Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker in the National Assembly Jitendra Dev has said the main opposition party has serious reservations about the seven-year provision for naturalized citizenship for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens.
Lawmaker Dev has urged ruling CPN to rethink on the seven-year provision that the State Affairs Committee passed by majority on Sunday. "Why keep the mentality that nationalism will be stronger by ending matrimonial relationship with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh? This is not the kind of thinking a progressive party should promote. This is a Mandale-nationalistic thinking, counter-revolutionary thinking," Dev stated.
He said implementation of the provision will bring about polarization between CPN and other parties including NC. He also opined that the decision will affect cultural relationship with India.
"You have made a very myopic, immature decision that foments communal riots and ultimately can lead the country toward division," he opined.
He accused the ruling party of moving closer to one neighbor instead of maintaining equidistance between the two neighbors. "NC will have nothing to say even if you hold 50 meetings with the Communist Party of China," he said. "But it is sending a message that we are in the Chinese camp. Will it boost internal nationalism?"
He pointed that the Nepal-India relationship has been founded by culture and not communists or NC, and questioned the rationale of keeping the seven-year provision.
"Rallies have been taken out from Rajbiraj to Birgunj. Can you do politics by bullying NC and Janata Samajwadi Party in this country?" he asked. "Don't discontinue the politics of consensus. You are treading the wrong path getting mired in radicalism."
CPN on Saturday had proposed any foreign woman marrying a Nepali man should get naturalized citizenship only seven years after marriage.
The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJP) have already opposed the CPN decision. NC has proposed that the bill should be amended continuing the provisions of the Citizenship Act 2006 while RJP has said the decision will harm the Nepal-India relation.
