Jul 22, Kathmandu: The main opposition party CPN (UML) has protested against the removal of the 7-year provision for granting citizenship to foreigners who marry Nepali citizens.
During the debate on the Nepal Citizenship (First Amendment) Bill 2022 in the House of Representatives meeting on Friday, the UML parliamentarians, while proposing an amendment, emphasized that there should be a 7-year provision for granting citizenship to foreign women who marry Nepali men. UML MP Khagraj Adhikari demanded that a foreign woman get all other rights when she marries a Nepali man, but she gets full citizenship rights after 7 years.
He said, 'If we do not pay attention to the matter of who is a natural born citizen based on the descendants and how we will go to the important positions in the political side tomorrow, in which direction will our future children guide us? A foreign woman married a Nepali man. We have made a joint amendment to say that he will get all other rights but he will get full citizenship rights after 7 years. I request it to be passed.
Similarly, MP Binda Pandey also said that there should be a provision to grant citizenship only after living for seven years after marriage. CPN (UML) MP Bhim Rawal termed the monthly discussion on the Citizenship Bill as a 'cheat'. He commented that it was a mockery of democracy and despotism to push forward the Citizenship Bill without sending it to the committee.
He said, "It's not a trick, it's just a trick." Cheating on a sensitive issue like citizenship is reprehensible. It is a mockery of democracy to force a serious issue like citizenship, which is linked to the long-term existence of the country, without sending it to the committee. is autocracy. It is a game of nationalism. Citizenship is not loose anywhere in the world. When the constitution was being made.
It was discussed that a certain period of time was five or seven years if a woman who married a Nepali citizen wanted to get citizenship. The removal of the seven-year provision, which was decided and submitted by the State Arrangements Committee against the agreement of the leaders of the major political parties that they should continue to live in Nepal, is considered to be dishonest to the nation, flouting the agreement, and it is also political immorality.
He said that the bill was put forward against the agreement of the leaders of the major political parties that women who marry Nepali citizens should live for a certain period if they want to get citizenship. MP Rawal said that it is dishonest to the nation to remove the seven-year provision decided and submitted by the State Arrangements Committee.