<img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111148/636cd7439c7e80680e092dccjpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Supreme Court Judge Sapna Pradhan Malla was coming home from New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon but the details of her flight were publicly available even before she landed at the Kathmandu airport. In fact, her birth date, mobile number, passport number, health details, address, husband's name and his mobile number were all available online. Before flying from Delhi to Kathmandu, Malla had filled in the details related to the flight and other personal information in the form available on <a href="http://www.ccmc.gov.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ccmc.gov.np/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1614922125912000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGNe0Zc2cbf3k2KcLSwKHNlBk62oA">www.ccmc.gov.np</a>, which the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) had made mandatory for all the passengers flying in and out of the country following the reopening post-coronavirus lockdown. But it is evident that the centre has paid no heed to protect user privacy or keep the personal details confidential.  <img width="640" height="496" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111148/636cd7469c7e80680e092dcdjpeg.jpg" alt="">The form with full details in the PDF format is available for anyone to download easily as Nepali Times/HimalKhabar was able to do, that of Malla, during an investigation following a lead that the CCMC website has been irresponsible in maintaining confidential details. After filling in the form at <a href="http://www.ccmc.gov.np/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ccmc.gov.np/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1614922125912000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGNe0Zc2cbf3k2KcLSwKHNlBk62oA">www.ccmc.gov.np</a>, the system will provide passengers with an ID number in the PDF file. The number assigned to each individual is actually the person's identity on the CCMC website, which lasts in the site's 'address bar'. Another person's PDF file can be found by changing the same number in the 'Address Bar'. To explain all this process, watch this short video we prepared by filling a similar form.On Wednesday afternoon, Nepali Times/Himal Khabar created a similar file in its name by filling all the details, posing as a passenger on the Nepal Airlines Doha-Kathmandu flight RA 240. We were assigned the ID number 295916. Now that the PDF file containing the personal details of Nepali Times/Himal Khabar has been created, with the same ID number still mentioned in the address bar, the details of the person who filled the form before and after us could be easily found. The details of Malla was similarly found. We then tried changing the last three digits of our ID number and we found Ajay Nepali's file. He was coming to Kathmandu on Friday on a Himalayan Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The file contained more of his additional details, which we have not disclosed here. Similarly, we out found Prem Prakash Neupane of Damak, Jhapa is coming to Kathmandu from Doha, Qatar on Thursday. All his details including his reason for coming back and contact numbers of his relatives were all available. In the case of a woman, whether she is pregnant or not and if she is pregnant, how far along she is, are all public. We were unable to contact Malla but another passenger who had recently come to Nepal from London expressed his indignation at the government machinery.  "It could be that the government employees do not know that our personal details should be kept confidential, but it only goes on to show how incompetent they are,” he said. “If this had happened abroad, the developers of the website and the CCMC staff would be been immediately prosecuted." Advocate Baburam Aryal blames the CCMA’s negligence and carelessness for the predicament. “The issue of how the CCMC collects the data and how long it can be kept is controversial in itself. It is only because of the pandemic and possible emergency use we are letting it be. But if confidential information are placed under such weak security, it is gross negligence, a technical and legal failure.” Aryal pointed out the need to investigate the case. “A lot of money was spent on this website but if even people without technical knowhow can access personal information easily, what’s the point of choosing such an incompetent developers? Anyone who feels their privacy has been violated could go to court and seek action.” Nepal's constitution protects the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Article 28 stipulates, "The confidentiality of any person's life, residence, property, written documents, facts, correspondence and character matters shall be inviolable except in accordance with the law." An Act on Personal Privacy was enacted a little over a year ago to implement this provision of the constitution. The act also ensures the confidentiality of written documents in addition to personal details. Section 11 (subsection 2-c) of the Act considers citizenship certificate, passport among