On February 13, 2023, the former king of Nepal, Gyanendra Shah, joined a public campaign to restore Nepal’s earlier status as a Hindu Kingdom.
This campaign was held at Kakarbhitta in Nepal’s Jhapa District. The main organiser is Durga Prasai who is a central committee member of the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist Party.
At the event, the king did not give any speech. His presence at the campaign is seen as significant as the country’s political situation is uncertain and instable.
The King and members of different Hindu Sects lit lamps for marking the Nationwide campaign. His son Paras, daughter Prerna and niece Sitashma have been campaigning at Damak.
This place is located 40 km away from the location of the campaigning site. The Committee Member and organiser Durga Prasai, has described the current government situation as “suffocating”. Prasai stated that “we never wish to become a republic that sends 10 million Nepalese youth to the Gulf Countries.”
However, he did not indicate a direct call for return of the monarch.
The event took place on the day when the Nepalese P M Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his Government declared a holiday on the 23rd Anniversary of the Maoist war. However, several members of the ruling party were against the decision of declaring February 13, 2023 as a holiday for the first time.
The committee member also demanded that the farmer loans will take from cooperative banks and the micro-finance companies be waived off as their plight is forcing them to end their lives.
The Himalayan nation of Nepal was initially a Hindu Nation before it was declared a secular state in the year 2008. The credit goes to the Peoples Movement of 2006 that abolished monarchy.
