If there’s anything that can prevent the birth land of Buddha becoming a secular state, that is the demand to restore Hinduism as the State religion there.

Ironical one may say yet this is what seems to be happening in Nepal today.

On Monday the last king of the country Gayanendra made a symbolic gesture by attending a nine-day mass Hindu ritual prayer conducted to give a push to the Hindu cause. Besides him several politicians including Vice President Paramanand Jha and a whole host of ministers too had attended the event held in Kathmandu.

And this is just 80 days before the proposed introduction of a new Constitution declaring Nepal as a secular state.

The participation of politicians who had voted for secularism in 2006 at the Hindu event had drawn a lot of criticism by the promulgators of the new Constitution. It is assumed that many parties are out to block the draft Constitution as that means going for a general election in six months time resulting in many MPs losing their seats. 

Whether the country should remain a Hindu state or adopt secularism is a question that matters very little for the majority of people in Nepal where half of the population still lives in abject poverty earning less than USD 1.25 per day.

However, what is obvious is that there is a move by Gayanendra to re-establish the monarchy with the support of royalists who are trying to use the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion as a stepping stone to reinstate the monarchy system. It was only last month that the royalist party - Rastriya Prajatantra laid siege to the prime minister’s office demanding that Hinduism be re-named as the  state religion.

While Gayanendra was largely unpopular among the public during his reign, the failure of the parties to form a strong government after the king lost his crown in 2008 had made inroads into people’s faith in democracy. And the royalists are planning to capitalize on this growing disillusionment among the public by blocking the move to promulgate a secular Constitution on May 28.

While the Buddhists in the country who now form a minority quietly monitor the events, a few days ago the Nepali police arrested a senior envoy of the Dalai Lama fearing that he would stage protests to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Tibetans’ failed uprising against the Chinese government. Nepal which is the home to some 20,000 Tibetans in exile is ultra sensitive to any moves to antagonize their  big neighbour.

Sandwiched between China and India the politics in Nepal is very much influenced by these two power centres. Whether Nepal should be a secular state or a Hindu state will be largely decided by them.