Dispute Continues Over Nepal As Secular State In Proposed Constitution

In Nepal, as law makers approach the May 28 deadline for completing a draft of a new constitution, tensions increase over whether the country will remain a secular state. In 2006, Parliament passed a resolution providing that the country would no longer formally be known as a Hindu nation. (See prior posting.) Last week, Christians rallied in Kathmandu demanding that the new constitution ensure their rights by keeping Nepal as a secular state. Cath News India reports that Christians are pressing for provisions in the constitution that protect their right to form Christian NGOs and church trusts easily. However yesterday's London Guardian reports that there are increasing pressures, fueled by Hindu nationalists in India, to once again declare Nepal a Hindu state. A popular Nepal holy man, Kali Baba, has threatened to burn himself alive if the country is not again declared Hindu. According to the Guardian, even the proposed new constitution does not completely protect free exercise because it continues a ban that is in the country's interim constitution that prohibits converting another person from one religion to another.