Kathmandu, August 3

Sharat Singh Bhandari-led National Madhes Socialist Party issued a press release, saying that the party supports mentioning religious freedom instead of secularism in the constitution as that was favoured by a majority of  people during the feedback collection programmes.

NMSP Spokesperson Keshav Jha said his party discussed constitutional issues during an extended meeting of the party’s Central Committee and took a decision to support religious freedom instead of secularism.

The party said since a majority of the people had opted for religious freedom over secularism and settlement of boundaries of  federal units before promulgation of the constitution, the parties decided to go with the public sentiment.

Jha, said settlement of boundaries of provinces would also respect the Supreme Court’s interim order.

“We will not accept the constitution if the Constituent Assembly is dissolved without settling the boundaries of federal units,” NMSP said in the release.

The party further added that the second Constituent Assembly should not ignore any of the agreed issues that were settled in the first CA and owned up by the second CA.

On the question of citizenship, NMSP said the right of children to citizenship by descent, based on either their father or mother’s nationality should be secured, and Article 282 of the draft constitution, that says that only citizens by descent could  hold constitutional posts, should be dropped.