Category: Nepal

The progress on the bill is significant as it comes ahead of Nepal’s general election that is due later this year…writes Santosh Ghimire

Nepal’s parliament has passed a bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 2006, paving the way for thousands of children of parents who were citizens by birth to acquire citizenship by descent.

The House of Representatives, the lower house of Nepali parliament, endorsed the much-debated bill on Friday through a majority vote despite reservations from the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist). The bill will go into implementation once it is approved by the National Assembly, the upper house, according to authorities.

The progress on the bill is significant as it comes ahead of Nepal’s general election that is due later this year.

All eligible Nepali citizens born before September 20, 2015, the day when the Constitution of Nepal was promulgated, were granted naturalised citizenship. However, their children were not getting citizenship due to lack of a law as the constitution stated that the provision to grant them citizenship would be directed by a federal law. The country has yet to formulate the federal law even seven years after the promulgation of the national constitution.

According to Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs, 190,000 individuals had acquired naturalised citizenship by birth.

What are major changes in the new amendment?

Once the amendment bill is approved by the upper house, one born to a Nepali woman in Nepal and whose father is unidentified would get citizenship by descent, according to the text of the bill which is now public. However, the applicant’s mother needs to make a mandatory self-declaration that the father is not recognised. The mother will be liable for action if it is found that her claim that the father of her issue is not identified turns out to be wrong.

As per the new bill, foreign men married to Nepali women must have resided for 15 years continuously in Nepal, renounced the citizenship of their country of origin, and be able to speak Nepali language to qualify for naturalisation.

The bill has also paved the way for non-resident Nepali nationals to acquire citizenship. According to the text of the bill, the non-resident Nepali nationals, however, will not be eligible to enjoy the political and administrative rights. It is estimated that over 5 million Nepali nationals are living in different parts of the world including neighbouring India.

The latest development on citizenship is also a big relief for thousands of people in Nepal who had been rendered stateless due to non-enactment of the new citizenship law.

Years of debate over citizenship resolved now there had been debate in Nepal’s parliament for years on whether to grant naturalised citizenship to foreign women married to Nepali men once they start the process to relinquish the citizenship of the country of their origin.

Last time in June 2020, the parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Committee held discussions on the issue. However, parliamentarians of then ruling Nepal Communist Party and then opposition Nepali Congress were sharply divided particularly with a provision that foreign women married to Nepali men would have to wait for seven years for naturalisation.

The lawmakers of the Nepali Congress along with two Terai-based parties-Rashtriya Janata Party and Samajbadi Party, were in favour of retaining the provision of granting citizenship once the woman started the process to renounce citizenship of her country of origin.

However, the then ruling Nepal Communist Party did not agree on the opposition parties’ stance, citing the example of India where it takes seven years to grant citizenship to foreign women married to Indian men. The ruling party argued that Nepal too should have a similar provision. As parliamentarians failed to forge consensus on this particular provision, the bill was endorsed through a majority from the parliamentary committee only, not forwarding the bill to the House of Representatives.

Last July, the present Nepali Congress government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba withdrew the citizenship bill from the House and registered a new one retaining the provision to grant citizenship to foreign women married to Nepali men once she starts the process to give up citizenship of her country.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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The Nepali Congress party is now pushing for holding general and provincial elections at the earliest, being encouraged by the results of the local level election…writes Santosh Ghimire

The Nepali Congress (NC), which is the main ruling party of Nepal, has decided to forge an electoral alliance with its four coalition partners for the upcoming general and provincial elections which are likely to be held in November this year.

A week-long crucial meeting of the NC’s central committee, which ended on Monday, took a decision to this effect, according to party spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat.

“Our party has formally decided to forge electoral alliance with coalition partners for the upcoming general and provincial elections. Now, the party leadership will start holding dialogue with the key leaders of the ruling coalition partners,” he said.

The proposal of the Nepali Congress Party to forge the electoral alliance among the coalition partners in the upcoming elections stems from fears that the CPN (Maois t Centre), a key partner in the government, could join hands with the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) led by KP Sharma Oli in the upcoming elections, according to observers.

Issuing a press statement on Monday evening, the Nepali Congress party vowed to steer the country towards the path of development, defend the constitution and further strengthen democracy if got the chance to lead a stable government yet again.

In local level elections held in May this year, the Nepali Congress had forged electoral alliance with the coalition partners in the present government, which catapulted the party into the first position.

