Anti-Hindu stir launched in Nepal

By 

Keshav Pradhan

Nobody knew journalist Gopal Gurung before the autocratic panchayat regime of Nepal that put him behind bars. 

Five years later Mr. Gurung, founder of the rabid anti-Hindu and anti-Aryan Mongol National Organization, is fighting tooth and nail for the removal of King Birendra merely because he is a Hindu and of Aryan descent. 

Since the birth of the Mongol National Organization two years ago, his politics of Hindu-baiting has travelled beyond the frontiers of the world’s only Hindu kingdom. He does not want Mr. Nar Bahadur Bhandari of Sikkim, A Hindu Aryan, to continue to rule over the Nepalis of Mongoloid stock, whom he prefers to call simply "Mongols," in Sikkim. 

This was provocation enough for the crafty Sikkim chief minister, who last week branded Mr. Gurung along with GNLF supremo Subhash Ghising, former Sikkim chief minister Kazi Lhendup Dorjee and two others as protagonist of the so-called "Greater Nepal" game plan. Ironically, it was Mr. Bhandari who till last year was facing the charge of leading the alleged "Greater Nepal" conspiracy form his friends turned foe, Mr. Subhash Ghising. 

The MNO chief who was here on a visit recently, told The Telegraph here:" Mr. Bhandari has to go. He has swindled the Mongol Buddhist for too long. He has manipulated census figure to show a larger number of Brahmins and Kshatriyas." He insisted that all Nepalis of Mongoloid origin were Buddist and not Hindus as the world has traditionally regarded them. The warlike Mongoloids form the bulk of the Gorkha regiments in Britain, Nepal and India. 

Asked whether or not his own name, Gopal, made him a Hindu, the Kathmandu based leader now in his mid-fifties, quipped: " I had no control over my birth or my naming. Now I know I am a Buddhist and have the right to die a Buddhist." 

Mr. Gurung expressed his happiness over the growing popularity of Mr. Pawan Kumar Chamling, president of the recently formed Sikkim Democratic Front. He found Mr. Chamling’s politics similar to his own. 

Since his expulsion from the Sikkim Cabinet last year, Mr. Chamling has targeted the Nepalis of Mongoloid origin as his supporter base in his fight against Mr. Bhandari. 

" I am happy that Mr. Chamling and his Mongol supporters are aware of their plight under Aryan rule," Mr. Gurung, who now edits two Kathamandu based weeklies, Thunderbolt in English and New Light in Nepali said. The "reawakening" among the Mongoloid Nepalis, he felt was mostly due to his book in Nepali, Nepal Ko Rajniti Adekha Sachchi Haru (Hidden Facts, about Nepal’s Politics), which has run into three editions since it first appeared five years ago. 

It was due to this book, which partially highlights the alleged suppression of Mongoloid Nepalis by Aryan Nepalis, that Mr. Gurung was sent to jail for 18 months. It was in jail that he conceived the formation of the MNO and also designed its motto and flag, he said. 

He is confident that influence of the MNO will be felt in Sikkim and Darjeeling, where the number of Mongoloid Nepalis is overwhelming. 

He says Indian journalist leaders and officials should avoid repeating the mistake made by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who viewed the Mongoloid people living in the Himalayan region with suspicion. " This will be a dangerous mistake," he warned. 

Meanwhile, various Nepali ethnic groups of Mongoloid origin have floated separate sectarian organizations. Some of them have already declared themselves Buddhist in order to get recognition as a backward community. 

In Nepal, the MNO is fighting to run the country into a secular one, which, they believe, would end the exploitation of the Mongoloid people by the Aryan Nepalis. This apart, the organization has demanded and end to the unitary form of government and the formation of provincial governments.

The Telegraph Daily, June 6