Nepal, Aug. 21 -- In Nepali politics, principles have often been traded as cheap currency. Still, the recent spectacle of Sher Bahadur Deuba, former prime minister and immediate past president of the Nepali Congress, executing a theological about-face is particularly disquieting. Having spent his years at the helm of the grand old party actively suppressing the Mahasamiti's fervour for a return to a Hindu state, Deuba has abruptly emerged as its champion. Upon his return from East Asia amidst money-laundering investigations and Congress's leadership change, he unceremoniously ordered his faction's national gathering to endorse the very agenda he previously blocked repeatedly.

This is a political manoeuvre of a displaced leader attempting...