Thus, the Nepali Congress party is now pushing for holding general and provincial elections at the earliest, being encouraged by the results of the local level elections, party leaders said. “We want to achieve a clear majority in the House of Representatives through the upcoming elections like what we did in the last local body polls,” NC spokesperson Mahat said.

Although the party’s Central Working Committee — in which the party president commands strong majority — made a firm decision to forge electoral alliance with the coalition partners on Monday, there were strong voices within the Nepali Congress that it should contest the elections single-handedly.

Those who were opposing the idea of forging alliance believed that the party’s base in the election constituencies will eventually erode in the long-run due to such coalition arrangements. Senior leader Shekhar Koirala was one of them who were against having any electoral partnership with other parties.

At a recent press conference, Koirala said that NC should fight the elections alone so that it can show its strength. The NC’s decision comes at a time when some second-tier leaders of the two key communist parties — the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) — held negotiations to explore the possibility of a new alliance in the upcoming elections.

According to a cabinet minister, the government is preparing to announce dates for the upcoming elections by the end of July.

Earlier in the first week of July, Nepal’s Election Commission had recommended the government to hold provincial and parliamentary elections on November 18 in a single phase. From the upcoming federal elections, 165 members will be elected to the House of Representatives, the lower house of federal parliament, under the First Past the Post electoral system and 110 will be elected under the proportional representation system.

Likewise, for seven provincial assemblies, 330 members will be elected under the direct system and 220 will be elected under the proportional system.

As per the constitution, Nepal holds local, provincial and federal elections every five years. This will be the second time the Himalayan nation holds federal and provincial elections after it adopted its first democratic republic constitution back in September 2015. The country’s national charter, also the first post-war full-fledged constitution, had federated the country into seven provinces and 753 local units.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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The gifting of relief materials reflects the continued support of the government of India in bolstering the government of Nepal’s efforts to build a disaster-resilient Nepal…reports Asian Lite News

India on Friday handed over disaster relief materials to Nepal in order to help the Himalayan country to cope with the situation caused by floods and landslides.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, handed the relief materials to Home Minister Bal Krishna Khad. The relief materials include 3,000 tents (big/family) and 10 motor inflatable boats.

“As part of our continued commitment to support disaster relief efforts of Nepal, the Ambassador of India to Nepal handed over consignments of flood and disaster-relief material to the Home Minister of Nepal,” the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said in a statement.

In his remarks during the event, Srivastava expressed that this timely supply of relief materials should be optimally utilised by the concerned agencies to ensure their maximum benefit by timely distribution and efficient utilisation.

Khand thanked the government of India for the timely delivery of the relief materials and appreciated the disaster relief-related cooperation between India and Nepal.

As close neighbours, India and Nepal share wide-ranging and multi-sectoral cooperation, the Embassy said.

The gifting of relief materials reflects the continued support of the government of India in bolstering the government of Nepal’s efforts to build a disaster-resilient Nepal,” it added.

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Prime Minister Deuba is leading a five-party coalition government which includes CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal as its key allies, writes Santosh Ghimire

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government completed one year in office on Wednesday, stemming the tide of instability which has rocked Nepal in recent years.

Deuba was appointed the country’s prime minister on July 13, 2021 following a landmark order of the Nepal’s Supreme Court which overturned the decision of the government led by KP Sharma Oli to dissolve the House of Representatives, the lower house of the bicameral parliament.

Deuba is leading a five-party coalition government which includes CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal as its key allies.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the prime minister’s secretariat released a list of 42 achievements that the government made in the domestic and foreign policy fronts in the last one year.

“The present government successfully restored democratic norms and values by ending a political instability and misrule that the country saw during the reign of KP Sharma Oli,” the statement said.

In the statement, the conduct of local elections in May, tabling the Citizenship Bill in parliament last week, and the approval of the United States-initiated Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact in February have been listed as some of the key achievements of the Deuba-led government on the domestic front.

On the foreign policy front, the prime minister’s secretariat said that it has adopted a policy of further strengthening balanced ties with all countries including India, China and the United States.

“The government is maintaining a foreign policy that serves the country’s national interests,” read the statement.

While mentioning the country’s ties with India, the prime minister’s secretariat said that bilateral ties have been further enhanced by removing all mistrusts and misconceptions that surfaced in the past.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, in May and Prime Minister Deuba’s visit to India in April have been included in the list of government’s achievements.

“We have started selling electricity to the Indian market after setting up a cross-border transmission line,” read the statement.

