Oli's Temple Visit Carries an Underlying Political Message, Leaders and Observers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 329 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 24.5 C -5.4 C Tuesday, January 26, 2021 | 13-10-2077 Dipayal Jumla Campaigners decry use of force by police on peaceful civic protest against the House dissolution move Unwarned, protesters were hit by water cannons and beaten up as they marched towards Baluwatar. Earlier in the day, rights activists were rounded up from same area. ANUP OJHA Dahayang Rai, among others, led the KATHMANDU, JAN 25 protest. But no sooner had the demonstra- The KP Sharma Oli administration’s tors reached close to Baluwatar, the intolerance of dissent and civil liberty official residence of Prime Minister was in full display on Monday. Police Oli, than police charged batons and on Monday afternoon brutally charged used water cannons to disperse them, members of civil society, who had in what was reminiscent of the days gathered under the umbrella of Brihat when protesters were assaulted dur- Nagarik Andolan, when they were ing the 2006 movement, which is marching towards Baluwatar to pro- dubbed the second Jana Andolan, the test against Oli’s decision to dissolve first being the 1990 movement. the House on December 20. The 1990 movement ushered in In a statement in the evening, democracy in the country and the sec- Brihat Nagarik Andolan said that the ond culminated in the abolition of government forcefully led the peaceful monarc h y. protest into a violent clash. In a video clip by photojournalist “The police intervention in a Narayan Maharjan of Setopati, an peaceful protest shows KP Sharma online news portal, Wagle is seen fall- Oli government’s fearful and ing down due to the force of the water suppressive mindset,” reads the cannon, and many others being bru- POST PHOTO: ANGAD DHAKAL statement. tally beaten up by police. A policeman tugs at the hair of a protester surrounded by other officers wielding batons and rifle butt during a demonstration by civil society members against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s Monday’s demonstration had start- “We were holding a peaceful pro- move to dissolve the House of Representatives. Several protesters were injured as police used water cannons and batons during their march to Baluwatar, the prime minister’s official residence, ed from ‘Kamal Pokhari’, which has test. Without prior information, police in Kathmandu on Monday afternoon. drawn heritage conservationists’ used force on us,” said Wagle. “This is attention of late because of the the beginning of the third Jana authorities’ bid to turn it into a “con- Andolan.” crete pond”. Oli faces charges of behaving as Renowned personalities including though he is the state, and since dis- writers Narayan Wagle, Khagendra solving the House, he has been mak- Sangraula, Ujjwal Prasain, Yug ing statements, branding all who criti- Oli’s temple visit carries an underlying Pathak, professor Sanjeev Upreti, cise him as anti-national forces. activist Rita Shah, social campaigner His aversion to civil liberty and and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Govinda peaceful protests had become appar- KC, human rights activist Mohna ent just after he assumed office, as he political message, leaders and observers say Ansari, Communist Party of Nepal had banned protests at Maitighar. leader Raghuji Pant and actor >> Continued on page 2 Prime minister’s puja at Pashupati comes at a time when calls are growing for restoration of a Hindu state with monarchy and the country has been pushed towards uncertainty. Shyam Shrestha, a political analyst who has followed Nepal’s leftist move- ments for decades. “He is in a bid to make the pro-monarchy, pro-Hindu constituency happy.” In Nepal, pro-monarchy, pro-Hindu forces are scattered and they function under different names. The only party which is politically organised and making a pitch for reinstatement of the monarchy and the Hindu state is Rastriya Prajatantra Party. Until Oli dissolved the House, the party had a representation there with one seat. