Nepal: Hindu Card?

Telegraph Nepal, Jan 7, 2009

Kathmandu: Problems and difficulties never come alone. It is widely believed that these come with their brothers, sisters and near and distant relatives as well.

Analysts presume and remain confident that Nepal’s Prime Minister is at the moment surrounded by these ills and evils of all sorts.

Admitably, some of the issues and the problems that have plagued the nation of late are of his own creation and the rest are the offshoots of his mis-handling of the emerging situation which is fragile by all means.

Frankly speaking, analysts here realize that Nepal’s revolutionary Prime Minister has tried to take up several issues at one stretch and thus the current political mess which if not tackled carefully will not only depose him from the current post but ultimately push the country towards an unparalleled religious hatred among and between the followers of various religions.

The fact is that this time around the Maoists Prime Minister has touched such a susceptible issue whose ramifications could go well beyond this nation.

The Pashupatinath Temple tale, believe it or not, is an issue that has already jolted the religious psyche of the entire followers of the Hindu religion the world over more so it has ignited sparks already in the Hindu majority population of India.

To the extent that the Hindu fundamentalist party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, expressed its serious concern immediately when it listened to the news that the Indian priests worshipping the Lord Pashupatinath have been told to retire.

The BJP’s rage is understandable in that, firstly, being a fundamentalist Hindu party, it would wish that the religious bonds that tie the Hindu population of both the countries must not get disturbed.

In saying so the BJP would wish that the party would not stomach any attack on this religious bond from any quarter and might retaliate in an appropriate manner if need be.

Secondly, the BJP being an Indian party would wish that the Indian priests who are here worshipping Lord Shiva since centuries must not be told to check out of the posts abruptly and that the status quo be maintained for all time to come.

Thirdly, understandably, the BJP would have a preference for its own Indian nationals to pocket the money which the followers of Lord Shiva-the Pashupatinath-throw at the temple while paying their homage to the Lord.

Now that the ground-breaking government has already appointed two Nepali priests in place of the former Indian priests, the problem has taken a new width and breadth.

The government’s resolution has been criticized by the followers of Hindu religion both from within and without.

Right inside Nepal, the followers of Hindu religion appear to have been divided into two equally forceful and competing camps.

The first camp has lauded the government’s decision of changing the Indian priests with the Nepalese ones for this camp thinks that if the Nepalese are capable to perform the worship of Lord Pashupatinath then there was no need to keep on the Indian priests in the name of “tradition”. This camp also believes that by appointing the Nepali priests, the revolutionary government has at least blocked the huge capital flight of the donations to India through the Indian priests. More so this camp appears to have been guided by nationalistic sentiments.

The other camp cautiously does not disagree with the previous considerations. However, where it differs with the previous judgment is the timing of the change of the guards at the Lord Pashupatinath Temple.

This camp claims that the “long prevailing culture and tradition” must not be terminated at a go.

This section also forwards its logic by stating that the government should have not taken up this thin-skinned issue of religion but instead should have concentrated its efforts in reforming other sectors of the society that were more than demanding than what it has taken up to.

This group, in addition, claims that the change of the Indian priests with the Nepali priests was a welcome move but the timing was not appropriate.

In sum, this section opines that since the replacement of the priests issue will sensitize the entire Hindus of the world more so the India’s majority Hindu population which might, time permitting, bring in added and undue pressure from the followers of Hindu religion in India that could shake the Nepali political set up more thus pushing the country to further political instability.

In effect, the country has already been shaken by the Hindu stalwarts from India. If the BJP has already served almost a sort of warning to the Maoists government in Nepal then the visiting Indian political luminaries, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, too have expressed their discontentment over the Nepal government’s decision of the change of the Indian priests.

Both Mr. Yadav and Mr. Singh are declared devotees of Lord Pashupatinath.

Reports say that Lal Krishna Advani, the BJP leader, India, too have had a conversation with Nepal PM Dahal wherein Advani is reported to have expressed his displeasure over the change of the priests at the Lord Shiva’s temple in kathmandu.

That the Indian population is against Nepal government’s decision became clear when just the other day, a section of the Hindu population in Delhi chanted slogans against Nepal government’s decision and demanded that the status quo be immediately maintained. The protest against Nepal government’s decision has spread to some other town in India where Hindus are in majority.

The Pashupatinath Temple issue was provided a new political twist by the message to the nation by none less than the former Monarch-Gyanendra Shah.

Former King Gyanendra Shah made a passionate appeal to all the countrymen to exhibit restraint and maintain the religious harmony that existed in this country for centuries.

“Do no politicize the Lord Pashupatinath temple issue”, is what the former King said to the Nepalese population.

The former King’s message came Saturday evening. Hardly had the ex-King’s appeal approached the national population through Radio and TV channels, the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party came into action and its President, Mr. Raj Nath Singh talked instantly with Nepal President and Prime Minister over telephone and expressed his “deep” concern the same evening over the Pashupatinath imbroglio.

Nepal Prime Minister apparently told the Indian leader that he will look into the matter seriously.

No wonder, Monday afternoon, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav too is reported to have sounded his serious concern over the issue of the Pashupatinath temple and is reported to have instructed the Prime Minister to maintain the status quo as instructed by Nepal’s apex court. Fresh reports say that Vice President Permananda Jha met President Yadav and the two discussed the Pasupatinath issue in details.

Dr. Yadav is a follower of Hinduism.

By and large, the entire Hindu population remains sensitized over the temple issue. More importantly, the former King’s appeal too have added fuel to the fire and some even conclude that the timing of the King’s message was such that his appeal wherein he in an oblique manner preferred the continuation of the Indian priests at the Lord’s temple might encourage the Hindu population of India to pour their respect and honor to him while he visits India in the near future.

To recall, India’s Hindu population consider the Nepal King as the “Hindu Emperor”. Some of India’s Hindu temples allow only the Nepali monarchs to enter into the interior parts of the temple. The Hindu population in India has never objected to this unique phenomenon prevailing there especially for the former Nepali Sovereigns.

The former King is to soon visit India to attend to a marriage ceremony of one of his cousins in Kalahandi, Orrissa early February, next month.
The ex-King’s desire to maintain the status quo (meaning that the Indian priests be allowed to perform the worship rituals as usual) must have pleased both the Bharatiya Janata Party (a party considered to be the government in the making in India) and the Hindu population of India.

In a nut shell, the former King’s appeal as regards the Pashupatinath temple issue has come like a bombshell which could well be said that it was not only a bombshell but the play of the Hindu card as well.

How this card play benefits or boomerangs on the former King will have to be watched.

More over, how the ex-King is treated by the Hindu population in India during his impending visit there too will perhaps shape the country’s politics some way or the other.

A difficult period for the Nepal prime Minister by all means.