Hinduism as the state religion, Nepal is working on a new criminal code
forbidding a person from one faith to “convert a person or abet him to
change his religion.”
Article 160 of the proposed code also
says no one will be allowed to do anything or behave in any way that
could cause a person from a caste, community or creed to lose faith in
his/her traditional religion or convert to a different religion. The
proposal would also prohibit conversion “by offering inducements or
without inducement,” and preaching “a different religion or faith with
any other intent.”
If found guilty, offenders could be
imprisoned for a maximum of five years and fined up to 50,000 Nepalese
rupees ($685). If the offender is a foreigner, he or she would be
deported within seven days of completing the sentence.
Nepal’s Christian community, which has no representation in the Council
of Ministers or in parliament, was caught unaware of the new criminal
law in the offing.
“We have not heard of this,” said Lokmani Dhakal, general secretary of Nepal Christian Society. “We need to look into this.”
Nepal’s
law and justice ministry, in consultation with judges and legal
officers, drafted the new Criminal Code that, once approved by Parliament, would make proclaiming Christ a punishable offense. The bill
was approved by the Council of Ministers and then introduced in
parliament on May 15 by Law and Justice Minister Prabhu Shah.
According
to the parliament secretariat, it will be discussed by the House and
then sent to the body’s Legislative Committee. If the committee approves
the bill, it would return to Parliament and, following further
discussion, would go to the president, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, for final
approval.
Nepal’s Interim Constitution of 2007 prohibits
proselytizing, according to the 2010 International Religious Freedom
Report of the U.S. Department of State, even though Nepal signed the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1991.
Article 18 of the ICCPR includes the right to manifest one’s religion,
which U.N. officials have interpreted as the right to evangelistic and
missionary activities.
No New Constitution
Nepal
last weekend failed to complete a new constitution providing for
religious freedom, thanks to a protracted battle for political power.
Once the only Hindu monarchy in the world and now the youngest federal
republic, Nepal was to have unveiled the document by midnight on
Saturday, May 28. But Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal admitted his
three-month-old government had failed to fulfill its mandate and instead
sought another year to write the constitution.
After
marathon negotiations, opposition parties finally agreed to sign an
agreement that allowed the prime minister to extend the time for
completing the first draft of the new constitution by three months. The
opposition, however, extracted its pound of flesh, forcing Khanal to
agree to resign and pave the way for an all-party government.
As Nepal commemorated its Fourth Republic Day on Sunday,
celebrations were muted in the tiny South Asian state, with public anger
growing against politicians regarded as corrupt and power-hungry.
Sunday marked the second time Nepal’s mammoth 601-seat parliament, which
also serves as the constituent assembly elected to draft the new
constitution, was unable to ready a new constitution after missing the
first deadline on May 28, 2010.
“It’s useless to go on
extending the time allotted for the new constitution,” said Chari
Bahadur Gahatraj, a Protestant pastor who was also a member of the
Committee for Christian Recommendations for the New Constitution. “The
new constitution will never be written unless the politicians show some
ethics. Otherwise, the extensions become a mere ploy for the big parties
to rule the country by turns.”
Amid the delays, Hindu
militancy is on the upswing. The only royalist party in Parliament, the
Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, proposed Sunday that Parliament be
dissolved since it failed to draft the new constitution in time. It
called for fresh elections to constitute a new Parliament, a step that
the party thinks will lead to the restoration of a Hindu kingdom in
Nepal as people become increasingly disenchanted with squabbling
politicians.
Though legislators voted overwhelmingly
against the proposal, the royalists, led by deposed King Gyanendra’s
former home minister Kamal Thapa, have sworn to start a new and stronger
campaign in the days to come.
This week also saw eight
Hindu organizations, led by the World Hindu Federation, flex their
muscles and enforce regional general strikes for three days, paralyzing
parts of the country.
The apparent reason for the strikes
was the arrest of two men this month for slaughtering cows and selling
the meat in a town in southern Nepal. Besides being considered sacred by
Hindus, the cow is also the national animal of Nepal, and a ban on cow
slaughter is still in force. Though Nepal’s non-Hindu indigenous
communities have been demanding that the cow, with its religious
overtone, be replaced as the national animal now that Nepal is secular, a
succession of Nepal governments has turned a deaf ear to the pleading.
During the general strikes, police raided two places in the capital
city of Katmandu and seized over 1,000 iron tridents that were to have
been used during public demonstrations by one of the protesting Hindu
groups, the Shiva Sena Nepal.
Also on the warpath are two of Nepal’s largest and most privileged communities – the Chheris,
or warrior classes who accounted for nearly 16 percent of the
population during the last census in 2001, and the Brahmins, the
community of priests who accounted for over 12 percent. The two Hindu
groups, who together ruled Nepal for centuries, are now seeking
proportional representation in all areas of government, saying their
rights are threatened by the new constitution.
Nepal’s Christian minority is closely watching the upsurge in Hindu protests.
“From the very beginning, certain groups have been trying to foment
instability and lawlessness, so that religious tolerance develops cracks
in Nepal,” said Dhakal of the Nepal Christian Society. “It is because
our politicians don’t have vision and have been propagating religion and
community-based politics. Many of them are not happy that the number of
Christians is growing in Nepal.”
At the same time, in a democracy everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including Hindu extremists, Dhakal added.
“We
will remain cautious about the militant Hindu campaigners, but we are
not going to panic, as it will give them the importance they are
seeking,” he said. “Besides, not all Hindus are militant, only some.”
Nepal’s first Catholic bishop, Anthony Sharma, said many Christians feel betrayed.
“Not
everyone is happy about the extension,” he said. “We hope the
legislators will not betray the people this time. However, there is a
small sense of relief as well. The country was moving towards zero state
[as the interim constitution, parliament and government would have been
dissolved if the three-month extension had not been granted]. So
there’s relief at having averted that peril.”
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