other documents as confidential. A provision in the same article states that no one should make such details public. Why has the CCMC so carelessly ignored the issue of personal privacy despite the constitutional guarantee to protect it? We asked Major Saugat Singh Rathore of the Nepal Army, assigned 'Media and Information Technology' cell at the centre. “My main responsibility is to monitor the media. Please let our IT department know how it happened. I can't comment,” he said. When we contacted the Information Technology Department of the Centre, we were suggested to speak with the Member Secretary Khagraj Baral, who then told us that he was unaware of such a loophole. "Once the concerned person fills out the form and submits it, no one else should be able to see it. I’ll see how this has happened and work to improve on it,” he said. "I have just been transferred. I also need to understand this myself." In Nepal, citizenship, passports and mobile numbers are the primary sources of identification and are required in property ownership documents, when registering a company, and while opening a bank account and trading shares. In recent times, email addresses have been used to reveal personal details.  "Even authorities don’t seem concerned about keeping personal details confidential despite examples of how these information have been used to trap innocent individuals in criminal activities," says Aryal. “Citizenship is our primary legal document, one can easily misuse it. Not to mention, it can easily endanger safety of people.” While there are best international practices to follow, they have not been followed mandatorily in Nepal. The Department of IT had sent out a circulation saying that websites need to be audited but this also has not been followed strictly.  "It is good that the government is doing it, and the intention is good. But do they have the length and breadth to keep the information secure?" questions IT researcher, Hempal Shrestha. "The scale by which we are going digital is huge, but the capacity to control and secure is small." In general, what is seen [in case of government websites] is that the data gathering part is abundant, then after it is gathered it is dumped, after that it can go anywhere. There is no system to monitor who has access to the data or how it is used. (With additional reporting from Sahina Shrestha)

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CCMC’s serious infringement of citizen privacy

Now that G Adventures has listed Nepal as Number 1 of the Top 12 Destinations Worldwide for 2020, we can all sit back, relax and give every tourist daring to visit Nepal an experience of a lifetime they will not forget in a hurry.Even though Nepal is ranked as a most popular destination, Nepalis themselves do not seem to know what their destination is as a nation. For a country that doesn’t know whether it is coming or going, we are sure getting there fast. One way the Ministry of Vermiculture, Tourism and Gymnastics can move ahead is by upgrading Kathmandu’s boutique airport in preparation for Visit Nepal 2020 with these measures:1. The Ministry has decreed that all international flights circle for at least 2 hours before landing in Kathmandu from January 1 onwards so passengers are given free mountain flights during #VNY2020.2. The fleet of ramp buses that bring passengers from the aircraft to the terminal building have been replaced with a fleet of elephants. Passengers will disembark directly into howdahs, and be transported to the visa queue.3. A replica of a rhino and calf have been installed at the arrival area. For #VNY2020, these will be replaced with a herd of real rhinoceri roaming around the apron in addition to monkeys, leopards and feral dogs that showcase Nepal’s flora and fauna. Rodents have recently been added to promote Nepal as a MICE destination.4. TIA has been officially reclassified as a ‘Buttock Airport’ with an open-defecation loo in the arrival area that acclimatises tourists by accurately replicating the aroma of the Bagmati.5. After complaints that the visa process was too convoluted, the Department of Irritation has added a fast-track queue so that the average time passengers spend applying for an e-visa, paying for it, and having it stamped will be reduced to just 3 hours.6. Arriving passengers will be x-rayed on arrival to check if they are metal free. If found carrying an excess of 50gm of gold, they will be strip-searched on the spot. However, those with more than 33kg of gold in their false bottoms can sneak out through a hidden side door.7. Passengers are now allowed to bring only one 1-litre bottle of tax-free whiskey into the country. Anyone found bringing a second bottle will have to personally drink the extra bottle right there, stagger out into Nepal, and pass out.8. Passengers now have a choice of extreme left-leaning or extreme right-leaning luggage trolleys depending on their personal political pursuasion.9. The Domestic Terminal just broke the Guinness World Record for packing the maximum number of passengers into a finite area without asphyxiation.10. Don’t come back in 2020, we don’t want the world to get a bad impression about Kathmandu airport.

