Current Affairs
Nepal’s political parties agreed to remove word ‘Secularism’ from the Constitution
Nepal’s political parties on 27 July 2015 agreed to remove the word “secularism” from the yet-to-be framed Constitution. They agreed to this during a discussion on peoples’ view vis-à-vis the new constitution in the Constituent Assembly.
The political parties reached the consensus on this after a majority of people in their feedback to the new constitution demanded for replacing the word “secularism” by either “Hindu” or “religious freedom.” Over 80 per cent of Nepal’s population is Hindu.
Nepal was declared a secular country in 2007 after Nepal’s Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist joined mainstream politics after a decade-long insurgency that killed over 13000 people. The decision had ended Nepal’s century-old identity as the world’s only Hindu kingdom.
The proposed framework of Nepal’s Constitution provides for federal structure, form of governance, electoral and judicial systems. Major political parties of Nepal agreed to this on 9 June 2015.
The final draft of the constitution, which must be approved by a two-thirds parliamentary majority, is expected to be ready by July 2015.