Thaindian News

By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, Sep 5 (IANS) India and Nepal sent their top officials for joint prayers at the Pashupatinath temple here Saturday to uphold bilateral amity, as demonstrators went on the warpath over the appointment of new Indian priests at the hallowed shrine and raised anti-India slogans.

Nepal’s Culture Minister Minendra Rijal and Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood went to the fifth century shrine that has been under siege since Friday, in a bid to send out a message of unity to the assailants.

“It is most unfortunate that an attempt was made to harm the age-old harmonious relations between two neighbouring countries,” Rijal told journalists. “The government of Nepal is stunned by the barbaric and humiliating attack on the two priests and will not tolerate it.”

The minister said the government was pledging to protect the Indian priests and provide them due honour.

Girish Bhatta and Raghavendra Bhatta, who were appointed from India’s Karnataka state Wednesday, were Friday attacked, stripped naked and beaten up inside the temple by a mob that came in the guise of worshippers.

The two priests however said they were reassured by the government pledge and would not return to India.

On Saturday morning, the two men, their heads shaved and clad in red robes, were taken to the Pashupatinath shrine under tight police protection to start their duties.

The Indian ambassador said that it was a matter of great regret that religion, a factor that brings the people of India and Nepal together, came under fire on the ground of nationality.

“Religion and nationality should be kept separate,” he said. “There are Hindus all over the world. God doesn’t belong to any country.”

The Indian envoy said he has conveyed the concern of his government to Nepal.

“Perhaps the protesters are not fully aware of the traditions of Pashupatinath and Hindusim,” Sood said. “There are Nepali priests at the Badrinath, Kedarnath and Kashi shrines of India.

“The priests who offer the daily aarti (ritual of lamps) at the Dashashwamedha Ghat in Varanasi are Nepalis.”

While Girish Bhatta has been appointed to perform the traditional worship at the north gate shrine here, Raghavendra Bhatta will be conducting the daily rituals at the temple of Vasuki, described in Hindu epics as the great snake.

Without naming the Maoists, the Nepali minister said some people who did not believe in religion were trying to politicise religion.

“Religion is not based on nationality,” Rijal said. “Nepal and India share the same culture, religion and traditions. There are Nepali priests in Indian temples, like the Jagannath temple in India’s Puri city.

“To make religion a political issue will mean tarnishing Nepal’s image in the eyes of the world.”

The Gaushala area in Kathmandu city, where the shrine is located, simmered with tension for the third day Saturday with hundreds of protesters cordoning it off by burning tyres on the road.

“Down with Indian expansionism,” they chanted. “Indian priests go back. We want the appointment of Nepali priests.”

Police formed a three-tier barrier between the protesters and the shrine and finally, resorted to a baton-charge to scatter the protesters and free the road. For the first time in the history of the temple, its gates were closed to devotees who were not allowed to enter and pray.

“We had to do this for the safety of the priests,” said Sushil Nahata, senior official at the Pashupatinath Area Development Trust that administers the shrine. “Yesterday, the attackers came in the guise of worshippers; so we did not take any risks today.

“However, we are working to normalise things soon.”