Kathmandu, July 24 (Inditop.com) In yet another blow to the Hindi language in Nepal, the republic’s Supreme Court Friday said the nation’s first vice-president, Parmanand Jha, had erred in taking his oath of office in Hindi, and would have to take it again in the Nepali language.
A two-judge bench comprising Nepal’s Chief Justice Min Bahadur Rayamajhi and judge Balram KC delivered the verdict in a year-long case that has pitted Nepal’s Madhesi community, people of Indian origin living in the southern Terai plains, against the Nepali-speaking hill community.
Jha, a former judge who was elected Nepal’s first vice-president in July 2008 after the former Hindu kingdom became a secular federal republic, created a controversy when he took oath of office in Hindi, the language spoken by Madhesis.
He also wore the dhoti and kurta, regarded as Indian clothes and reviled by many in Nepal’s hill community.
There were violent protests after the incident, with the Maoist party demanding Jha’s resignation.
Though the protests stopped, an ultra-nationalistic lawyer, Balkrishna Neupane, filed a suit in Supreme Court the same month, challenging the use of Hindi and asking Jha to be sworn again in Nepali.
The apex court decision comes at a time when the Madhesi MPs in Nepal’s constituent assembly are pressing for the inclusion of Hindi as another official language in the country along with Nepali when the new constitution is promulgated next year.
The demand is being opposed by the main ruling parties, including the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist and the Nepali Congress.
The court verdict was flayed by the vice-president, who called it “biased”.
“The constitution of Nepal recognises the country as a multi-cultural, multi-lingual nation,” Jha said. “It does not say that one has to know Nepali to be considered a citizen or hold high office.”
All the Madhesi ministers in the cabinet have taken their oath of office in Hindi; and so have the Madhesi parliamentarians.
Those belonging to indigenous communities have also taken their oath of office in their mother tongues, which are not Nepali.
However, no one has objected to that.
Jha said whether he took fresh oath of office in Hindi would depend on the circumstances.
If it was a case of downright coercion, he said he would stand his ground.
Though Hindi films and songs are immensely popular in Nepal, the language is regarded with wariness by many Nepalis, who identify it with India.
