On Balen and his unwillingness to speak to the media

On Balen and his unwillingness to speak to the media

Balen was an excellent communicator during campaign season. He had outlined a vision for Kathmandu that prioritized its history. He appealed to the Newars by describing how important Newari architecture was to him. He made promises to people. He gave talks in podcasts about his skills as a structural engineer and how he will apply that skillset to conduct his operations as Mayor. He wanted to fix the traffic problem. He wanted to make education better. He promised to give free check ups for old people. He said he would create an infrastructure ambulance.

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We all bought it. That’s because Balen did a great job selling it. He seemed like a larger than life figure, a rapper with politically charged lines and a zeal to improve the country. Then he disappeared! Gone. Not a word to the people about anything. As he abused the Mayoral seat by sending Nagar Prahari out onto the streets to harass vendors, he did not speak. As people rallied against his plans for the slums, he did not speak. As people protested his seemingly unplanned and haphazard bulldozing, he did not speak. It is pathetic and quite confounding how his ability to communicate disappeared overnight.

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Right now, I cannot describe Balen in a good light for we have not had exposure to Mayor Balen. EVER. He must believe that addressing the Nagar Sabha in a stage and the Nagarpalika in the live stream is enough for the people. Balen is immature and incapable of governing. When people defend Balen or feel that he has been unfairly criticized, they talk about the good and the bad that Balen has done. We judge a leader not just on their actions but also based on their character. Balen’s character has been wishy washy at best, concerningly insincere at best. How can a man who was able to express his ideas with such clarity act as if he suffers from constant brain fog?

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I mean, what is he trying to achieve? Does anyone know? Does he believe we are meant to deduce what his up to from his series of flaccid and disjointed attempts at change? It is poor political strategy in Balen’s part to be silent about what he is actually doing and plans to do. It is irresponsible in Balen’s team’s part for allowing Balen to be silent. When he does not answer to the public, the public and namely the media are able to create their own narratives. Balen is losing out by not explaining to the people what he is doing.

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Good governance requires a feedback loop–there must be open and transparent communication between the people and the leaders governing. Balen refusing to speak to the media or hold press conferences after major scandals is him digging his own grave due to his immaturity. I have not been satisfied with the Balen Administration the day he started going after the vendors without offering a solution. However, I am glad he won the election . I have met the guy. He does not seem like someone who would be shy of talking to people. However, the fact that he stopped all comms immediately after winning the election suggests that he did not really care.

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My belief is that Balen was content with RONB being his propaganda machine. His interactions with mostly his fans on twitter meant he was not met with much criticism. Essentially, Balen did not realize what he signed up for. His team has been woefully underprepared for the challenge ahead. What I want is not for Balen to fumble and fail. We have someone new and I would like Balen and his team to run the administration as fluently as possible–with as little hiccups as possible. Press conferences where smart journalists from all the media houses can question Balen on his actions would check the boyish man and his ego. It would force him to think harder. It would force his team to come up with better strategy.

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The longer Balen stays out of this kind of scrutiny, the deeper the hole for him becomes. We should not wish this on him. We must demand more from the Mayor we had such high expectations of.

View on Reddit by Cap_g

Nepal123

29 thoughts on “On Balen and his unwillingness to speak to the media

  1. Balendra is purposely hiding from questions because he wants to maintain the charm to brainwash the public because he knows if he speaks he will become a normal person again not a god that many are perceiving him right now…

    Aile ta people are speculating on his behalf junai Pani Balendra ko action without any knowledge ppl are fantasising in their head and giving their own opinions in his behalf which has maintained his charm not to mention his occasional half assed stupid status updates as well without any context or any explainations he is playing with the masses jati tyo masses esaima ramauchan
    afai speculate garchan teti nai he will maintain his charm…he doesn’t want to become a normal person in those ppl eyes taevayera he is playing this game…

    But democracy manney ho vaney yo prabiqti thik Haina… Balendra has many questions that he is not answering and it is piling up and getting bigger everyday…esle Kasailai Ramro gardaina like a bubble it will eventually burst ani tyo Bela it won’t be pretty…

    Balendra Manche bannaparyo Manchele Galti garcha Galti sudardai Feedback lidai right wrong yo vayo yeha mistake vayo vanera sudardai agadi badney ho…eskolagi Balendra afaile suruwat garnaparcha natra jantale Manche banaunaparda it won’t be pretty…

  2. Ah yo communication ko chai chitta bujaya chaina malai ni. Before election ma paila ko mayor jasto hudina communicate garirakhchu, bhanthyo but Mayor bhae dekhi Interview deko chaina. Election agadhi chai Youtube patrakar dekhi lera TV channels haru sabei ma pugera bhayi na bhyai hunthyo even nam na chalya channel ma ni interview aathyo. Aaile feri namo nisan chaina. Haina jun bela ni Interview dinu parcha bhaneko haina but atleast bela bela ta aaunu paryo ni. Chunab agadhi yei kura lai highlight garya manche ko aaile yei nei chaina. Atleast Interview ma janata ko chaso ko bisya ma questions haru aaucha. Interviewer le ni janta haru ko query anusar questions haru garcha.

