Roving Periscope: Nepal PM Oli apes RaGa, turns Shivbhakta!

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: A day after his rivals in Nepal Communist Party (NCP) expelled him for “anti-party activities”, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli took a leaf from India’s Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s temple-hopping in 2019, overnight converted into a ‘Hindu’ faithful, and capped it with a special pooja at the world-famous Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu on Monday.

His temple visit heralds a poll season, amid massive demonstrations by the pro-monarchists demanding restoration of Nepal as a Hindu nation, led by the monarch. Fresh elections to the Pratinidhi Sabha (Lower House of Representatives) are due in April-May, for which Oli had recommended on December 20, 2020, in a bid to tame his in-house NCP rivals.

On Monday, Oli shed all his alleged Communist, atheist credentials. Accompanied by wife Radhika Shakya, he performed a ‘special pooja’ and spent more than an hour at the Shiv temple. He also lit 125,000 diyas (earthen lamps) at the Temple, according to reports.

Not only this, he instructed officials of the Pashupati Area Development Trust to develop the revered Hindu pilgrimage site as a holy place for “adherents of Vedic Sanatan Dharma”.

The Prime Minister’s temple visit came more than a month after Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari visited the Pashupatinath Temple on December 16, the day it was reopened to the public after several months’ closure in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown.  Bhandari had performed a “kshama puja” to seek the deity’s forgiveness for having closed the temple, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Claiming to be a hard-core Communist, Oli was said to have never visited a temple. Until May 2018, his party’s name was Communist Party of Nepal–Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML)), which preached atheism.

Oli, 69, spent 14 years in jail for opposing monarchy in Nepal. Now he is being accused of acting like a monarch himself.

His recommendation for the dissolution of the House and fresh elections have also been construed by his party as an attack on the constitution which made Nepal a secular republic.

Oli is the first communist PM to visit the Pashupatinath Temple. His preceding Communist PMs never visited the Temple during their tenures. Not only this, some of them even refused to take the oath of office “in the name of god”.

The only pro-monarchist party in Nepal, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, had a representative in the dissolved House. During Oli’s first stint as PM from October 2015 to August 2016, its leader Kamal Thapa was Deputy PM and Foreign Minister. The decision to seek a fresh mandate came after an important meeting between Oli and Thapa, media reported, indicating an alliance between Oli and Thapa.

This decision to call snap polls for April 30 and May 10 has enthused the pro-Hindu, pro-monarchy forces, reports said.

That after years of preaching atheism, Oli was trying to keep the Hindus in good humor became known in July 2020 when he claimed that the real birthplace of Lord Rama was Nepal, not Ayodhya in India. He also directed officials to build a Ram Temple in Ayodhyapuri, Chitwan, and develop it as a Hindu religious site.

In view of these developments, “it’s natural for people to believe that Nepal could revert to be a Hindu state” Shekhar Koirala, a senior Nepali Congress leader, said.

“Nepal as a Hindu state seems to be very much on the cards. It may happen during Oli’s regime or sometime later,” Koirala told the Post. “There is a political uncertainty now. But if elections fail to take place on the dates declared by Oli, more demonstrations will be there and chances of pro-Hindu forces hitting the streets are high.”

Oli returned to power in February 2018 on a ‘nationalistic’ plank, fanning anti-India sentiments. With a clear pro-China tilt, he thrived on ultra-nationalist rhetoric. But after the NCP’s split, and despite Chinese efforts to keep it united, he has been trying to strike a fine balance, sending messages to New Delhi also that he is ready to do business with India.

By performing the pooja at the Pashupatinath Temple, he also sought to have sent a message to India’s PM Narendra Modi who had similarly offered prayers at the shrine in August 2014.

Political observers said that Oli’s temple-visit is an attempt to garner support from the pro-Hindu, pro-monarchy forces. Lawyers demanding to scrap the secular republic are arguing the case on behalf of Oli in the Supreme Court.

Oli’s supporters, however, defend him. “During his earlier stint, he visited the Taleju temple, Lumbini and other world heritage sites. Allegations that the PM could revert the country to a Hindu state are baseless. How is it possible without amending the constitution for which a two-thirds majority is required?”

But Oli himself replied to it. In his letter recommending that the President dissolve the House, the PM is reported to have said he was forced to dissolve parliament because he needed a two-thirds majority to accomplish, among other tasks, constitutional amendments.

Claiming to have been a hard-core Communist, Oli has been a darling of China and was seen as very close to Beijing’s Ambassador in Kathmandu, Hou Yanqi, who allegedly ‘honey-trapped’ the PM to sign on lines dotted by the Dragon. This triggered wide-spread resentment against him in Nepal, including in the NCP, which finally expelled him.

Oli also tried to repair strained relations with India and sent his foreign minister to New Delhi ostensibly to secure a vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Nepal may now be returning from competitive Communism to ‘competitive Hinduism’!