Nepal’s ruling party Nepal Communist Party has decided to amend the country’s citizenship law to allow naturalisation of foreign women married to Nepali men only after a waiting period of seven years. The party’s secretariat took the decision after a meeting, and a bill to amend the Citizenship Act will be sent to the Parliament for approval.
The amendment bill proposes bringing changes to Clause 4.1(b) of the Citizenship Act to pave the way for women receiving residence permits to exercise economic, social and cultural rights and provide seven different economic, social and cultural rights to such women.
Lack of a citizenship card won’t bar them from running any businesses and earn, use and sell any fixed and movable assets, make profits through businesses and get involved in transaction of property of any kind.
Similarly, the residence permit will open doors for any such woman to set up companies, run businesses as well as other ventures, register vital events such as birth, death, marriage, divorce and migration and avail as service users all types of privileges and discounts provided by any organization established in accordance with the laws. Such women will also be entitled to study at any academic institution, obtain academic certificates and exercise economic, social and cultural rights and acquire national identity cards as per the amendment proposal.
Thapa announced that:
as per the new rule, any Indian girl marrying a Nepalese citizen will have to wait for a minimum seven years to get citizenship.He went on to cite India’s laws which allow for citizenship to be granted to a foreign national only after he/she has been married to an Indian citizen for over seven years.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday lashed out at the Nepal administration for making amendments in their citizenship law for Indians. BSP spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria said that Kathmandu should not get carried away by China’s influence and continue its friendly ties with New Delhi
