Secularism is assured in Nepal, says House speaker
July 31, 2012: The speaker of Nepal’s suspended Constituent Assembly said yesterday
that the new constitution, once drafted, would enshrine secularism. Responding to
concerns over the stalled process, Subash Nemwang offered an assurance that the country
would not return to an era which saw Hinduism dominate. He was speaking at a meeting
in Kathmandu, attended by leaders of minority religions, which was screened live on
television. Referring to the era when Nepal’s monarchs were believed to be the
earthly incarnations of Hindu gods, he said: “now the country cannot go backwards.”
The process of drawing up a new republican constitution in Nepal following a decade-long
civil war ending in 2006 has stalled over disagreements on issues including ethnic-based
federalism, but Nemwang insisted the issue of secularism was not a point of contention. “Unlike
other topics which required discussion, secularism was approved and okayed by leaders
without controversy,” he said, adding that it had been discussed during Constituent
Assembly meetings.
Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai suspended the assembly
at the end of May amid deadlocked discussions on a new constitution. After winning
the civil war, the atheist Maoist insurgents declared Nepal to be secular, a point
which is yet to be enshrined as the constitution remains unfinished. Many leaders
of minority religions have warned that without such a provision they would continue
to suffer persecution in Nepal. Christians and Muslims have been killed in the
past and churches bombed with little effort to investigate, said Pastor Chari Gahatraj,
head of Freedom for All, the group that organized yesterday’s meeting.
Nepal’s
Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Top Rayamaihi said at the meeting yesterday
that Nepal still had to institutionalize the outcomes “of the struggle of the people”
– a reference to the civil war – one of which was secularism. Damodar Gautam, the
head of the Nepal wing of the World Hindu Federation who declined to attend Sunday’s
meeting, accused on Monday minority religions in Nepal of using secularism as a by-word
for religious freedom, adding that the term was anti-religious by definition. “Even
the Vatican warns Catholics against secularism,” he said. “Secularism gives atheists
the upper hand over religions in the long run. All religions should oppose this term
in a still deeply religious country like ours.”