The Ass

New, improved TIA

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a233e9c7e80680e0417d8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1026"/><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Charles Shobhraj once claimed that he could pass an elephant through Nepal’s customs, and that is still true at Kathmandu airport, where inadequate facilities are compounded by what insiders say are wide-open loopholes for big-time smugglers while innocent passengers are hassled.After outrage from passengers, Tribhuvan Airport is getting a facelift, but most of it superficial. As a $100 million upgrade lies in limbo, Nepal’s only international air gateway gives a poor impression to passengers.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=20463&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathmandu Airport is Nepal in a microcosm</a>, Anil ChitrakarTourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari says not everything at the airport is under his ministry, and it is difficult to coordinate between the 171 government, security and private entities there. His effort to turn TIA into a ‘boutique airport’ is being ridiculed as it takes hours to get through visa lines, customs x-ray bottleneck, and luggage carousel. Then passengers are forced to negotiate an obstacle course to a new parking lot 200m down without trolleys, and a tourist broke his leg last month after slipping in the dark.Chief of airport customs Gajendra Kumar Thakur passes the buck to the ministry: “We have only half the staff we need, and that means we are overwhelmed when many planes land together.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/incompetence-of-kathmandu-airport-magnified-during-shutdown,2086" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bad just got worse</a>, Om Astha RaiOne afternoon last week, angry passengers muttered profanities as they waited for 45 minutes to be checked if they were ‘metal free’ at the arrival x-ray (photo, above) supposed to detect passengers bringing in more than the allowable 1 litre of liquor, or 50g of gold ornaments. Two passengers are apprehended every week, but the x-rays do not seem to have deterred smugglers who pass gold by the kilogram.The airport’s reputation as a den of smugglers was spotlighted anew after the scandal involving 33kg of seized gold that went missing last year. A Parliamentary committee recommended plugging loopholes, but the passenger bottleneck remains, inconveniencing passengers ahead of Visit Nepal Year 2020 by when the country hopes to bring in 2 million tourists.“We found that the biggest problem lay in the customs mechanism,” Janakraj Joshi of the parliamentary sub-committee revealed. The report was presented to Parliament’s Good Governance and Monitoring Committee last year, but Joshi says nothing happened.Airport officials promise the arrival concourse will have two more conveyor belts by May. Spokesman Pratap Babu Tiwari says the runway and apron expansion will resume soon, the terminal will have free WiFi and “soothing music.”After waiting hours at immigration and customs, the last thing passengers want to hear is blaring muzak.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/sick-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sick Airport</a>, Nepali Times<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/does-nepal-need-a-4th-international-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Does Nepal need a 4th international airport?</a>, Om Astha Rai

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Nepal election live results

“Let's have another cup of tea,” <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/ujwal-thapa-s-light-shines-on-n0tfurod">Ujwal Thapa</a> of the alternative Bibeksheel Nepali party told the young activist Pukar Bam ten years ago. The two had 12 cups of tea that day, discussing ways to get Nepal out of its political deadend. Thapa contested the Constituent Assembly election in 2013 as an independent from Kathmandu, and formed Bibeksheel Nepali to galvanise youth impatient for change, fielding candidates in the first federal election in 2017. Ujwal Thapa was a political guru who was way ahead of his time, and his protégés were among the RSP’s winning candidates in last week’s election. Pukar Bam was a core member of Bibeksheel Nepali until its dissolution, and won the Kathmandu-4 seat this time. Other former Bibeksheel members who won the election from the RSP in Kathmandu include Ranju Neupane from Kathmandu-1, Sasmit Pokharel from Kathmandu-5, and Biraj Bhakta Shrestha in Kathmandu-8. As votes were counted and the results from Kathmandu began to come in, the candidates paid fulsome tribute to Ujwal Thapa’s mentorship and in inspiring idealistic youth to become a part of an alternative political force. Today, as RSP members of Parliament, they are no longer an alternative, but a part of Nepal’s new mainstream politics. Thapa returned to Nepal after finishing his undergraduate computer science degree in the US at the peak of the Maoist insurgency. His foray into politics began when he traveled to Nepal’s western mountains to train communities in mediation. After the war, he started a computer design company for young entrepreneurs entering the workforce. But he became frustrated with the inability of the second Constituent Assembly to promulgate the Constitution, and the power struggle between political parties played out in the streets that led to frequent shutdowns paralysing the country.