One of the commendable aspects of the draft constitution, the product of coming together of the four biggest parties in the Constituent Assembly, was its retention of the country's secular status. The Interim Constitution (2007) had clearly identified Nepal as "an independent, indivisible, sovereign, secular, inclusive and a fully democratic State." But Hindu zealots in mainstream parties have been consistently pushing for restoration of Hindu state. In doing so, they are using religion as a political tool. Yet wherever religion and politics have been mixed, there has been repression, strife and bloodshed. The officially Islamic states in the world (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran) are also among the most intolerant of their religious minorities. In Nepal, until recently the one and only Hindu state in the world, the monarch used the Hindu religion to justify his autocratic rule and to suppress the cultures and traditions of the communities on the lower rungs of the Hindu caste ladder. In India, Hindu religious fanatics have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Muslims in recent times. Nor is Christianity any better. The Roman Catholic Church once used to burn the 'heretics' alive. This is why religion and politics should not mix.These are difficult times for Nepal. Half the country is in a lockdown mode. The country is dangerously polarized. Pro- and anti-secularism forces are openly clashing. And now, to add to this combustible mix, a top Vatican official overseeing the Catholic Church's evangelizing and missionary activities around the world is arriving in Nepal on September 15, for a five-day visit. According to Vatican Radio Online, he is visiting the country to lend moral support to various religious communities involved in post-earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction. That's a hard buy. Why did the Vatican have to pick the head of a unit whose sole purpose is to convert people to Christianity to visit the ravaged country? It is clear that the Catholic Church wants to spread its wings in Nepal by taking advantage of the state of near-anarchy in parts of the country. That is the only way to make sense of the visit of Cardinal Fernando Filoni at this sensitive time. We advise Cardinal Filoni to stay away. If the Catholic Church is serious about helping Nepal's reconstruction, it can appoint someone whose job description is less of a suspect.
This is because ultimately, such an ill-timed visit of a controversial figure in the Catholic Church hierarchy will only feed the paranoia of the Hindu religious fanatics who believe Nepal's social fabric is being torn apart by the recent wave of Christian conversions. Our correspondents in the Mid-Western districts have reported how families are, according to local sources, being induced to convert to Christianity with monetary gifts and scholarships for their children. Whether this is true or not, it cannot be a coincidence that Dang, the hotbed of conversion in the Mid-West, has also been the epicenter of the campaign to reinstate the Hindu state. Cardinal Filoni's visit could thus play right into the hands of RPP (Nepal) and other religious conservatives. Perhaps the biggest help the Catholic Church can extend to Nepal now is by not offering any help at all.
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