Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government has to be praised for taking care of the sentiments of the Madhesi people. It has decided to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
The Madhesi community finally won in Nepal. This is the community, which has settled there after leaving India. Even today the family and matrimonial relations of the people of this community are formed in India – especially in Bihar. That is why when the bill to amend the Citizenship Act was brought there, this community came out on the streets. However, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government has to be commended for taking care of the sentiments of this people’s community. It has decided to withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The Deuba government has said that now a new draft of the bill will be prepared by removing the controversial provisions included in this bill. After that it will be introduced afresh in Parliament. A new bill was prepared to amend Nepal’s Civil Law Act- 2006. But without consensus, it was introduced in Parliament on 7 August 2018. As a result, protests erupted against him from many parts of the country. Due to this, the process of passing the bill was stopped. If this bill was passed, the Madhesi Nepalese families who had a matrimonial relationship in the Indian territories adjoining Nepal would have suffered a lot.
The most controversial provision in the Citizenship Amendment Act was about the citizenship of foreign women marrying Nepalese men. A parliamentary committee deliberated extensively on this provision for two years. Despite this, there was no consensus among the major political parties as to what should be the rules for granting citizenship to foreign women who marry Nepalese men. In the absence of consensus, the parliamentary committee decided by vote. In it, the majority supported the provision that a foreign woman who married a Nepalese man should get Nepalese citizenship after seven years. There is still no consensus in the country on this. But after the bill is returned, the way for fresh discussions is open. It is hoped that taking advantage of the new opportunity, all the parties will make sincere efforts to reach a consensus.