    Also last year ko KMC ko budget ma he saidaba Week ma 1 choti Janta sanga Mayor program live huncha where we can call and he will answers our questions but aaile samma bha chaina. Aba yo barsa ko budget ma KMC le afnei TV channel kholne bhanya cha.

    Ani arko recently Ratopati le Mayor haru ko office ma 1 year complete bhako le Interview leko thyo where they described what they did ani aru k plan cha yestei aru kura haru (Birgunj, Lalitupr, Biratnagar, ani aru pani city haru ko). Tara KTM ko mayor ko article aaena maybe because he refused to get interviewed. Ramro kura ma support garekei cha but chitta na bujya kura ni chan. I guess aba aaile sab le kura uthako le bistarei Media ma aaulan or sidhei reelection ko time ma aaune hola paila jastei.

  3. Spot on. 100% agree with you. Balen is afraid of answering difficult questions. He does not want to be accountable to the public. He seems to think that since he is the one in charge its his way or the highway. He has surrounded himself with immature yes-men like Kumar Ben and Victor Paudel who just feed his ego and encourage him to act like a foolish child.

  4. I’m neither a fan or Balen or supporter of any other politicians in Nepal.
    All the politicians and netas of our country promised us many things. Nepal Lai Singapore banauchu vanne ni thiye, underground pani, ghar ghar ma gas ko line lerauchu vanera guff Hanne ni cha.

    Balen le ni dherai esto usto garchu ta vanyo but Balen lai gareko jati gali ra public criticism sabai guff hanne, afno post abuse garne, corrupted official harulai gareko vaye?

  5. Tyo Facebook live ma first meeting garya thyo ni… tyo ta thekai huncha jasto lagya thyo… tara tyo ni Banda garyo… laaast guffadi Lai vote diyechi yestai ho… Aja asti singha durbar jalaidinchu bhancha… Katti ko ta!

  6. When one tastes the fruits of power it is likely one starts losing his path.
    Balen is also about to lose the plot if he keeps on going on this way.

    His past interview’s don’t hold full truths aswell from what i know.

  7. At least Balen is doing some work unlike previous shit head mayor. And I am glad on that, it will take some time to show shapes like in education, health, free parkings, building open spaces on govt occupied lands,etc. Facing the media is good but the media are also mostly jholeys of some parties in Nepal, and facing such media will only cause chaos in social harmony. If he says anything people will criticise or file cases in court. So facing independent media will be a good choice.

  8. whataboutism garna man ta thiena, tara 30 barsa dekhi leadership ra mainstream politics ma aako manche haruko ni yesto banaunu na post. Unaru suru ma aauda k bhanera aaye, k garchu bhane, kk deliver gare? desh bigareka hun ki sapareka hun.

    We must demand more from the MPs, Leaders, Ministers we had such high expectations of.

    Just a suggestion hai.

  9. He faced Pre-Election Media , That’s a big win .

    Fumbling with the Media Cost , Keshav Sthapit the Election . ” Tapain ko Thutuno Milena” by Chameli gang (Congress nikat ) the whole election .

  10. Nepalma euta koi kei ta gari raxa bhanera chitta bujhauxu ma ta. Manxe ho deuta ta hoina ni, kei na kei kamjori ta hunxa nai. On top of that, noone has a dedicated team in Nepalese political scenario that could address every aspect of the said politician image.

    Ma jasto racism sahera family lai kei hos bhanera bidesh jane manxe lai ta kei faults bhako tara kei garne manxe nai hos jasto lagxa Nepalma. Someone to break the status quo. Desh bechne neta haru bhanda kaam garne tara bolna najanne mayor haru nai thik. Just my two cents.

