On Thursday, the subcommittee formed by the CC to settle the issue had discussed it, but decided to forward it to the full CC meeting after some members opposed the current national symbols including cow as the national animal, rhododendron (laligurans) as the national flower, crimson as the national color and lophophorus (danfe) as the national bird, saying that these national symbols are exclusionary in nature.
“We decided to refer the topic to the full CC meeting as there was no agreement on the symbols,” said Nepali Congress CA member Suprabha Ghimire, who is a member of the subcommittee.
The committee members argued that cow cannot be the national animal as the country has become secular and the cow is sacred to the Hindus. Among those opposing cow were Rastriya Janamorcha CA member Chitra Bahadur KC and independently elected member Sadrul Miya Haq. KC has proposed rhino as the national animal.
Similarly women CA members opposed crimson as national color, saying it is exclusionary of widows.
Likewise, Madhes-based parties are against lophophorus and rhododendron as national symbols as these represent only the hills and mountains.
After the differences, CA members Laxman Lal Karna, Hridayesh Tripathi and Sapana Malla Pradhan argued that national symbols are not necessary in the new constitution. “It would be enough to pick a national anthem, flag and coat of arms,” said Pradhan.
On Wednesday, some committee members mainly the Maoists had proposed changing the current national flag arguing moon and sun in the flag represent monarchy.
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