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party had vehemently opposed the abolition of the monarchy and declaration of Nepal as a secular state. But it was during Oli’s first stint as prime minister from October 2015 to August 2016 that the party’s leader, Kamal Thapa, was deputy prime min- ister and foreign minister. When Oli dissolved the House on December 20, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party did not welcome the move immediately. A senior party leader, however, told the Post on condition of anonymity that the party endorsed Oli’s decision PHOTO COURTESY: KPSHARMAOLI.COM.NP to seek a fresh mandate after a few Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli performed a special puja at Pashupatinath Temple on Monday. days following a meeting between party chair Kamal Thapa and Oli. ANIL GIRI Pashupatinath temple. He spent a lit- Oli’s decision to call snap polls for KATHMANDU, JAN 25 tle over an hour and performed a spe- April 30 and May 10 has come as an cial puja. He then instructed officials encouraging piece of news for Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claims of the Pashupati Area Development pro-Hindu, pro-monarchy forces, to be a communist. Until May 2018, his Trust to develop the revered Hindu according to the leader. party’s name was CPN-UML pilgrimage site as a holy place for This may be a public visit to a tem- (Communist Party of Nepal–Unified “adherents of Vedic Sanatan ple by Oli, but his inclination towards Marxist Leninist), which preached Dharma”. everything Hindu has been in public dialectical materialism. Like any The sudden inclination of Oli, who display for quite a while. In July last other leader who claimed to be a com- has never been reported to have visit- year, Oli had sparked controversy by munist, Oli too believed in Marx’s cel- ed any temple to perform puja, claiming that the real birthplace of ebrated dictum: religion is the opium towards Hindu gods has left many lord Ram is in Nepal—not in Ayodhya of the people. perplexed, also because it comes at a of India. Oli also has instructed offi- The 69-year-old prime minister time when the country is seeing mass cials and local elected representatives today seems to have shed all his com- demonstrations demanding reinstate- to build a Ram temple in Ayodhyapuri, munist characteristics. There was a ment of Hindu state and the monar- Chitwan, and develop it as a Hindu time when he was hauled to jail where chy. This also comes on the heels of religious site. he spent 14 years for opposing the his decision to dissolve the House of Given the way political develop- Panchayat regime under the now-abol- Representatives, a move which has ments are unfolding in the country ished monarchy in the 1970s and 1980s. been argued as an attack on the consti- and the way Oli is making statements He, however, faces charges of acting tution which made Nepal a secular and doing things, it’s natural for peo- like a monarch these days, 12 years republic. ple to believe that Nepal could revert after the country deposed Gyanendra, Oli is the first communist prime to a Hindu state, according to Shekhar consigning him to history as the last minister to visit Pashupatinath tem- Koirala, a senior Nepali Congress monarch of the Shah dynasty that ple for a puja. Other communist prime leader. ruled Nepal for over 240 years. ministers like Manmohan Adhikari, “Nepal as a Hindu state seems to be And on Monday, Oli went to the Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pushpa very much on the cards. It may happen Kamal Dahal, Baburam during Oli’s regime or some time Bhattarai and Jhala Nath Khanal later,” Koirala told the Post. “There is never visited the temple during a political uncertainty now. But if their tenures and some of them elections fail to take place on the dates even refused to take the oath of declared by Oli, more demonstrations office “in the name of god”. will be there and chances of pro-Hin- Observers say Oli’s visit to the du forces hitting the streets are high.” Hindu temple may be a calculat- Oli returned to power in February ed move with some political 2018 on a nationalistic plank, ratchet- agenda. ing up anti-India sentiments in the “Oli has left no stone unturned wake of months-long border blockade to dismantle federalism and now by Delhi which was unhappy with the he seems to be moving towards new Nepal constitution. getting rid of secularism,” said >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021 | 02 NATIONAL Oli’s temple visit carries an underlying political message, leaders ... >> Continued from page 1 very constitution has often been ques- With a clear pro-China tilt, Oli con- tioned. tinued to thrive on ultranationist rhet- Many have described his House dis- oric. But after the Nepal Communist solution move as a constitutional Party split, despite efforts by the coup. The Supreme Court is currently Chinese to keep it united, following hearing as many as 13 writ petitions Oli’s House dissolution move, he has against Oli’s decision to dissolve the been trying to strike a fine balance, House. sending messages to Delhi too that he Sunil Pokhrel, a former secretary is ready to play along. general of Nepal Bar Association, is There are many in Nepal who one of the lawyers pleading on behalf believe restoring Nepal as a Hindu of the petitioners. state is one of the key agendas of “There have been concerns for quite India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.