KATHMANDU: Naya Shakti Party Nepal leader Hisila Yami on Monday apologised for her seemingly "anti-nationalist" remark after she was widely mocked and ridiculed for it.

Yami, who is a former minister and the wife of former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, was heard chanting "Yo desh lai khaarej gar", which roughly means "scrap this country", after she, along with other leaders of fringe parties, was detained by police from outside the Election Commission yesterday.

Organising a press conference in the Capital today, Yami claimed it was a mere slip of the tongue as she unknowingly mispronounced the Nepali word "aadesh" (order) for "desh" (nation) while she was chanting slogans against the Local Level Elections Act in front of the Election Commission yesterday.

"I was in a semi-conscious state and I, unintentionally, began chanting slogans in an aggressive stupor," she claimed while explaining the context behind the faux pas.

According to her, she meant to say  that "this aadesh of the Local Level Elections Act" be scrapped. "...Unconsciously something else was pronounced."

In a video posted by ImageKhabar on YouTube, Yami is heard chanting "yo desh lai khaarej gar" for at least five times.

Earlier, social media users had flayed Yami apart for the "anti-nationalist" slogan.

Yami, however, acknowledged today that she had weak Nepali language skills as being born in a Newar family, with another mother tongue; therefore, she could not rightly pronounce whatever she had intended

The NSPN among other parties had organised a demonstration yesterday, from which Yami, her husband and NSPN chief Baburam Bhattarai and CPN-Revolutionary Maoist leader CP Gajurel among others had been detained.

Photos and videos captured from the scene had shown Yami chanting slogans on the police van after being taken under police control.

"I have devoted my whole life to the nation and its people," she said in a statement during the press meet, "We Nepalis have been living proudly because we have our nation."

"Therefore, I cannot even imagine (leave chanting) any remark against this holy motherland."

"I express my commitment to be fully aware of my expressions in upcoming days," she concluded.