New Delhi [India], June 16 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishikant Dubey on Monday held the Congress responsible for ending the monarchy in Nepal, calling it the 'only Hindu nation in the world.' Dubey repeated a claim by a former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence officer, Amar Bhushan, who was tasked with unseating King Birendra and helping former Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, to come to power.

'Congress's foreign policy is nepotistic, and India is suffering the consequences of this. The only Hindu nation in the world ended today,' Dubey said in a post on X.

https://x.com/nishikant_dubey/status/1934454177775685800

Dubey claimed that in the 1980s, India sent Nepal on the 'lap of China,' by imposing customs duty and imposing sanctions on goods going to Nepal. He said that the economic pressures increased after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited the Pashupatinath temple in the country, but his family was refused entry by the temple management.

'Entry of any non-Muslim is prohibited in Mecca Masjid or the city; similarly, entry of non-Hindus is prohibited in the Pashupatinath temple of Nepal. In 1988, the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi went to Nepal; he wanted to visit the temple, but the temple management refused. India increased customs duty on all goods going to Nepal against the religious sentiments of King Birendra,' Dubey's post read.

Citing a news article which quoted former RAW officer Amar Bhushan, Dubey said that the officer was given the responsibility of dethroning King Birendra and making 'China-backed' Prachanda as the PM.

'Due to fear of war, King Birendra made an agreement with China for arms and food items, meaning Nepal went into the lap of China. Under the guise of this agreement, India imposed an economic blockade against Nepal in 1989. The matter did not end here. RAW intelligence officer Amar Bhushan, who is still alive, was given the responsibility of removing King Birendra and making Prachanda, the leader of the China-backed party, the Prime Minister. Nepal is no longer a Hindu nation,' he added.

Former PM Rajiv Gandhi visited Nepal in December 1988 with his daughter and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, where she was denied entry into the temple. Following his visit, Nepal's External Affairs Minister also visited Delhi in January 1990, and later an official-level delegation visit comprising of the Nepalese Foreign Secretary and the Defence and Commerce Secretaries in February of the same year.

Notably, there have been multiple protests in Nepal which are demanding the reinstatement of the royalty, with the royalists launching a new round of the protest on May 30. Nepal transitioned from a monarchy to a republic just 17 years ago, on May 28, 2008.

Encouraged by rising frustration with the incumbent system, the royalist group of about 40 different factions has been demanding restoration of the Hindu kingdom, abolition of federalism, and a directly elected prime ministerial system, among other things. Restoration of the constitutional monarchy has been their main demand.

The royalist group claims to have started a 'joint people's movement' had formed a committee and attempting to block the roadways for the parading cadres of the ruling parties, and the police held the royalists on the side until the ruling party's parade passed by.

The royalist right-wing Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the fifth largest party in the lower house of parliament, claimed that it would bring 25000 people onto the streets. As per the Nepal Police estimate, about 3000 protestors hit the streets of Kathmandu.

Countering the protests, the ruling CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal--Unified Marxist Leninist) held a march on the streets of Kathmandu in defence of the republic. The PM KP Sharma Oli-led party organised a march in Kathmandu on Republic Day, entitled 'Republic Mahotsav.' (ANI)