Some Nepali Congress leaders are trying to insert the restoration of Hindu state in the agenda of the party’s central working committee meeting scheduled for Thursday and also later in the Mahasamiti meeting slated for February 19 to 22.

The Mahasamiti is the highest policy making body of the Nepali Congress. Over 2,300 Mahasamiti members in and outside the country will participate in the meeting, the party said.

In order to discuss the possible agendas for the Mahasamiti gathering, Congress has called the meeting of the central working committee for Thursday.

Under the banner of “Political stability, transformation and nobleness, freedom, justice, equality is the commitment of the Nepali Congress,” three different proposals will be tabled at the Mahasamiti meeting, said Min Bishwakarma, head of the party’s publicity department.

Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka will propose a policy report, General Secretary Gagan Thapa will table an organisation report and the other general secretary, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, will table a contemporary political report at the Mahasamiti meeting, said Bishwakarma.

The 56-page policy report covers economic, social, religious, cultural, political and other issues. “The central working committee meeting that starts Thursday will approve all three reports which will later be presented at the Mahasamiti meeting,” Bishwakarma said.

But ahead of the Mahasamiti meeting, a section of Congress leaders held a gathering and announced a campaign named “Sanatan Hindu Rastra Nepal Sthapana Mahabhiyan” proposing that the party spearhead efforts to restore the Hindu state, which was abolished in 2008 by a decision of the Constituent Assembly. Congress leader Shankar Bhandari, who is also the member of the Parliament from Tanahun district, is leading the campaign and plans to take the matter to the central working committee meeting, which starts Thursday and later to the Mahasamiti meeting.

“Several Nepali Congress central working committee members and leaders are interested in joining our mega campaign for the restoration of the Hindu state,” said Lokesh Dhakal, who is coordinating with different leaders. He said the campaign would bring all pro-Hindu leaders in the party together to strengthen their voice.

In the last Mahasamit meeting in 2018, over 700 Mahasamiti members (around 30 percent) had supported the agenda of the restoration of the Hindu state. Several of the party’s central working committee members like Bhandari, Pushpa Bhusal, Urmila Thapaliya, Gehendra Giri, Bhim Parajuli, Prakash Snehi, Chandra KC, and Mukta Kumari Yadav, among others, plan to raise the issue of restoration of the Hindu state at the central working committee on Thursday.

The leaders, numbering around two dozen, aim to persuade the central committee to include the issue of Hindu state on the agenda of the Mahasamiti meeting for discussion.

The Hindu state campaigners who met also on Wednesday, decided to officially forward the agenda to the central working committee. However, it is up to the party (central working committee) to decide whether to include it on the Mahasamiti’s agenda.

“Our demand is to restore Nepal as a Vaidik Sanatan Hindu state,” said Dhakal. “The majority of Nepali people are in favour of restoration of the Hindu state. Therefore, in line with their wishes, the Congress should take the lead.”

But other Congress leaders speak of the unlikelihood of the proposal on Hindu state being included in the central working committee meeting agenda.

“Any agenda to be presented in the central working committee meeting should originate from the party president and general secretary, but as of now, neither the party president nor the two general secretaries have received any proposal on the restoration of the Hindu state,” said Bishwakarma.

“An individual member may raise any issue in the central working committee meeting, but institutionally, it will not be the official agenda,” he said.

Dhakal said the campaign for restoration of the Hindu state will meet again on Saturday to discuss how to effectively present the issue of restoration of the Hindu state in the Mahasamiti meeting, according to Dhakal.

But Bishawkarma said that the agenda of restoration of Hindu state is gaining attention outside the party, but it does not have clout and influence inside the party.

Nain Singh Mahar, another central working committee, said that he is in favour of implementing the country’s constitution that advocates secularism. “We should not treat the state as an experimenting ground,” said Mahar, adding, “Whatever is enshrined in the constitution of Nepal should be effectively implemented.”