Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Work smarter with a Pro licence Learn More
Top Scoops

Book Reviews | Gordon Campbell | Scoop News | Wellington Scoop | Community Scoop | Search

 

Nepal: Giving Rise To Nationalistic Feelings

Nepal: Giving Rise To Nationalistic Feelings


Siddhi B Ranjitkar

“Nation, Nationality and Sanatan Hindu State” is the slogan of the Hindu revivalists, according to the news posted on ekantipur.com. All the activists were the former politicians disgraced and sidelined from the mainstream politics. They were political deadwoods. They came up with the issue for testing the ground to keep up in the mainstream politics. They were just for trying again their political fortune. They have no political followers, and they have no top leaders to push them to the political arena. So, the last chance of again getting into the mainstream politics was to take up the issue of making Nepal a Hindu state. Another political party engaged in making Nepal a Hindu State is the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-Nepal). It had gained 24 seats in the 601 House for a Hindu state.

The Hindu revivalists believed that the Hindus might trust them and follow them again transforming those black sheep into white. They rightly have the nation, and nationality, too in their slogan. Probably, the Hindu campaign might give rise to the nationalistic feelings to other non-Hindu Nepalese. Other nationalists also might rise up for making their faith, too national. Thus, the campaign for a Hindu State might be blessing in disguise for other nationalists.

Khum Bahadur Khadka and Taranath Ranabhat were the leading figures to campaign for the Hindu state. Both of them were the political deadwoods. Everybody knew that Khadka was a former many-term minister. Everybody also knew that Khadka had been one of the notorious corrupt ministers. He also had allegedly killed a number of cadres of other political parties during the elections in his constituency in 2008. He was one of the active leaders of the NC. Taranath Ranabhat also had been a partner killer of democracy. He was a Speaker of the parliament when former king Gyanendra killed democracy in 2005. Mr. Ranabhat hung on to the position of a Speaker despite his party President Girija Prasad Koirala instructed him to quit the office. He even poised to be a hired prime minister of Gyanendra but he did not get the job. When the people fired Gyanendra from the job, Mr. Ranabhat went along with him. The first thing the reinstated parliament did was to fire Ranabhat and elect Subhas Nemwang a new Speaker. Since then Ranabhat’s eyes had not stopped shedding tears for his past misdeeds.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) found out the documents of abuse of authority Khadka had committed to earn the multi-million rupees illegally. He stole the public money from the State treasury. CIAA filed a lawsuit at the Special Court charging him with the abuse of the authority for making so much of money without having legal sources of his earnings.

It was the time when the country was taking a new turn. The reinstated parliament was to promulgate a new interim constitution of Nepal of 2007. Mr. Khadka and his political colleagues also indicted for corruption needed to clear off their misdeeds at the Special Court. If the corruption case remained at the Special Court, they would lose their slots in the parliament. So, these three guys such as Khum Bahadur Khadka, Govinda Raj Joshi and Rabindranath Sharma went to the then chief justice, and settled the cases. Thereafter, the Special Court squashed their cases on the technical reasons. It clearly indicated that the Special Court was not independent and the chief justice could do anything at any cost to the reputation of the law courts including the Supreme Court of Nepal. Thus, the corrupt politicians successfully could extend their sphere of corruption to the law courts, too.

CIAA did not give up the cases against the corrupt politicians that had been acquitted by the Special Court. It took up the cases to the Supreme Court demanding the hearings on the corruption cases against those three former notoriously corrupt ministers. The Supreme Court sent the cases back to the Special Court for hearings.

Govinda Raj Joshi was another NC leader indicted for the abuse of power and for abusing the State treasury. When he was the minister for education he was widely known for asking anybody for money in millions of rupees for anything he had to do as his duty. He asked his colleagues and even cadres, too for money for doing anything for them. Thus, he earned the reputation of being one of the most bribed ministers in the Nepalese history. He has managed to stay out of the jail. He appealed to the Supreme Court of Nepal. So, his case had been pending at the court. Another reason was he had been sick. We wished him to get well as soon as possible, and stand trail at the law court and go to jail for committing an incredible crime against the Nepalese people. He simply had looted the people in general.

