-driver-to-set-himself-ablaze-family-alleges
https://kathmandupost.com/national/2026/05/01/squatter-settlement-resident-found-dead-in-bagmati-river-at-balkhu
https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/self-immolation-in-broad-daylight-aimed-at-the-governments-failure
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/business/china-nepal-airport-corruption.html
https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/highest-single-day-protest-casualties-as-youth-take-to-streets-67-67.html
https://kathmandupost.com/kathmandu/2024/03/04/balendra-shah-treading-authoritarian-path-say-rights-activists
https://kathmandupost.com/national/2024/10/19/lamichhane-arrested-on-fraud-organised-crime-charges
