Activist Monica Niroula Claims PM Balen Shah's Parliament Walkout Was a Planned Strategy to Divert Attention

Kathmandu. Janji activist Monica Niroula has stated that Prime Minister Balen Shah walking out midway while the President was presenting the policy and program in parliament was a planned strategy to divert the attention of the public and media from the main issue.

Expressing her views on social media, she reminded that before the Prime Minister left parliament, opposition leaders were raising a serious issue.

The opposition was questioning the government, stating that the state had cruelly mobilized all security mechanisms and displaced landless Dalits, landless squatters, and unorganized residents at gunpoint.

According to activist Niroula, this incident is a classic strategy to divert the attention of the public and the media. New authoritarian leaders often do such controversial things to create excitement and control the media cycle, causing the general public to forget the main issues and react only to what they want them to.

She mentioned that after Prime Minister Shah left parliament, everyone from MPs to the general public was busy commenting on his behavior, which weakened the credibility of the opposition and critics. Niroula argues that when MPs got entangled in trivial questions like why the Prime Minister got up and left, why he didn't speak, or why he wore black clothes and white shoes, it gave the impression to the public that they were only chasing the Prime Minister.

This incident has further established the narrative that 'What if he didn't speak, he showed it through his work,' which is actually an old slogan of the Prime Minister's group. Although some intellectuals commented that Balen's different style was not accepted due to traditional political thinking and the older generation, Niroula clarified that the real issue was not that.

She emphasized that the main issue is still that the state illegally evicted 20,000 citizens.

She pointed out that questions remain unanswered about how many citizens were displaced due to the state's actions, how many were able to register or not, and when the registration process, which has already closed, will reopen.

Niroula stated that the debate should be about the food, education, health, and employment situation of those citizens in streets, hotels, or holding centers, and whether the places where they are kept are safe or like open prisons.

She expressed the view that the main issue now should be how many lives were lost in this process and what is the state's real plan with a timeline for the just resettlement of the displaced.