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Islami Sangh Nepal, a Mus­lim umbrella organization founded in 1985, launched a 10-day campaign against the dowry system that is deeply rooted in the Madhesi soci­ety. This campaign, which will be run in all eight districts of Province 2, started with a rally in Birgunj on Dec 16.“In Islam religion, there is no custom of giving dowry to the groom. The groom has to actually give money and property to the bride party,” said Jelisha Suman, a Mus­lim woman who was taking part in the rally. “However, in recent years, Muslims have started exchanging dowries by copying ill practices of other communities.” Another par­ticipant in the road rally said, “We, Muslim women and girls, have taken to the streets to fight this evil system.”

Different types of aware­ness programs will be held in the 10-day campaign.

Islami Sangh Parsa chapter President Jamil Akhtar, also a participant in the demonstra­tion, said, “In our religion it is thought Allah gets angry just hearing the word ‘dowry’. It is considered haram. If someone takes dowry, they are no lon­ger Muslims. However, Muslim people are now demanding millions of rupees during mar­riage of their sons.”

President Akhtar informed that different types of aware­ness programs will be held in the 10-day campaign.

“This dowry system that is spreading like an epidemic has been destroying lives of women. When a girl is born into a household, she is seen as a liability,” said Mujtuwa Ansari, a Muslim leader. He added, “Muslim community is against such practices. Sup­port from other communities and religions is also necessary for success of this campaign.”

According to 2011 census, Muslims comprise 4.39 per­cent of national population of 26.49 million, most them living in the Tarai belt.

 Padman’ brings smiles to school girls

 Birgunj : “Earlier, when we had our periods, we used to skip school for 4-5 days,” said Puja Kumari Chauhan, a Grade X student at Parsa’s Ram Charitra Bhagat Sec­ondary School. “If we sud­denly got our period in school, we would tell our teacher that we were sick and go home.”

Then along came Mad­hav Prasad Bhandari. He has been distributing free sanitary pads in Parsa’s rural areas after he heard that local girls missed school during their peri­ods. He works via Rose Bahini Sirjansil Mahila Samaj, of which he is a founder. “When I heard about girls missing schools on the radio, I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” says Bhandari.

Chauhan, the Grade X student, says she is happy she no longer has to miss school.

Bhandari plans to dis­tribute sanitary pads in 150 schools in rural areas of the district. He has already provided free sanitary pads in commu­nity schools of Rolpa, Kanchanpur, Bhojpur, Dang, Surkhet, Banke, Kailali, Nawalparasi and Dhading districts.

He says he will work with local NGOs to ensure that these girls never run out of sanitary napkins.

At the ongoing meeting of Nepali Congress Mahasamiti, the party’s second most pow­erful decision-making body after the general convention, over 40 percent of the delegates petitioned party leadership to change Congress charter to again designate Nepal a Hindu state. The leadership of the main oppo­sition party is divided into three camps. The first comprises sec­ond-rung leaders such as Bimalen­dra Nidhi and Krishna Prasad Sitau­la, who are of the view that the party should stick to secularism. In their reckoning, NC cannot give up secu­larism as a secular constitution was promulgated under its leadership.

The second group includes Gener­al Secretary Shashank Koirala, who has publicly asked for a referendum on the issue, and central working committee members such as Shan­kar Bhandari and Pushpa Bhusal, all of whom want to restore the country’s Hindu character.

Likewise, the third group includ­ing senior leaders like Ram Chandra Poudel and Shekhar Koirala, have taken a middle-of-the-road position and are in favor of mentioning ‘reli­gious freedom’ instead of ‘secular­ism’ in the national constitution.

Advocates of Hindu state in Con­gress argue that during the writing of the constitution people were not consulted on religion. Party Presi­dent Sher Bahadur Deuba and other senior leaders don’t want to criticize the advocates of Hindu state as their support will be crucial if they hope to keep their leadership roles.

This attempt of the main opposi­tion to turn the clock back has not amused political analysts. They say Congress would be flogging a dead horse and that such an approach would be electorally suicidal. But on current form, this dispute over reli­gion will continue to dog the Grand Old Party, and could be a defining issue at the next general convention due in March 2020.

Nepali Congress and a Hindu state

Of 1,600 party delegates assembled in Kathmandu for the meet, around 700 (over 43 percent) supported a signature campaign at the Mahasamiti venue to press party leadership to support the Hindu state

A decade after the coun­try was declared a secular republic, a sizable section of Nepali Congress (NC) is pressing party leadership to rethink secular­ism, a demand that goes against the new constitution.The demand has surfaced during the ongoing Mahasamiti meet as well (the meeting continued as we went to press). NC’s second biggest deci­sion-making body after the general convention is mandated to discuss party policies and programs but not to change party leadership. Of 1,600 party delegates assembled in Kath­mandu for the meet, around 700 (over 43 percent) supported a sig­nature campaign at the Mahasamiti venue to press party leadership to support the Hindu state.

