KATHMANDU: Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has said that the incumbent government was in favor of religious and social harmony.

“The government is not in favor of social discrimination. We favor religious and social harmony,” he said while receiving a memorandum submitted by the Global Omkar Federation at his office in Singha Durbar today.

Minister Khand has been assigned to look after the Prime Minister’s portfolio during the absence of PM Sher Bahadur Deuba. Deuba is in the United Kingdom to take part in the World Leaders Summit of the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26).

The delegation team who called on Home Minister Khand comprised Chairperson of the Federation, Prem Lal Maharjan and Pandit Dinabandhu Pokhrel.

On the occasion, the Federation has drawn its attention to the incident of vandalism at a temple of goddess Durga at Bharatpur Metropolitan City in Chitwan district by reportedly linking the murder of one Bhim Bahadur Bishwokarma of the metropolis -4 to caste discrimination and untouchability.

Bishwokarma was beaten to death by his neighbors. It also accused the people in question of trying to evoke ethnic conflicts in the society by “politicizing” the incident.