Nepal: Opposition Protests Against Communist Oli Govt's Discriminatory Citizenship Bill

In a major development, nationwide protests led by Nepal's opposition Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) rocked streets across the Himalayan nation on Tuesday (30 June) in a backlash against a new and contentious Citizenship Bill, reports Asian News International (ANI).

Opposition in Nepal has asserted that the new Bill is aimed at targeting minority groups like the LGBTQ+ community, the foreign women married to Nepalese men and former Gurkhas who want to get a Nepalese citizenship.

The Bill proposes that any foreign woman who marries a Nepalese man would have to stay in probation for a span of seven years before being eligible for the citizenship. Presently, any such woman becomes immediately eligible.

JSB leader Hishila Yami Bhattarai has questioned the intentions of KP Sharma Oli government behind the provisions for LGBTQ+ members in the bill.

"What are they trying to show the world by making them [LGBTQ+ community] undergo such tests?" she asked.