Foreign women marrying Nepalis will not have to wait to obtain matrimonial naturalisation
KATHMANDU, JULY 22
The House of Representatives today passed the citizenship bill through a fast-track process. The bill will enable children of citizens by birth to obtain Nepali citizenship. The bill will enable children of Nepali mothers whose fathers cannot be traced to obtain citizenship by descent. Non-resident Nepalis can also obtain citizenship and enjoy social, economic, and cultural rights, but not political rights.
The bill will become a law after it is passed by the National Assembly, the Upper House of the Parliament.
Earlier, lawmakers took part in the theoretical and clausewise debate on the bill with ruling parties' lawmakers defending the bill and opposition lawmakers, particularly the CPN-UML lawmakers, opposing it. Lawmakers who opposed the bill criticised the government for not having any waiting period for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens to obtain matrimonial naturalisation.
Taking part in the debate, CPN-Maoist Centre Chief Whip Dev Prasad Gurung said the coalition government dropped the idea of having a seven-year waiting period for foreigners married to Nepali men for matrimonial naturalisation from the bill as there was no consensus on the issue.
He said UML lawmakers should have no opposition to the bill as it contained the same provisions that were there in the citizenship ordinance issued by the KP Sharma Oli government.
Democratic Socialist Party-Nepal lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna said around 600,000 people had been rendered stateless due to the non-enactment of the new citizenship law. He said the constitution did not incorporate any provision whereby the waiting period could be justified for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens to obtain matrimonial naturalisation.
Nepali Congress lawmaker Sanjay Kumar Gautam said the new bill contained the same provisions that the KP Sharma Oli government had incorporated in the citizenship bill. "How can UML lawmakers who did not oppose the citizenship ordinance oppose the current bill when it contains the same provisions?" he wondered.
NC lawmaker Gagan Kumar Thapa said current provisions related to matrimonial naturalisation had been there since king Birendra's rule.
He said the same provision was contained in the 1990 constitution supported by Manmohan Adhikari and the constitution of 2007. He said the same provision was contained in citizenship ordinance issued by the KP Sharma Oli government.
NC lawmaker Minendra Rijal said discrimination against Madhesis continued and those saying that there was no discrimination against Madhesis were wrong. He said foreign women marrying Nepali citizens should get matrimonial naturalisation without any conditions.
UML leader Bhim Bahadur Rawal said holding a debate on the bill in the House without sending it to the House panel was mockery of democracy.
Stating that citizenship was an issue linked with nationality, Rawal said the government erred by not incorporating the seven-year waiting period for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens to obtain matrimonial naturalisation.
UML Whip Shanta Chaudhary said that UML lawmakers' concern on the citizenship bill should not be construed as anti-Madhesis. She said seven-year waiting period should be included in the bill for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens to obtain matrimonial naturalisation.
Lawmakers Ram Kumari Jhakri and Laxmi Kumari Chaudhary withdrew their amendment proposals.
Responding to lawmakers' query, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand said the bill contained almost all the provisions that were contained in the citizenship ordinance brought by the KP Sharma Oli government.
He said the government brought the new citizenship bill as it had failed to forge consensus on provisions related to matrimonial naturalisation. He said if the citizenship bill was stuck again or was stalled, thousands of eligible citizens, particularly the children of citizens by birth, would continue to be deprived of their rights as a Nepali citizen.
He said the government would continue to forge consensus on provisions related to matrimonial naturalisation in the future.
The minister said children of citizens by birth were unable to open bank account, start business, buy SIM card, or apply for jobs.
Khand accepted some amendments proposed by lawmakers, including about the protection of identity of sexual and gender minorities.
Most of the UML lawmakers opposed the bill, saying that dropping seven-year waiting period provision from the bill would harm national interests. They cited other countries' provision to justify seven-year waiting period. Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Rojnath Pandey said the bill would be sent to the National Assembly soon along with the HoR message. He said it would probably be tabled in the NA in its next meeting.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 23, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
