Interview With Yogesh Bhattarai

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हेर्नुहोस भिडियो

CPN-UML Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai on Monday said that open border between Nepal and India has to be regulated in order to open doors for equal rights of citizenship for men and women. Responding to the woes of scores of ‘stateless’ boys and girls born to Nepali mothers and non-Nepali or absconding or dead fathers during a public hearing program held in the capital, Bhattarai said that depriving eligible ones of Nepali citizenship is never the spirit of the constitution. “Few provisions are yet to be revised in order to do away with the gender discrimination,” he admitted. “But, while saying this, we should not forget that we cannot relax citizenship laws in a way to make it equal for men and women until and unless the open border with India is strictly regulated. We cannot overlook cultural and social practices,” he added. Meanwhile, alluding to Madhes-based leaders, Bhattarai stated that ‘some leaders’ only talk about ‘roti-beti’ bond across the border and complain of discriminatory conditions on citizenship though neither the neighbor provided roti when Nepal was just struck by devastating earthquake nor the leaders actually care about the rights of beti. “We could go for equal citizenship provision for all Nepali nationals, like providing naturalized citizenship to non-Nepalis married to Nepalis after certain years, if some leaders had been supportive. But they created obstructions and put unfair conditions,” he said.