Faith
Under Fire.........
Nepal Plans New Criminal Code Forbidding Evangelism
Deadline again passes for completing new constitution.
KATHMANDU, Nepal, June 2 (CDN) — Five years after it abolished
Hinduism as the state religion, Nepal is working on a new criminal
code forbidding a person from one faith to “convert a person or
abet him to change his religion.”
Article 160 of the proposed code also says no one will be allowed
to do anything or behave in any way that could cause a person from
a caste, community or creed to lose faith in his/her traditional
religion or convert to a different religion. The proposal would
also prohibit conversion “by offering inducements or without
inducement,” and preaching “a different religion or faith with any
other intent.”
If found guilty, offenders could be imprisoned for a maximum of
five years and fined up to 50,000 Nepalese rupees (US$685). If the
offender is a foreigner, he or she would be deported within seven
days of completing the sentence.
Nepal’s Christian community, which has no representation in the
Council of Ministers or in parliament, was caught unaware of the
new criminal law in the offing.
“We have not heard of this,” said Lokmani Dhakal, general
secretary of Nepal Christian Society. “We need to look into this.”
Nepal’s law and justice ministry, in consultation with judges and
legal officers, drafted the new Criminal Code that, once approved
by parliament, would make proclaiming Christ a punishable offense.
The bill was approved by the Council of Ministers and then
introduced in parliament on May 15 by Law and Justice Minister
Prabhu Shah.
According to the parliament secretariat, it will be discussed by
the house and then sent to the body’s Legislative Committee. If
the committee approves the bill, it would return to parliament
and, following further discussion, would go to the president, Dr.
Ram Baran Yadav, for final approval.
Nepal’s Interim Constitution of 2007 prohibits proselytizing,
according to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report of
the U.S. Department of State, even though Nepal signed the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in
1991. Article 18 of the ICCPR includes the right to manifest one’s
religion, which U.N. officials have interpreted as the right to
evangelistic and missionary activities.
No New Constitution
Nepal last weekend failed to complete a new constitution providing
for religious freedom, thanks to a protracted battle for political
power.
Once the only Hindu monarchy in the world and now the youngest
federal republic, Nepal was to have unveiled the document by
midnight on Saturday (May 28). But Prime Minister Jhala Nath
Khanal admitted his three-month-old government had failed to
fulfill its mandate and instead sought another year to write the
constitution.
After marathon negotiations, opposition parties finally agreed to
sign an agreement that allowed the prime minister to extend the
time for completing the first draft of the new constitution by
three months. The opposition, however, extracted its pound of
flesh, forcing Khanal to agree to resign and pave the way for an
all-party government.
As Nepal commemorated its Fourth Republic Day on Sunday (May 29),
celebrations were muted in the tiny South Asian state, with public
anger growing against politicians regarded as corrupt and
power-hungry. Sunday marked the second time Nepal’s mammoth
601-seat parliament, which also serves as the constituent assembly
elected to draft the new constitution, was unable to ready a new
constitution after missing the first deadline on May 28, 2010.
“It’s useless to go on extending the time allotted for the new
constitution,” said Chari Bahadur Gahatraj, a Protestant pastor
who was also a member of the Committee for Christian
Recommendations for the New Constitution. “The new constitution
will never be written unless the politicians show some ethics.
Otherwise, the extensions become a mere ploy for the big parties
to rule the country by turns.”
Amid the delays, Hindu militancy is on the upswing. The only
royalist party in parliament, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party
Nepal, proposed Sunday that parliament be dissolved since it
failed to draft the new constitution in time. It called for fresh
elections to constitute a new parliament, a step that the party
thinks will lead to the restoration of a Hindu kingdom in Nepal as
people become increasingly disenchanted with squabbling
politicians.
Though legislators voted overwhelmingly against the proposal, the
royalists, led by deposed King Gyanendra’s former home minister
Kamal Thapa, have sworn to start a new and stronger campaign in
the days to come.
This week also saw eight Hindu organizations, led by the World
Hindu Federation, flex their muscles and enforce regional general
strikes for three days, paralyzing parts of the country.
The apparent reason for the strikes was the arrest of two men this
month for slaughtering cows and selling the meat in a town in
southern Nepal. Besides being considered sacred by Hindus, the cow
is also the national animal of Nepal, and a ban on cow slaughter
is still in force. Though Nepal’s non-Hindu indigenous communities
have been demanding that the cow, with its religious overtone, be
replaced as the national animal now that Nepal is secular, a
succession of Nepal governments has turned a deaf ear to the
pleading.
During the general strikes, police raided two places in the
capital city of Kathmandu and seized over 1,000 iron tridents that
were to have been used during public demonstrations by one of the
protesting Hindu groups, the Shiva Sena Nepal.
Also on the warpath are two of Nepal’s largest and most privileged
communities – the Chheris or warrior classes who accounted for
nearly 16 percent of the population during the last census in
2001, and the Brahmins, the community of priests who accounted for
over 12 percent. The two Hindu groups, who together ruled Nepal
for centuries, are now seeking proportional representation in all
areas of government, saying their rights are threatened by the new
constitution.
Nepal’s Christian minority is closely watching the upsurge in
Hindu protests.
“From the very beginning, certain groups have been trying to
foment instability and lawlessness, so that religious tolerance
develops cracks in Nepal,” said Dhakal of the Nepal Christian
Society. “It is because our politicians don’t have vision and have
been propagating religion and community-based politics. Many of
them are not happy that the number of Christians is growing in
Nepal.”
At the same time, in a democracy everyone has the right to freedom
of expression, including Hindu extremists, Dhakal added.
“We will remain cautious about the militant Hindu campaigners, but
we are not going to panic, as it will give them the importance
they are seeking,” he said. “Besides, not all Hindus are militant,
only some.”
Nepal’s first Catholic bishop, Anthony Sharma, said many
Christians feel betrayed.
“Not everyone is happy about the extension,” he said. “We hope the
legislators will not betray the people this time. However, there
is a small sense of relief as well. The country was moving towards
zero state [as the interim constitution, parliament and government
would have been dissolved if the three-month extension had not
been granted]. So there’s relief at having averted that peril.”