Up against a potent communist force, they believe religion can be an effective tool for the party’s reviv­al during the next electoral cycle. General Secretary Shashank Koirala leads this front.

On religion, party leaders are in fact divided into three factions. The first group is comprised of sec­ond-rung leaders such as Bimalen­dra Nidhi and Krishna Prasad Sitau­la, who are of the view that the party should stick to secularism. In their reckoning, as a secular constitution was promulgated under NC leader­ship, the party cannot deviate from this line.

The second group includes Gener­al Secretary Shashank Koirala, who has publicly asked for a referen­dum on the issue, as well as central working committee members such as Shankar Bhandari and Pushpa Bhusal, all of whom want to restore the country’s Hindu character.

Likewise, the third group including senior leaders like Ram Chandra Poudel and Shekhar Koi­rala are in favor of mentioning ‘reli­gious freedom’ in lieu of ‘secularism’ in the constitution.

Advocates of Hindu state in Con­gress argue that people were never consulted on religion and the deci­sion to do away with the country’s Hindu designation was made by a handful of leaders. Party Presi­dent Sher Bahadur Deuba and other senior leaders cannot criticize these advocates because their support is crucial if they hope to remain in leadership roles.

Political analysts say raising the issue of religion now is irrelevant and the Hindu card is an outdated political instrument

At the 13th general convention, late NC leader Khum Bahadur Khad­ka had made the party’s backing of Hindu state a condition for support­ing Deuba’s candidacy for party president. For a long time, Khadka had led the campaign for Hindu state in the party. Before that, late Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had notably left the party when NC officially ditched monarchy and Hindu state.

To appease Hindu loyalists in the party, Deuba, during the last par­ty convention, had publicly said that the party was failing to honor Hindu sentiments. Deuba thinks that a volte-face now could do him political harm.

The signature campaign in favor of Hindu state during the Mahasami­ti meeting clearly shows a big sup­port to reverse the course. “A plural­ity of Mahasamiti members want to turn the country into a Hindu state,” said Min Krishna Maharajan, a dele­gate from Kathmandu district who had taken the initiative of signature campaign. During the Mahasamiti meeting supporters of Hindu state were seen putting up posters and handing out pamphlets to support their cause. They were also urg­ing central committee members to stand in favor of Hindu state.

Congress leaders say such voices were always there in the party. “The government decision to support and organize a program of a Chris­tian organization seems to have given new fuel to these dormant voices,” NC leader Nabindra Raj Joshi told APEX. “We are commit­ted to secularism but I think it will become a major agenda at the next general convention.”

Political analysts say raising the issue of religion now is irrele­vant; the Hindu card cannot be a political instrument to revive the party’s fortunes.

“NC leaders must learn from Ras­triya Prajatantra Party-Nepal which had gone into the last round of elec­tions with the Hindu state agenda. People rejected it,” said political analyst Shyam Shrestha. “People are not in favor of any religious or caste conflicts in Nepal. That certain Con­gress leaders are bringing up this issue is indicative of the weak lead­ership of Party President Deuba.”

As the Hindu agenda gathers momentum in Congress, it has raised eyebrows in the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Speaking at a function in Pokhara on Dec 10, NCP co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said, “Even though NC played a vital role in the peace process, its current role is suspicious. Many of its lead­ers are unhappy with the changes.”

RPP-N, a party which has long been advocating a Hindu state and monarchy, is upbeat about the recent turn of events in Nepali Congress. “We can collaborate if NC officially decides on Hindu state,” its chairman Kamal Thapa said recently.

Nepal was formally declared a secular state in 2006 by the rein­stated parliament through a House proclamation, a designation which was later cemented in the Interim Constitution 2007. During the con­stitution drafting process in 2015, it was one of the disputed issues. Nonetheless the country’s new sec­ular character was retained.

Reportedly, one of the reasons India imposed five months of block­ade on Nepal during 2015-16 was that top Nepali leaders had reneged on their promise to remove the pro­vision on secularism during the 2015 constitution-making process. During the process, RPP-N’s proposal that the country be made a Hindu state again was snubbed by two-third Constituent Assembly members. The new constitution adopted on September 20, 2015 declares the country a secular state, and defines secularism as “protection of the age-old religion and culture and religious and cultural freedom”.

