Kathmandu, Feb 3 (IANS) A Nepali Congress leader has urged the party leadership to incorporate a commitment to establish a Vedic Sanatan Hindu state and restore a constitutional monarchy in the party's election manifesto for the upcoming House of Representatives election scheduled for March 5.

As political parties, including the Nepali Congress, rush to unveil their manifestos for the Parliamentary elections, Lokesh Dhakal, a general committee member of the party, has formally urged the newly elected leadership to undertake a serious political course correction.

Dhakal, who is the joint coordinator of the Grand Campaign for the Establishment of a Sanatan Hindu Nation in Nepal, submitted his proposal to the party's Central Working Committee, led by its President Gagan Thapa.

Thapa has been a key advocate of the republican political system within the party since his days as a student leader during the royal regime, following the royal coup in February 2005.

Following the success of the people's movement in 2006, the Maoist party entered the political mainstream, and the first Constituent Assembly decided to abolish the monarchy in 2008.

Nepal also adopted secularism through the interim Constitution in 2007, which was later retained in the new Constitution promulgated by the second Constituent Assembly in 2015.

However, a group of Nepali Congress leaders, including Dhakal, have long been advocating for the re-establishment of a Vedic Sanatan Hindu state, saying that it is an integral part of Nepal's national identity, as more than 81 per cent of the population is Hindu.

In his proposal, Dhakal said that Nepal's declaration as a secular state was made against public sentiment and has weakened the country's shared cultural identity.

"After the country was forcibly declared a secular state against public sentiment at a conspiratorial level, external encroachment upon Nepal's indigenous Sanatan religion and culture has increased, weakening the shared Nepali identity and pushing the nation into a complex crisis," he added.

He also stressed the need for the restoration of a constitutional monarchy, saying that the country requires a neutral head of state.

"Even if the Nepali Congress was compelled to adopt republicanism during the peace process and constitution-making due to circumstances or pressures from various forces, the party should now, respecting political realities, national needs, and public sentiment, commit in its election manifesto to taking the initiative toward the restoration of the constitutional monarchy," he said.

Dhakal is also a member of the group that had launched a signature campaign asking the party to adopt a policy for the restoration of a Hindu state during the party's General Committee meeting in February 2024.

--IANS

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