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260313120348_d18647d53a3b2927328067c35b2e3e6eecf9aefe13f23384e73a2c17211cd9cb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260313120348_d18647d53a3b2927328067c35b2e3e6eecf9aefe13f23384e73a2c17211cd9cb" data-rendition-name="original" width="823" height="682" loading="lazy" alt="The RSP's activist DNA"><figcaption>Thapa with Pukar Bam, who was elected to Parliament last week from Kathmandu-4. Photo: PUKAR BAM / FACEBOOK</figcaption></figure>  PROTEST TO POLITICS Ujwal Thapa had had enough, and rallied people from across walks of life, leading peaceful, silent demonstrations proclaiming 'नेपाल खुल्ला छ' against prolonged, violent strikes. Citizens fed up with the main political parties organised to defy the shutdowns. Thapa’s activism and vision for a new Nepal drew disenchanted and previously apathetic youth into politics and to join the Bibeksheel Sajha Party in 2013. Thapa was the pioneer of alternative politics in Nepal, and was leading a youth force long before the GenZ became synonymous with Nepal’s September Storm. He mentored and guided social activists who are today influential youth leaders engaged in non-traditional politics. “Ujwal Thapa, with his entrepreneurial spirit, wanted to address people’s pain-points, and believed that activism was the starting point to alternative politics,” explains <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepal-loses-rare-purpose-driven-leader">Ashutosh Tiwari</a>, former member of Bibeksheel Sajha party. “He sought to build confidence, motivate, and build a community for young people, which drew a lot of people into Bibeksheel.” He adds: “ And while people might say that Bibeksheel never got big, that was never its point. Its function was to be an early talent incubator, which is what it did as evident by the result of this election.” Thapa died in 2021 of complications related to Covid-19, and Bibeksheel had two mergers with Rabindra Mishra’s Sajha Party before being permanently dissolved in 2021. But many of its idealistic members joined Rabi Lamichhane’s RSP, formed just four months before the 2022 federal election. Such was the groundswell of support for change that the RSP became the fourth-largest in Parliament. In 2017, Ranju Neupane (then Ranju Darshana) was the youngest mayoral candidate for Kathmandu at age 21, and contested the federal election in 2022. Pukar Bam himself lost the 2022 election in Kathmandu-1 as an independent.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260313120348_6302a9b534f57191d9a2cb2c31b31449873c6cc27d375344a248dd90847921dd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260313120348_6302a9b534f57191d9a2cb2c31b31449873c6cc27d375344a248dd90847921dd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1729" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="The RSP's activist DNA"><figcaption>Photo: SOCIAL MEDIA</figcaption></figure>  Sashmit Pokharel also ran an unsuccessful campaign as an independent candidate in Kathmandu during the 2022 provincial election. Later, he was a member of the City Planning Commission under Balendra Shah when he was elected mayor of Kathmandu in 2022. Last week, the RSP swept the election with a supermajority of 182 seats in Parliament. Voters placed their trust in the party and its leaders to steer Nepal in a new direction after the youth unrest in September. In many ways, Nepal’s youth have decided, just as Ujwal Thapa once did, that enough is enough with corruption, malgovernance, nepotism and dynastic politics. In the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/the-man-who-shook-our-minds">documentary</a> about his life, Dimag Ghochne Manche, released earlier this year, some RSP nominees who previously worked with and were mentored by Thapa spoke of the impact he had on their lives, career, and activism. Among them is Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, former minister of Youth and Sports who is now a second time RSP parliamentarian. “I tell everybody that if it hadn’t been for Ujwal Dai, I would not have gotten into politics,” he says in the film. It would be unfair to attribute all the success of the hard-fought campaigns entirely to Ujwal Thapa’s protégés and former coworkers. But his ethos and vision for Nepal was what inspired them, and will in the coming years be reflected in national politics through the young idealists he mentored. Says Ashutosh Tiwari: “There are many Bibeksheels outside of RSP in constant and open communication with their old friends who have been elected. They will be keeping the lawmakers in check so that they do no stray too far from the values that they grew up with.”

