tired ji - 1) I agree with you that the CA can change anything, even the restrictive powers imposed on the king. But I see a big difference between the parliamentary proclamation making the parliament supreme and declaring Nepal a secular state. When the parliament stripped the powers of the king, it was a necessary step to make sure that the king did not play mischievous role in the CA or in the political process leading to the CA. In my view, the question of the Hindu state was not as urgent. It could have been debated in the context of all other issues during the CA election. With the declaration that Nepal is a secular state, the religious issues has received a special status, and thus has garnered disproportionate amount of attention (again, in my view) - that is not a good omen for the future of Nepal. 2) Again I agree with you that the US Congress probably would have passed the pro-choice, pro-privacy bill if the US Supreme Court had not decided on the case. But the landscape of the American politics would probably have been very different. The religious right would probably remained where they were supposed to, on the fringes, and the center of gravity of the American politics would probably stayed at "the center" and not veered to the right. G W Bush would probably never seen the light of the day. In Nepal, as I said at the very beginning, people are very secular despite the country having a Hindu tag, the reason I think is that it is not an issue. The Hindu tag could have been removed by the CA and it would have been drowned by all other more pressing issues, and Nepali people would probably not given a second thought to it. But with the removal of the Hindu tag before the CA, it has achieved a special place in the Nepali political discourse. Those Nepali who never thought about their religious identity may think again. And the worse part of the religious and communal identities is that they can be easily exploited and become very potent by packaging it with other grievances vis-à-vis economic and social discrimination. Commenting on his recent documentary on global warming, Al Gore said, “I wish that what I wrote in Earth in the Balance had been proven completely wrong. I don’t find satisfaction in being right about such a dangerous threat.” I feel the same way. I hope I am wrong about the religious revival in Nepal BUT MORE ON THAT LATER 'CAUSE I GOT TO GO...