KATHMANDU, NOV 01 – Former Home Minister and Central Working Committee member of Nepali Congress Khum Bahadur Khadka has formed a 25- member committee to revive Nepal as a ‘Hindu state’. The slogan of the campaign led by corruption tainted Khadka is “Nation, Nationality and Sanatan Hindu State”.
A gathering of pro-Hindu camp of the party on Friday held at a restaurant formed the committee and decided to “revive the Hindu identity” of Nepal, though NC has officially accepted and endorsed Nepal as a secular state in 2007. The meeting also decided to hold nationwide jamboree on November 6 in Kathmandu .
The coordinator of the campaign is Khadka himself, while its joint coordinator is former minister and NC leader Laxman Prasad Ghimire.
Advocate Kumar Regmi is the member secretary of the campaign to revive Nepal as a Hindu state through a nationwide training programme of its cadres while its members are former Speaker of the House Taranath Ranabhat, Constituent Assembly member Suwarna Juwarchan, Central Working Committee member of the party Pushpa Bhusal and former state minister Devendra Raj Kandel.
Other members of the committee includes former minister and NC leader Chirinjivi Wagle, who was convicted of corruption charges, including Shiva Raj Joshi, Duryodhan Singh Chaudari.
Police clarify eviction of Hindu group
Police has clarified that the cadres and supporters of Sanatan Hindu State Struggle Committee (SHSSC), a Hindu religious group, were evicted from Shanti Batika in Kathmandu after they refused to follow the directives from theKathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to end their occupation of the public space to press for a Hindu state.
Organising a press conference on Friday, the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range claimed that the supporters of SHSSC had forcefully occupied the public space without any permission and had been turning a deaf ear to the directives from KMC to leave the place.
According to Dinesh Acharya, spokesperson at the Range, the KMC had issued a 15 -day notice to SHSSC to vacate Shanti Batika on September 14 and another 7-day eviction notice was issued on October 9. He, however, declined the accusation of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal that police resorted to the use of force to evict the protesters.
“The Range had evicted the members of the religious outfit upon the request of KMC,” said Acharya.
The Range claimed that Dhan Bahadur Kunwar, one of the SHSSC members protesting for the revival of Hindu state in Nepal, tried to attack the police officials with a sharp weapon. The Police had to briefly detain Shree Niwas Acharya, Kunwar and other 12 other SHSSC cadres and supporters in order to avoid any further destruction to the public space, according to Range. However, all the 14 arrestees were released on the same day. The police said Shree Niwas Acharya, Narayan Aryal, Indira Nawaruja Dashi and Khagendra Poudel, among others, are staging fast onto death at Bankali Dharmasala in Gausala. The SHSSC was in relay hunger strike for the last six months in order to revive Nepal as a Hindu state. The RPPN has expressed serious objection to the government move to evict the members of the Hindu religious group from Shanti Batika.