  11. Sappai argument binayak kuikel ko argumentation ako xa. Usle halnu agadi yo question hamro maan ma aunaparne.. aba eutole intellectual video halxa ani tesma oho why didn’t someone do this vanera usko argument liyo
    Ani arkoma arkoko… yo pattern kati dherai rahexa reddit ko intellectual vanine haruma.
    That being said, i accept all the point you’ve mentioned. Just wondering yo argument dui hapta agadi kina ayena or maybe a month ago. Why is it that our critical thinking has to be revived by someone else idea? Isolation ma critical thinking garna sakidaina vane there’s a problem.

  12. I have been warning about this overhyped man since a long time. Rukum, Taplejung, Jhapa ko sthaniya basinda jo Qatar, Kuwait ma kaam garirako chan, uniharule facebook ma “Jai Balen”, “Good Balen” vanera comment garcha vanesi.. this man has got something in his face that makes people believe that he is the savior of this country. He has nothing to show for except propaganda videos on social media overhyping him. Plus, he doesn’t have any past works to show. We believed his speech, like we always have been doing since prehistoric times. Aru neta haru vanda ta kaam se kaam yo thikai cha ni vancha, but aru neta le yesle payeko jasto bhayankar tarif ta payeko chhaina ni. I need at least 200 upvotes now, I lost many upvotes in the past when I criticized this rapper.

  13. When people praised him i didn’t know why maybe because of his podcast interview but real question comes from us kina hamley euta mayor lai hero banayeu on the basis of interview i think he think himself as king. He haven’t done anything major for the city before in his career as well as after winning .
    Recently incident of his wife car being questioned and his response made him totally a gunda like person. I think he will do something as public stunt for managing his image after and people will start following him blinding then.

  14. Balen ko 1,2 barsa ko kathmandu mayorship ma yeti lamo essay lekheu bro/sis le. 📝

    Vanepachi Deuba ko yo kati choti ko pradhan mantriship, Prachanda, Oli, Makune, ani tyo world kotop finance minister award paako (vukampa ma ako grant jun bata aam manxhe le rahat kaile payena) haruko ta timile book haru nei lekhisakeko hunu parne ni. 📚

    Ki alik desh ra janata ko lagi kei garne manche ko matra khutta taanne Nepali pareu timi pani??

  15. Mayor bhaneko nagarpita ho. Mayor ko work people based hunu parcha. But, his work as well as harka ko dictator style nai cha. Social media ma donation diyera photo khichaune stuntbazi jastai. I am sure if given more power, he would not let other districts people to migrate to kathmandu. Populism ma jawab dehita nabhayo bhane tyo facism tira nai jancha. The sad thing is they are missing the opportunity, people ko confidence naya bhata pani hatdai jancha.

  16. I was listening to a youtube analysis on sam raimi’s spiderman. it described spiderman 3 as the story of a man who got a good place and then stopped listening to others, stopped paying attention to people. High on your own success and assuming (naively) that ignoring, supressing your problems/criticism somehow will sustain the favorable status quo you have right now. and it makes you out of touch and when you are not looking things will deteriorate.

    and to make you start to notice it needs to manifest itself in a severe format. and when you do, you panic and you will reach out to fix them asap, using any means necessary. Any as in even questionable. And things get even worse. This all fits soo much with balen right now its unreal.

    Minute 44 an onwards: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YugI3orGJmY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YugI3orGJmY)

  17. your point is true but you can see almost every media is biased against new faces like balen and rabi. media criticizes we know but you can almost feel the prejudice and biases in their news about balen. like when he tried to remove street vendors media could also publish their news as “Metro has removed illegal businesees in kathmandu” but they published one sided story about street vendors family and their poverty. setopati writes like about 2 editorials every time balen posts something on facebook. tukucha is dhal vanera they wrote write 10 articles about it.

    balen ko birruda adalat ma jati ota mudda cha tyo mudda sabai fight garne ho vane purai karyakal nai bitcha re. euta samanya woda adyaksha lai ta kati dherai pressure huncha, many people try to drag you down. aba socha euta sadharan manche mayor vayo vane kati jana giroha timlai sakkauna tira lagchan hola. if I was balen I would not give interview to all the biased media, basically 12 vai media.

  18. Time will tell, if he is going for downfall or raise, I don’t live in Kathmandu but last time I visited ktm was last month, it look bit of changes around road, even when I took a taxis or went to restaurants and hotel I ask about Balen, some of them like him some of them were not fully satisfied with him.
    No hate to him but, I hope he does public speak later on, but I don’t see him speaking anytime soon, towards the end of the him term of mayor, I think he will speak highlight what he has done.
    Also, there will be negative opinions towards him,
    At the end of the day, you can’t make everyone happy.

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