Do we like them?Do we like Tshering Tobgay?
Our score: 5 out of 10. A decent public servant cleared in his one corruption stoush, offset by his own words refusing to take back Lhotshampa refugees.
Tobgay was born in 1968 in Kalimpong, India, the oldest of six boys, and trained as a mechanical engineer at the University of Pittsburgh before a public administration degree at Harvard. He joined Bhutan's civil service in 1991, then quit in 2007 to go into politics, co-founding the People's Democratic Party, the country's first registered party. He led the opposition from 2008, was Prime Minister from 2013 to 2018 and returned to the job in January 2024.
His main scandal is a modest one by world standards. In 2018 Bhutan's Opposition accused him of corruption over about Nu 3 million spent on a guard house, wall and other security works at his private home in Taba. He said he had repaid the money and asked the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate. In 2019 the commission dropped the case, finding no corruption, violation of its Act or misuse of resources, and asked for clearer rules on residential security.
The harm check is where he gets marked down. In a 2016 reply to a US senator pushing for family reunification, he called the remaining refugees in Nepal “non-nationals and illegal immigrants” and ruled out taking them back. He also wrote that the camps had been infiltrated by Maoists. In 2025 CNN reported that Lhotshampa people deported from the US were in limbo, with advocates saying they had been left stateless; CNN could not reach Bhutan's government for comment.
A Himal Southasian review of his 2025 book Enlightened Leadership argues it misrepresents the expulsion of the Lhotshampa and gives a selective account of Bhutan's politics. His defenders would say he is defending a small state's security and sovereignty, and that is the line he took in that letter. Where you land depends on whether you read it as national self-protection or as turning away people with a real claim. We found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ people, for or against, so that's a gap rather than a pass.
The latest thing is his Modi love-in. He told Business Today he first called Modi an avatar of Vishnu in 2019, later decided he was right, and said “Viksit Bharat means Viksit Bhutan”. It's gushing, but it's about a neighbour Bhutan depends on, not a slur at anyone. It does show how closely he leans on India.
So the verdict is split. On being a decent person, he passes: one old allegation, investigated at his own request, then dropped. On harm, it's mixed: nothing nasty about gay or trans people turned up, but his own words on a persecuted minority are hard to wave away. Before cheering him on, a mate would want to see him soften that stance.