Nepali Congress to table separate Constitution amendment bill in Parliament

The Nepali Congress, the country's main Opposition party, will table a separate Constitution amendment bill in Parliament to address some of the demands of the Madhes-based parties while backing another one tabled by the government to alter the country's map, amidst a border row with India.

The Nepali Congress (NC) had first registered the bill in July 2017 under the leadership of then prime minister and party president Sher Bahadur Deuba, The Kathmandu Post reported.

However, it could not be passed due to the opposition from the then Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist led by K P Sharma Oli, who is now the prime minister, it said.

A decision to revive the three-year-old Constitution amendment proposal, aimed at addressing some of the demands of the Madhes-based parties, was taken at a meeting of the NC’s Central Working Committee on Saturday, party vice president Bimalendra Nidhi was quoted as saying by the Post.

The three-point amendment proposal seeks to address some of the demands of the Madhes-based political parties and foster wider acceptance of the 2015 Constitution, the report said.

The two Madhes-based parties -- Samajbadi Party Nepal and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal -- have long been demanding Constitution amendment over a host of issues, including citizenship and boundary demarcation.

Last week, leaders from the two parties met with Deuba and sought NC’s support to include their long-standing demands into the government's amendment proposal.

Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, had launched a six-month-long agitation during KP Sharma Oli's premiership, from September 2015 to February last year, in which more than 50 people were killed.

The agitation had also crippled the landlocked country's economy as supplies from India were blocked.

NC parliamentarian Gagan Thapa said that the party will register the proposal in Parliament once the government's amendment is resolved.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Shivamaya Tumbahangphe, on behalf of the government of Nepal, on Sunday tabled a Constitution amendment bill in parliament aimed at altering the country's map amid a border dispute with India, a day after the NC backed the legislation.

Nepal recently released the revised political and administrative map of the country laying claim over India’s strategic areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura.

India reacted angrily to the move saying such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from such "unjustified cartographic assertion".

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory -- India as part of Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district. 

Image Credits: PTI