Oli’s temple visit carries an underlying political message, leaders and observers say

Prime minister’s puja at Pashupati comes at a time when calls are growing for restoration of a Hindu state with monarchy and the country has been pushed towards uncertainty.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claims to be a communist. Until May 2018, his party’s name was CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal–Unified Marxist Leninist), which preached dialectical materialism. Like any other leader who claimed to be a communist, Oli too believed in Marx’s celebrated dictum: religion is the opium of the people.