RSP’s activist DNA

It took the September GenZ firestorm and public anger against non-performing actors for a 35-year-old structural engineer and rapper Balendra (Balen) Shah to oust Nepal’s four-time prime minister and former revolutionary.
The UML’s KP Oli has been trounced by 50,000 votes in his home turf, an area where he has won many elections in his 55-year political career. It is the same story across Nepal, where established politicians are being rejected by voters.
A 'Balen Wave' has swept the country, dyeing it in the RSP’s Blue party colour. But the UML and NC particularly did this to themselves.&nbsp;
An apology and a retirement after the September protests would have saved Oli some dignity, and given the rebranded UML a tiny bit of hope and perhaps a few more electoral wins.&nbsp;
Maybe he could have been remembered fondly as the funny old guy who made one last fatal political error, but now he will be defined by this defeat. Maintaining control and legitimacy in his own party will be hard too.&nbsp;
Contrary to his past combativeness and blaming nefarious foreign conspiracies, Oli gracefully conceded on Saturday, congratulating 'Balen Babu' &nbsp;and wishing him 'a successful five years'.
Balendra Shah and his RSP knew what they were doing. As of Sunday, it has won 118 and leads in 7 other constituencies, a lot of them with similarly wide margins of victory. RSP candidates have even beaten well regarded candidates like Gagan Thapa of the NC and Kulman Ghising of Ujyalo Nepal.&nbsp;

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 <video controls src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026030817030_de0fcd0c749f165992c75cbfcb94a19b086018ffcda1d151bd55e71331f4e934.mp4" alt="" width="100%" height="100%"></video>
 <figcaption>Animation: ANUP TAMU</figcaption>
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Many including this paper questioned the RSP's strategy of choosing popular candidates over competence. But the point of an election is to win it, and there was a short campaign window to put it all together and the RSP pulled it off most successfully.&nbsp;
To be sure, the party should not get too much credit. Its manifesto was broad and bland, and no different than the other older parties.&nbsp;
A big part of the RSP ballots, maybe even most of it, were people voting against the old parties rather than for it. Many seemed to feel that this was coming, and perhaps even hoped for it.
There is also a sense of lingering cynicism. Nepal has had several revolutions and many new political starts and things always seem to end up in the same corrupt hopelessness. There is every possibility that the new RSP government will also go the same way.&nbsp;
The RSP is much bigger than Balendra Shah, although it was his popularity that made this victory possible. Its victory brings with it a sense of hope as all new things do.&nbsp;
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Not all party members who were elected are going to be as accountable or have integrity. Many of them have a chequered past, saw an opportunity in joining the RSP and took the risk.&nbsp;
What changed things were the events of September. Politicians saw firsthand that 'Power to the People' is not some abstract idea. Get too loose to it, forget that you are ruling and not serving, and you get booted out.&nbsp;
The interim Sushila Karki government deserve credit for delivering on its biggest mandate of holding the election in such a short time frame. The expectation at large was that the polls would be delayed or even scuttled.
In fact, a two-thirds RSP majority is a great opportunity to rethink the country’s political culture and institutionalise change. The point of the government in a democracy is to serve the people. Appointing non-political, competent people worked, at least in the short tenure of the interim government.&nbsp;
Adding layers of bureaucracy and committees and party politics along federal, provincial and local levels heaped resistance to the simple goal of making lives easier for the Nepali.&nbsp;
Nepal is getting a reboot, and the next few months will show whether the country is on the right track with its new generation government.

