KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 16
Eligible citizens who have been deprived of their citizenship due to non-enactment of a new federal citizenship law have urged political parties to end the dirty game of politics over citizenship issue and immediately address their concerns.
The new citizenship bill remains in limbo with President Bidhya Devi Bhandari using pocket veto against the bill, which the ruling political alliance and civil society members have termed 'an unconstitutional act'.
Speaking at an interaction organised by the Forum for Women, Law and Development, Chair of Citizenship-less Struggle Committee Indrajit Safi, 29, who is a civil engineer, said his parents and grandparents were Nepali citizen but he was not able to get his citizenship.
Safi is scourged by statelessness because his father has citizenship by birth. He went to India in 2015 to pursue higher studies as he was unable to obtain his Nepali citizenship. Now that he has obtained a civil engineer degree, he is unable to obtain his licence or apply for a job.
"My family became the victim of a loan shark and my property worth Rs 2,000,000 was auctioned for just a loan of Rs 600,000. If my siblings and I had a chance to engage in formal sector jobs, I would not have lost my family property," he said. Safi said people like him were victims of dirty politics that whipped up ultra-nationalism.
Farhad Banu, 26, who hails from Jhapa district, also had similar woes. She is married to a Nepali citizen and yet she cannot make her citizenship.
Pratik Sunuwar, 22, a resident of Khotang district, said his father and mother were both Nepali citizens, but as his father was working in Hong Kong, he was unable to obtain his citizenship on the basis of his mother's Nepali nationality. He said his father told him that he could not return to Nepal for 10 years.
Executive Director of FWLD Sabin Shrestha said the parties needed to make a pledge in their election manifesto that they would make new laws, if necessary, to ensure that all eligible citizens would be able to exercise their right to obtain Nepali citizenship.
Shrestha said in accordance with the constitution, a new citizenship law should have already been enacted within three years. He accused President Bidhya Devi Bhandari of violating the constitution by not granting assent to the citizenship bill.
"The constitution does not give power to the president to refuse her assent to a bill being sent to her for approval the second time," he argued.
He said the president's refusal to grant assent to citizenship bill had ruined the future of almost 1.1 million eligible citizens - approximately 500,000 children of citizens by birth and 600,000 children of single mothers who were unable to apply for government jobs, open bank accounts or obtain any form of identity documents in the absence of new citizenship law. He said eligible citizens had not been able to enjoy their political rights as they were being deprived of their right to obtain Nepali citizenship.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 17, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
