KATHMANDU, AUGUST 31
The Legislation Management Committee of the National Assembly today passed the citizenship bill on the basis of majority without any changes. CPN- UML lawmakers registered a note of dissent on the bill.
Lawmaker Narayan Dutta Mishra, who chaired the House panel's meeting, told THT that they decided to adopt the citizenship bill as it is, mainly because if the process of enacting the bill got prolonged, children of citizens and children of Nepali mothers who were eligible for naturalised citizens would continue to suffer. "Eligible citizens suffer unspeakable misery in the absence of citizenship," he said.
He added that some of the concerns expressed by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari while returning the bill to the House of Representatives, the House of origin, could be addressed by the Citizenship Regulation to be framed later. Mishra said the constitution should be amended to address some concerns of the president.
According to UML lawmaker Devendra Dahal, his party members wrote a note of dissent stating that the bill should incorporate a seven-year waiting period for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens to obtain matrimonial naturalisation.
UML lawmakers added that the bill should ensure that provincial identity was mentioned in citizenship certificates and affidavit to be submitted by mothers in the case of their children's fathers who could not be traced should be optional and not mandatory.
Mishra said the House panel would present its report to the NA tomorrow.
The government, which wanted to pass the bill immediately through a full house debate in the NA, agreed to send it to the Legislation Management Committee as proposed by NA Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina. The HoR passed the bill after full house debate in just one day without any change.
Meanwhile, President Bhandari discussed the bill with CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and leaders of the party.
According to Dahal's personal aide Ramesh Malla, the president expressed her concern about matrimonial naturalisation. Dahal told the president that since national consensus could not be forged on the issue, the government brought the bill without making any change on the issue. Dahal reminded the president that the government had said that it would bring a new bill after forging consensus on matrimonial naturalisation.
He said the bill was brought to end statelessness of children of citizens by birth. "This bill contains similar provisions that were there in the citizenship ordinance brought by the KP Sharma Oli government and issued by you. It is sad that the bill is being unnecessarily politicised," Dahal told the president.
Earlier, Mishra said people of Madhes perceived that the proposal to tighten rules related to matrimonial naturalisation was aimed at them. "We should rid ourselves from the mentality that our country is a pahadi (hill) state. Madhesis' loyalty to Nepal should not be questioned," he added.
Eligible citizens suffer unspeakable misery in the absence of citizenship
A version of this article appears in the print on September 1, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