Balen takes Jhapa and Nepal

The Bell that rang in the new A daughter stands in her family's living room, frantically ringing an actual घण्टी at her father. He is a lifelong Nepali Congress (NC) voter. She tells him his party loyalty is as humiliating as a daughter eloping.&nbsp; He looks visibly defeated, and because of RSP’s landslide sweep in this election, he has no reply. She is not a party member. Nobody told her to do this.&nbsp; Multiply this actual family scene by hundreds of thousands of households across Nepal and you find the reason for the RSP tsunami. Children ringing bells at parents over dinner. Aunties shaking bells at legacy party candidates on their morning walks. Taxi drivers, lifelong UML supporters, cheerfully announcing they have switched.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026031014038_096f980a799b4f80118863174ed629680cc6c21b02e226a899ce1dc5268b4b72.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2026031014038_096f980a799b4f80118863174ed629680cc6c21b02e226a899ce1dc5268b4b72" data-rendition-name="original" width="364" height="662" loading="lazy" alt="RSP Flag prank"> </figure>  And overseas, Nepalis in Dubai and Doha, Sydney and Seattle, calling home to deliver just one instruction: “चुपचाप &nbsp;घण्टीमा छाप”।&nbsp; How did an election symbol like the Bell jump off a ballot paper and become weaponised for generational shame?&nbsp; The RSP's 2026 campaign is a case study in how a symbol becomes so participatory and instinctive, that citizens start campaigning on behalf of a party they never formally joined. It may look like a cult, but it is a phenomenon no political party in Nepal has ever pulled off. The ghost in the machine&nbsp; The 3-year-old RSP entered the 2026 race without the campaign infrastructure that legacy parties considered essential. It has no sister organisations, no vanguard student unions, no established cadre networks.&nbsp; In a country where ground reach and organisation wins elections, this looked like a fatal handicap. Established parties had spent decades building a top-down machinery: youth wings that mobilise on orders and unions within government. But it was all hollow and manufactured.&nbsp; That is why when the NC or UML posted a policy manifesto, it got barely 200 shares. When a 19-year-old posts an <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/spot-ai-generated-election-videos">AI video on TikTok </a>of Balendra Shah swinging a bell like a Kung Fu Hustle weapon, it gets 5 million views.&nbsp; The RSP’s very absence became its strategic advantage. Without a chain of command for content, every post felt peer-to-peer. Supporters built communities instead of following orders. Network effects took over: one person posts, three friends remix it, their followers adapt it for their own local context, and the message multiplies without a single directive from party headquarters. A TikTok from Kathmandu featuring Balendra Shah gets remixed by someone in Birganj who <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bhojpuriyasuppor0/video/7596686360111484178?q=bhojpuri%20dub%20balen&amp;t=1773115199365">dubs it in Bhojpuri</a>. A supporter in Pokhara takes the same “अबकि बार बालेन सरकार” audio and films it over footage of the city’s broken road.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026031014038_56090217f5b3482fad934c4f76fc872047571b3c86331a4eda1ac19ae389c2fc.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2026031014038_56090217f5b3482fad934c4f76fc872047571b3c86331a4eda1ac19ae389c2fc" data-rendition-name="original" width="375" height="646" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Bhojpuri remix"> </figure>  A Nepali worker in Dubai films himself shaking his phone at the camera, captioning it “I can't vote but my family can”. The content stays structurally the same (bell + emotion) but the surface changes every time. The format is the constant. The context is the variable. A single post multiplies into a thousand pieces of local content without anyone coordinating it. Legacy parties spent money on reach. RSP's strategy built reach for free, because participation itself was the product. The Bell, blazer and brand&nbsp; Run the sensory test. The UML's Sun symbol is only visual. You see it on a ballot, on a flag. You cannot hear a sun. You cannot perform a &nbsp;sun. Nobody walks into a room and ‘suns’ at an opponent.&nbsp; The NC’s Tree symbol is also only seen. It communicates nothing as a verb. Nobody ‘trees’ the father across the dinner table. Ujyalo Nepal's lightbulb was the most passive symbol of all, it just sits there being always on. The Bell had rare resonance as an election symbol. It is a verb (to ring), a sound (tintinnabulation), a physical action (shaking), and a metaphor (wake-up call). घण्टी is participatory by design. You do not just see it, you perform it.