As Nepal observes Prajatantra Diwas or Democracy Day on Monday, the Nepali Congress is observing their Mahasamiti Day. As many as 22 members of the Nepali Congress are pushing for the inclusion of the idea of restoring a Hindu state in Nepal on their agenda, which other members find objectionable.

The Mahasamiti Day assembly is scheduled to take place in Godavari, Lalitpur.

However, the national working committee of the Nepali Congress rejected a petition that was signed by 22 members calling for the restoration of the Hindu state. The cry for the restoration of the Hindu state is, however, gaining traction because 81% of Nepalis are Hindu. Even the president and prime minister participate in all rites, including the recently concluded Basant Panchami celebrations, according to a source.

Those in support of the restoration of Nepal as a Hindu state deliberated upon what they call “Vedic Sanatan Hindu Rastra” on Monday, 19 February. Sher Bahadur Deuba, a former prime minister of Nepal, is the head of the Nepali Congress.

On 28 May 2008, Nepal had formally become a republic. That day marked the end of the 240-year rule of the Shah kings, with the inaugural session of the constituent assembly of Nepal.

Nepal is proud of its Hindu heritage even though it is a secular country. The source added that all political parties supported the idea. He said that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamla Dahal and President Ram Chandra Poudel were ready to debate the Himalayan republic’s return to the Hindu state too.

The statutes mandate that the Mahasamiti meeting takes place annually. However, it has been postponed since the 14th general convention in December 2021 for a variety of reasons.

On 23 November 2023, protesters demanding the reinstatement of the monarchy and Nepal’s status as a Hindu Rashtra shook the nation’s capital city of Kathmandu. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life, including many from neighbouring provinces, marched through the national capital’s streets and engaged in combat with the police, who were forced to use tear gas canisters and a baton charge.

Maverick businessman Durga Prasain spearheaded the movement, calling for the resignation of the coalition government led by Maoist Prime Minister Dahal, also known as Prachanda.

“Rashtra, Rashtriyata, Dharma-Sanskriti Aur Nagarik Bachau Andolan (Movement for Protection of Nation, Nationalism, Religion, Culture, and Citizens)” was the banner carried by the protestors. They also attacked members of the opposition CPN(UML), the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist).

Heft of Nepali Congress

It is the largest party in Nepal and the oldest democratic socialist political party in the country. As of December 2021, the party’s 14th general convention, the party is the largest in terms of membership in Nepal with 870,106 members.

Since the party’s thirteenth general congress in 2016, former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has served as leader of the organization. The party is presently the largest parliamentary group in the House of Representatives after winning 89 seats in the general election of 2022.

The Nepali National Congress and the Nepal Democratic Congress united under democratic socialist principles to form the party in 1950. Between the end of the Rana dynasty and the beginning of the Panchayat era, NC prime ministers presided over four governments, including the first democratically elected government of Nepal following the general election of 1959. The party began its Third Way toward the political centre in the 1990s, following other mainstream, centre-left social democratic parties.

The Nepali Congress has led the government 14 times and produced seven prime ministers. After the Rana regime fell in 1951, Matrika Prasad Koirala, a founding member of the party, was named as the first prime minister to come from the ordinary man’s perspective. In 1958, another party founding member, Subarna Shumsher Rana, was named prime minister.

The only party in the nation to have won a majority of votes is the Nepali Congress, which formed majority governments under BP Koirala, Girija Prasad Koirala, and KP Bhattarai, respectively, in 1959, 1991, and 1999. BP Koirala became the nation’s first elected prime minister.

Under Sher Bahadur Deuba and Girija Prasad Koirala, the party also established coalition governments in 1995 and 1998. After Sushil Koirala headed a coalition government in 2013, the party emerged as the largest party in the Constituent Assembly elections. The party led coalition governments headed by Deuba in 2017 and 2021 following the adoption of the constitution in 2015.