Inspired by BJP, NJP looks to make waves in Nepal

The Nepal Janata Party is the new kid on the block in the Himalayan nation. Inspired by the BJP’s philosophy of “integral humanism”, NJP is trying to find a foothold in the country whose politics has been dominated by centrist and left-of-the-center parties. NJP, whose election symbol is also Lotus, is attempting to mobilise the country’s 80 per cent Hindu population. NJP leaders, some of whom have been associated with BJP’s ideological fount, the RSS, were in Delhi last week to meet BJP leadership.

Khem Nath Acharya, senior vice-president of the party, says that the NJP believes in the ideology of the BJP and says that the time has come in Nepal to start a revolution among the people in pursuit of a Hindu nation. “The ideology of Deendayal Upadhyay is what we believe in — originally, Nepal is a Hindu nation and our culture is the Vedic culture that Deendayal ji has eulogised,” Acharya said over the phone from Kathmandu.

While he had been in Delhi last week as part of a delegation to meet leaders from the BJP, including a few Union ministers, he said that he keeps travelling to Delhi and other parts of India to be part of functions of the RSS. In fact, it was the RSS, he says, that helped form the party.

“The party was formed 18 years ago as part of a plan of the RSS, but we have been dormant for years since Nepal was going through a revolution, the Loktantra Andolan,” Acharya said.

He added that in the last six months, the party has spruced up its existence and heightened activities that have led it to win 17 panchayat seats in recent elections. Nepal has over 3,500 such panchayat seats, but Acharya said that the win is a shot in the arm for them.

They are now gunning for the big wrestle in 2027. “We will mobilise people and fight the 2027 Parliamentary elections. We know that there is an underlying sentiment in Nepal that cares for the Hindu faith, and I have no doubt that we will win,” he asserted.

To put the plan into action, the party has now chalked out its future course of action for the next few years. “A team has been formed in our national executive meet that was held recently and we have a strategic plan for the next 5 as well as 10 years,” he adds.

Younger people — those below the age of 40 — are part of the party’s priority and people from the agriculture and IT sectors are those that they are pursuing, he said.

But will a party with a religion-based outlook find its footing in a country like Nepal that has had successive communist governments? Acharya says that it will since the Hindus in Nepal are beginning to get agitated.

“I must add that religion-based violence does not take place in Nepal, as it unfolds in India, but last week, in a city called Dharan, they killed a cow and carried out a feast in public view,” he said, adding that the incident has left the community agitated.

Religious conversion, too, is another issue, he said. “We are meeting PM Prachanda over this issue on Saturday. The fight has only begun for us,” he said.