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260310140312_c5580164e1f11a8466f591c4d514420bb5313a34b559554db05364065486c3b7.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260310140312_c5580164e1f11a8466f591c4d514420bb5313a34b559554db05364065486c3b7" data-rendition-name="original" width="368" height="654" loading="lazy" alt="Classroom ghanti NT"> </figure>  It works as a metaphor: wake up. It works as a taunt: we are coming (“हामी आयौँ”). It operates across sensory channels a meme can travel through. The other party symbols are logos. The घण्टी is a multimedia verb in active voice. Poets on the frontline Politics has always been about performance. Murray Edelman wrote decades ago that political actions are symbolic acts: what politicians do matters less than what their actions represent.&nbsp; Guy-Ernest Debord argued that spectacle replaces lived experience. But the stage has changed. The social media feed is the new stage, and the algorithm is the casting director. It does not select for policy depth, but for recognisability, emotional charge, and remix potential. Poets have always been at the frontlines of political rupture. The French Revolution had its pamphleteers. The Bolsheviks had Mayakovsky. The Black Panthers had Gil Scott-Heron. Nepal's own political history is full of writers who paid for their words with prison or exile.&nbsp; Rap is rhythm and poetry. Balen Shah did not cross from entertainment into politics, his art was always political. “सडकबालक" in 2012 was already a protest song. The diss tracks against corruption were manifestos set to beat.&nbsp; So, if घण्टी was the sound, Balen was the voice. Supporters rang Bells to perform, projecting their hopes on Balen. One is participatory (anyone can ring it), the other is aspirational (representing what you want the country to become). Together, they form a complete symbolic system: an action and an icon, a thing you do, and a person you believe in. Both are algorithm-native. The sunglasses are instantly recognisable in a thumbnail at any size. The bell sound action is identifiable within half a second of a video starting. The confrontational attitude generates the emotional charge that the algorithm rewards.&nbsp; Balen was already trained in the language of the algorithm: hooks, rhythm, timing, and audience retention. While legacy politicians are just now trying to learn the language of the algorithm, Balen grew up speaking it. The folk song brand kit: The slogans wrote themselves. While legacy politicians are just now trying to learn the language of the algorithm, Balen has grown up speaking it. The folk song brand kit The slogans wrote themselves. “चुपचाप &nbsp;घण्टीमा छाप” spread through tea shops and bus parks like a folk proverb. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-ai-generated-election">AI-generated Mahabharat edits</a> positioned Balendra Shah as a warrior-hero fighting K P Oli in golden armour.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026031014038_cd7fbb8b4a97628757977b55d1244b192c233566dad268e894c7132d16cf180c.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2026031014038_cd7fbb8b4a97628757977b55d1244b192c233566dad268e894c7132d16cf180c" data-rendition-name="original" width="369" height="667" loading="lazy" alt="Ghanti Chhap NT"> </figure>  The entire package, partly by accident, partly by instinct, was built to be remixed. Every element is modular: the bell, the sunglasses, the slogan, the attitude. Take any piece and make your own version. Like a ‘Deusi re” song, the melody is fixed, everyone knows it, but anyone can change the words to fit their occasion and mood. It survives across generations precisely because no one controls it.&nbsp; The घण्टी ecosystem works the same way. The melody is fixed: the bell, the sound, the slogan, the sunglasses, the attitude. But the lyrics can be anyone’s. Shoot it in your neighborhood. Dub it in your language. Film your grandmother's reaction. Set it to your local context. That's why it spread faster than any IT cell could manufacture.&nbsp; The generational pincer The standard narrative is that digital movements stay digital, and that memes are a GenZ thing. RSP broke both assumptions. Its content operation executed a pincer movement across generations, capturing not just the youth vote but used youth as a delivery mechanism into households where no party organiser could reach. The Generational Pincer Flowchart Three vectors of pressure, all converging on the same target: the living room and the dinner table, where votes in Nepal are actually decided. Downward: children trolling parents by ringing bells at dinner, turning family meals into campaign arenas. A bell rings as a prank, then as a joke, then as a political statement. By the third night, it's not funny anymore. It's a conversation.