Khum Bahadur Khadka went to jail and stayed there for 14 months, and he also paid the punitive fines. When he came out of the jail, his cadres gave him a hero’s welcome. He wore a garland of flowers costing Rs 250,000 brought from Calcutta, India, according to the local media reports. Such a lavish ceremony of the national robber coming out of the jail indicated that he must have accumulated a large sum of money stealing from the State treasury. Those cadres also must have share in robbing the State treasury, as honest people would never glorify any thief.

Another thief Rabindranath Sharma unfortunately died before he could get punished for robbing the State treasury. He belonged to the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). Death saved him from getting punished for his crimes in the human law court. He must be facing the court of the world of the souls of the dead people. Souls of the dead people he had robbed must have punished him. Nobody could escape from punishment for any sorts of crimes s/he had committed either in this world or in another world.

Another notoriously corrupt person but managed to stay out of the prison, and evade the punishment was the chairman of the breakaway party RPP-Nepal Kamal Thapa. He was the home minister when Gyanendra ran the administration in the mid 2000s. Mr. Thapa was responsible for the death of so many people during the people’s movement in 2006, and he drew Rs 500,000 from the Rastra Bank every day to repress the people’s movement. Now, Mr. Thapa has been for reviving the Hindu state. It was the instrument for him to keep alive in the politics otherwise he also would have been a political deadwood.

None of the sincere Hindus would believe in these guys making Nepal the Hindu country, as they were the criminals that none of the religion would save them from punishment. Hinduism as any other religion has taught people to be honest, and sincerely serve the common folks. However, these guys advocating for making Nepal a Hindu country, not only did not serve the people when they were on the job of the public service but also robbed the very people they were supposed to serve.

They looted the taxpayers’ money intended for the welfare of the Nepalese in general and the poor in particular. Millions of Nepalese would have benefited from the money they had robbed if the money were properly used for the intended purposes that had been for the welfare of the people. The consequences of their robbery had been that millions of Nepalese had to remain in poverty, in destitute, and had to face untold misery for the whole life.

In the past, ninety nine percent of Nepalese remained in poverty because the Shah-Rana dynastic and despotic rulers had robbed the people for 240 years. They sucked the blood of the people as much as possible. Millions of Nepalese perished because they could not stand sucking of their blood by those cruel rulers for such a long period. As a result, they perished before reaching their 25th birthdays. These guys called Shahs and Ranas had escaped from the human law courts but they must have faced the courts of our so many gods and goddess in the world of divinities. None of the divinities of the Hindu world would forgive these criminals for looting the people’s money, and for sucking the people’s blood for living the luxurious lives.

One of the reasons for these criminals campaigning for the Hindu State might be to get rid of their sins committed while in power. Making Nepal a Hindu State, they would not escape from the sin of making millions of Nepalese poor. They had already committed dreadful crimes of stealing the people’s money. Consequently, people remained poor while these criminals lived in modern palaces, and rode the most expensive and luxurious vehicles in the country. They were the modern-ruler robbers that robbed the people as much as possible.

One of the worst things they could do by their campaign for a Hindu State was to provoke other Nepalese of different faiths to rise up and fight for their religion to make a State religion, too. Thus, these people advocating for a Hindu State were going to commit another heinous crime provoking Nepalese to fight for safeguarding their religion. Their campaign would divide the Nepalese into the religious lines breaking up the tradition of Nepalese living in perfect religious harmony. Why not other Nepalese of different faiths fight for their religions when Hindus fought for imposing Hinduism on all Nepalese?

These Hindu activists wanted to dominate the Nepalese of other faiths. They were the Hindu supremacists. No matter for what purposes they had been doing, they wanted to show that the Hindus were above all the people of other religions. In the 21st century, nobody was going to accept this sort of notion. Naturally, Nepalese of other faiths would rise up and fight against those Hindu supremacists.

ends

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Top Scoops Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.