hindu photo_$ Pro-Hindu activists block the East West highway in Nawalparasi on Wednesday. Photo: Bidrohi Giri

Supporters of a Hindu nation enforced a shutdown in three districts of central and western Nepal on Wednesday, protesting secularism in the constitution.

Thousands of passengers were stranded throughout the day as members of the Hindu Rashtra Bachao Andolan, a movement believed to be backed by the Hindu Royalist Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP)-Nepal, blocked the East-West Highway in Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Rupandehi districts.

A truck (Ga 1 Kha 4111) laden with noodles was torched in Devchuli of Nawalparasi district during the shutdown. Markets, educational institutes and factories were also closed. However, no other untoward incidents have been reported so far.

The RPP-N, which had vowed to not call any kinds of strike in its manifesto, says Wednesday's shutdown is 'spontaneous' and 'not enforced by the party'.

"Some of our district committee members might be involved in the Hindu Rashtra Bachao Andolan, but we have no ties with this movement," said Biraj Bista, a Constituent Assembly (CA) member from the RPP-N. "People are spontaneously descending on the streets to demand a Hindu nation."

After the four major political parties signed a 16-point deal on 8 June, the RPP-N has intensified protests demanding that Nepal be reinstated a Hindu nation in the new constitution. A group of Nepali Congress (NC) leaders, led by Khum Bahadur Khadka, has also launched a separate campaign for a Hindu nation.

During a nationwide campaign to collect public feedback on the draft constitution last week, most of the people had also preferred 'religious freedom' over 'secularism'.

The Nepali Congress, the CPN (UML), the UCPN (Maoist) and the MJF (Democratic) on Tuesday agreed to use the term 'religious freedom' instead of 'secularism' in the new constitution in an attempt to appease the RPP-N and other pro-Hindu groups.

But the RPP-N says replacing 'secularism' with 'religious freedom' would not be sufficient. "The reinstatement of the Hindu nation is our bottom-line," said Bista. "But we do not want to curtail rights of other religious groups, everyone will have rights to practice their religions within the Hindu nation."