In the list, the government mentioned US officials’ visit to Nepal and Nepal Army Chief Prabhu Ram Sharma’s visit to Washington are also included. The list also includes Nepal’s decision to back away from the US Army’s State Partnership Program (SSP) which courted huge controversy in Nepal last month.

In matters pertaining to Nepal’s ties with China, prime minister’s secretariat reiterated the country’s commitment to the long-standing One China policy. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit in May and Chinese Communist Party leader Liu Jianchao’s ongoing visit to Nepal are also listed as the government’s achievements.

Meanwhile, the main opposition, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) criticized the government for failing to control high inflation, growing unemployment and corruption. It also lashed out at the government for not being able to pursue a balanced foreign policy.

“Misrule, corruption, unemployment, high inflation and intolerance towards the opposition party have been the hallmarks of one year of the Deuba-led government,” chairman of the CPN (UML), KP Sharma Oli, said at a recent press conference in Kathmandu.

The government, which is facing economic hardships due to the depletion in foreign currency reserves after the Ukraine-Russia conflict, has planned to hold provincial and parliamentary elections in the single phase in November this year.

Avoids Debt trap

Nepal has conveyed to a visiting senior Chinese Communist Party official that the country only wants grants from China, not commercial loans for developing infrastructures under the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba made the remarks at a meeting with the visiting Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader, Liu Jianchao, in Kathmandu, according to prime minister’s press adviser Govinda Pariyar who was present during talks on Sunday.

“PM Deuba told the Chinese leader that Nepal is not in a position to afford commercial Chinese loans for infrastructure building under the BRI because the national economy is already under stress due to several reasons including the depletion in foreign currency reserves. Therefore, Nepal wants only grant assistance from China in the coming days,” Pariyar told India Narrative on Monday evening.

On the occasion, Liu, who is the head of CPC’s International Liaison Department, urged Deuba to accelerate projects under the China-initiated BRI, an infrastructure initiative taken by Chinese President Xi Jinping to connect China with Asia, Europe and Africa.

The prime minister’s communication to Liu comes at a time when the Himalayan nation is expressing its unwillingness to move ahead with the cooperation under the BRI mainly owing to the fear that it may slip into a debt trap like another South Asian neighbour Sri Lanka, sources said.

Nepali government officials also echoed the prime minister’s sentiment of opposing commercial loans from the northern neighbour under the BRI.

“Firstly, we prefer grants from China because we can’t afford high-interest rates associated with BRI loans with a relatively short payback period. Secondly, BRI projects are not open for competitive bidding thereby lack financial transparency,” a senior government official at Nepal’s Ministry of Finance, told Indian Narrative in a brief conversation. He said that Chinese loans constitute three per cent of Nepal’s total foreign loan portfolio.

China often extends loans to other countries in commercial terms via the EXIM bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Silk Road Fund. Nepal is also one of the founding members of the China-initiated AIIB.

Mrigendra Bahadur Karki, a geopolitical analyst and an assistant professor at the state-run Tribhuvan University, believes that Nepal is unlikely to move ahead with BRI projects at least until the general elections which are scheduled to take place in November this year.

“Nepal’s preference to grant over loans also may not help projects under the BRI to take off. The country has a long experience of taking loans from multilateral agencies like the World Bank, where interest rates are relatively low and payback periods are long,” he said.

A key component of the BRI is the much-hyped Trans cross-border Nepal-China railway which has been also an integral part of the Trans Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network proposed by China.

Nepal and China, during the visit of Chinese President Xi in October 2019, had agreed that “Nepal and China will take the Belt and Road Initiative as an important opportunity to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields in a comprehensive manner, jointly pursue common prosperity and dedicate them to maintaining peace, stability, and development in the region.”

Although Nepal seems reluctant to go ahead with the BRI, China has kept nudging Nepal on different occasions for the same. Most recently, the project-selection under the BRI was among the top agenda items when China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Nepal in March this year. During the visit, the two countries also signed nine separate bilateral agreements including technical cooperation on cross-border railway. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, which issued a statement on the same occasion, did not mention anything on BRI projects.

Contrarily, after Wang’s visit, a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the past several years witnessed gratifying progress in Belt and Road cooperation between China and Nepal.

“China is ready to advance the key cooperation projects between the two sides at a faster pace, ensure the smooth running of land ports between the two countries, explore cross-border cooperation in electricity, diversify and expand channels for economic, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and build the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network to make the Himalayas a bond of friendly cooperation between the two countries,” the statement added.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

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