During his meetings with senior American offi­cials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Nepali Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali repeatedly urged his American counterparts to stop viewing Nepal through Indian lens. The perception in Nepal that the US sees Nepal through Indian prism was strengthened during the five months of the blockade when many Nepalis felt that the Americans were not vocal enough about India’s inhumane treatment of its small neighbor. With the Americans renaming ‘Asia-Pacific’ as ‘Indo-Pacific’, in a clear preference for India over an expan­sionist China in the Indian Ocean, and given recent US-China trade frictions, it is easy for smaller South Asian countries to believe the Americans have somehow ‘exported’ their regional policy to India. Interestingly, in its defense, the Americans say they would not have as strong diplomatic and security presence in Nepal if they had outsourced their Nepal strategy to India. That is true. The American diplomatic presence in Nepal is huge (though no one knows how big). Perhaps the same is true of its security presence.

The security establishment in the US, and the CIA in particular, has always seen Nepal as an important buffer between India and China, a convenient outpost from which they can closely monitor the maneuvering of these two regional giants. (Close geographical proximity is priceless even in the age of drones.) Given Nepal’s advan­tageous geostrategic position, they would be foolish not to. That the Americans mostly prefer to remain low-key is a different matter.

But they do sometimes throw their weight around. For instance, the US Embassy put a spanner on the plan of the Poverty Alleviation Fund to develop the 14 districts abutting Tibet with Chinese money. They also promised alternative sources of funding. The relationship between the US and Nepal armies has never been stronger and the Americans in the future may not be shy about leveraging this for geopolitical gains. This in turn calls for a carefully calibrated Nepal policy.

Voters these days don’t elect leaders to protect the human rights of people halfway across the world. They vote for Trumps and Mays and Modis of the world so that their borders and their livelihoods are safe and secure. For this it is vital that countries be largely self-reliant. For one-party China, the show of sovereign strength abroad is even more important for domestic stability.

Pompeo and the Americans need no reminders. They per­haps know exactly what they are doing in Nepal.

After 26 years, 55-year-old Laxu Rokaya of Punar­bas municipality-5 still misses her husband, and hopes he will return one day. Man Bahadur, who had gone to India in 1993 in search of work, had disappeared with­out a trace. Rokaya has since neither heard from him nor received any news about his whereabouts. Her father-in-law had gone in search of his son in India, but couldn’t locate him. Rokaya was eight months pregnant when her husband left. She found some solace after the birth of her son though. Before him, she had two daughters, Amrit and Janaki, both of whom are now married and taking care of their own homes.

There are hundreds of men from the far-west who have gone missing after they went to India looking for jobs

Rokaya raised her only son by herself, and expected him to take care of her in her old age. But when he was 17, her son suddenly fell sick and died. Rokaya now has no prop­erty and no family support. “I lost both my son and my life partner,” she says, sobbing.

We kept in touch for the first 2-3 months. But there was no contact thereafter Lali BK

Lali BK of the municipality has a similar story. It has been 27 years since her husband Pratap went to India in search of work. “We kept in touch for the first 2-3 months. But there was no contact thereafter,” she says. She still hopes for Pratap’s return. Their daugh­ter Saraswoti was just a year old when he left. BK, who was married when she was 20, recalls, “I had to suffer domestic abuse after he went missing. I bore all that and made sure my daughter got an education.”

BK says she did not get any property from her in-laws and so had to go work in Lebanon to ensure decent education for her daughter. Now, Saras­woti, who is her only support, works as a midwife in Laljhadi rural municipality.

There are hundreds of men from the far-west who have gone missing after they went to India looking for jobs. Their families are tense and this phenomena has created legal complications, too, say in divi­sion of property.

With the main breadwin­ner in the family missing, they are deprived of social security allowance and other state services as well. In case of those who died while working in India, their families back home have got­ten no compensations from the employers.

Prakash Madai, a senior program manager at the National Environment and Equity Development Society (NEEDS), who specializes in safe migration, says, “Since we do not know whether the missing people are dead, the families cannot register their death. This in turn gives rise to countless legal hassles.” According to a NEEDS project, 209 people have gone miss­ing in India from Kanchanpur and Doti districts alone. Madai says the government needs to work to make employment in India more systematic.

Deepak Chandra Bhatt, a professor at the Far-western University, also urges the government to gather data of missing people and to make employment in India safer for Nepalis.

“The state should treat those who go to work in India as being employed abroad, just like they treat those headed to the Middle East,” he says. There is an age-old tradition of people from Far-West and Kar­nali provinces going to India for employment. But there are no exact data on how many have gone.