Kathmandu, March 30

Chief whips of parties in the ruling alliance - Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janamat Party - expressed their commitment to bring a new citizenship bill and secure its passage at the earliest.

Speaking at an interaction organised by the Forum for Women, Law and Development here today, NC Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak said he was moved by the heart-wrenching stories of many eligible citizens who were deprived of their citizenship rights. 'Those people who have not felt the pain of eligible citizens who have not been able to obtain Nepali citizenship, are blowing the issue out of proportion and calling themselves nationalist,' Lekhak said and added that he was in favour of bringing a new citizenship bill soon and securing its passage.

Lekhak said the chief district officers were not issuing citizenship to some eligible citizens because they were scared of the risk associated with their actions. 'Under the current citizenship laws, those people who issue recommendation letter have to go to jail if any details are later found to be incorrect. The CDOs are also worried about the risk involved in issuing citizenship.

That's why, they are not issuing citizenship to many eligible citizens,' Lekhak said, adding, 'The law should also have a provision whereby the authorities involved in issuing citizenship are also made liable if their omission results in denial of citizenship to eligible citizens. Many children of citizens by birth and of Nepali mothers have complained that they have not been able to obtain citizenship despite the court order.

CPN-Maoist Centre Chief Whip Hitraj Pandey said patriarchy was the root cause of gender discrimination, adding, 'This is the main reason why Nepali mothers have not been able to transmit their Nepali nationality to their children.'

He said it was after great struggle they were able to insert the phrase 'father or mother' in the interim constitution to ensure that people could get citizenship on the basis of either their mother or father's Nepali nationality. He said it was ironical that the constitution's provision relating to citizenship was not being implemented.

Pandey said he was in favour of securing the passage of new citizenship bill from the current session of Parliament.

Pandey said his party would continue to fight against all kinds of oppression – political, regional, ethnic and cultural.

Madhes suffered the worst form of oppression and Madhesi Dalit women were largely oppressed. He urged the need to expose forces opposing the citizenship bill.

Chief Whip of CPN-US Prakash Jwala said his party was committed to securing passage of the citizenship bill.

He said all the parties had incorporated citizenship provisions on the basis of consensus, but Nepali mothers were not able to transmit their nationality to their children. Jwala said they had recently urged Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to keep the citizenship bill on top priority.

Janamat Party Chief Whip Anita Sah and Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal lawmaker Ranju Thakur said the new citizenship bill should be passed immediately. Thakur said her party wanted the government to reintroduce the bill passed by the erstwhile Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government, which was stopped by former president Bidhya Devi Bhandari, to be reintroduced in the Parliament and passed immediately.

Rastriya Swatantra Party Chief Whip Santosh Pariyar said all Nepalis had equal access to rights in the country, but it was chiefly due to patriarchy that citizenship was denied to many eligible citizens.

Executive Director of FWLD Sabin Shrestha said as per Article 304 of the constitution, a new citizenship law had to be enacted within one year from the date of promulgation of the constitution, but the new citizenship law had not been enacted yet. He said, 'Many eligible citizens who have cleared tests for medical and engineering course or who secured admissions in good colleges abroad had not been able to obtain Nepali citizenship due to non-enactment of the new citizenship law.'

Shrestha demanded that the state compensate all those who were eligible to obtain Nepali citizenship but had been denied it. He said women had to suffer the worst form of discrimination on citizenship issue.

'Under the current laws, children of Nepali father become citizen by descent, but children of Nepali mothers who are bona fide citizens of this country cannot transmit their Nepali nationality to their children,' he said.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 31, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.