Jhapa, June 6

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa has committed himself to re-establishing the erstwhile Hindu State identity for the country, come what may.

Speaking at a party-organised Hindutwa Jagaran Mass Gathering in Birtamod, Jhapa, today, Thapa, who is also Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal chairperson, clarified that his party has not abandoned the agenda of Hindu state.

“We’re on board the government, but that doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned our agenda. We did it so that we could exert pressure from the government and Parliament more vociferously to get our agenda addressed,” he said, making it clear that the support lent by his party to the recent constitution was not absolute, but had reservations attached.

“In fact, we also don’t agree with the statute entirel,y but we aren’t game about choking the border or inciting violent agitation to get our concerns addressed. Hence, we opted to support the statute by expressing our reservations,” he remarked.

“Had the provision of ‘secularism’ been recognised as an unchangeable issue in the constitution, we would have, however, not accepted the statute,” he added, identifying that the provision that no agenda in the charter is unchangeable was a major achievement.

“As for our support for Hindu state, we don’t look down on other religions. We respect all religions equally, but the thing is Sanatan Hindu religion has been the unique identity of Nepal for eons and we simply want to secure that identity back, that’s all,” he argued.