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260310140316_446e465f60994532e53b1786368dd025e9ad99a387b4121493f8826c46921cb7.png" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260310140316_446e465f60994532e53b1786368dd025e9ad99a387b4121493f8826c46921cb7" data-rendition-name="original" width="364" height="669" loading="lazy" alt="Ghanti prank"> </figure>  Lateral: the diaspora pipeline. Nepalis in Australia, the Gulf, Japan, could not vote, but they turned every Viber call home into a campaign touchpoint.&nbsp; Upward: the bell pressured power itself. No RSP organiser gets a meeting with a UML ward chairman or a NC MP. But those people go home. And at home, they have teenagers, nieces, nephews, and staff whose kids are on TikTok.&nbsp; A party boss's son rings a bell at dinner and asks uncomfortable questions. A NC donor's daughter shares RSP content on her Instagram story, visible to her father's entire social circle. No political structure, no matter how hierarchical, is sealed off from its own household. The bell did not need to breach the gates of Singha Durbar, it walked in through the kitchen window. The result crossed every demographic line analysts thought was fixed. Memes didn't just stay in the feed. They colonised the living room, the kitchen, the long-distance phone call, the taxi ride. Content nobody commissioned&nbsp; What the RSP's organic content looked less like a political campaign and more like a football fan club. People were not posting because they were told to. They were posting because they belonged. Trace the trends as they accumulated: <ul> <li>“<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rameshmahto065/video/7610784878174424338?q=chup%20chap%20ghanti%20chap&amp;t=1773115568686">चुपचाप &nbsp;घण्टीमा छाप</a>” started as a TikTok post, then showed up on motorcycle stickers, WhatsApp statuses, AI-remixed songs, and in tea-shop conversation as a folk proverb.</li> <li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rajjimond_18/video/7612570510508969236?q=ma%20ta%20balen%20ko%20fan&amp;t=1773115129539">Original songs composed by supporters</a>, not the party, gained millions of views. People danced to them at rallies and in the streets. People at polling booths created TikToks to RSP anthems to show their support.</li> <li>AI spectacle videos of Balen as a Mahabharat hero, filmy dialogue, stylised Nepal flag. Slapstick clips hitting 200K+ likes and 5M views. All made by random accounts, none traceable to party infrastructure.</li> <li>Supporters built Bell apps and websites on their own. One site, <a href="https://ghanti.website">ghanti.website</a>, was registered by a random supporter in January. Open it on your phone, shake it side to side, and it rings. Within weeks, crowds of supporters were walking through neighborhoods shaking their phones in unison, producing a wall of digital bell sound.</li> <li>The intimate content. A husband-wife vlog filmed inside a car, casually discussing what a lawmaker should actually do. Just two people talking, and it resonated more than any campaign ad.</li> </ul> None of this was centrally coordinated. Parties across Nepal spent money on polished graphics that looked like professional advertisements. RSP supporters spent nothing and made content that felt like conversation. The algorithm doesn't reward production value, it rewards emotional resonance. And nothing resonated more than the feeling that you, personally, could participate in this movement without anyone's permission. Now what? The RSP has a supermajority. The Bell rang louder than anyone predicted. But a movement built on open-source energy now has to deliver closed-source results: budgets, legislation, diplomacy, institutional reform. Balen built his brand by bypassing institutions, Prime Minister Balendra Shah has to run them. He communicated through Facebook posts and rap lyrics. Now he needs to communicate with India, China, and multilateral lenders.&nbsp; His midnight F-bomb post, deleted within 30 minutes but screenshotted by thousands, showed both his appeal (unfiltered authenticity) and his risk (unfiltered impulsiveness). The question is not whether the bell rang loud enough. It obviously did. The question is what happens when the supporters who posted without being asked start expecting results they did not specify. When the meme energy that won living rooms has to translate into parliamentary committees.&nbsp; For decades, the promise of democracy was that people choose their leaders. What RSP's campaign revealed is something more uncomfortable: in the age of the algorithm and remixable content, people do not just choose their leaders.&nbsp; They build the campaign, write the slogans, produce the content, convert their own families, and then show up to vote for the movement they made with their own hands. The party becomes a container for energy it didn't create and can't fully control.&nbsp; That's either the most democratic thing that's ever happened in Nepal, or the most dangerous. It might be both.