Minister for Law and Justice Prem Bahadur Singh briefed Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who returned home Friday night after a six-day China visit, about progress regarding the bill. Leaders from the ruling parties met at the prime minister´s official residence at Baluwatar on Saturday to discuss the matter.
"As amending the constitution is a serious matter, the government should not move ahead alone," Singh quoted Nepal as saying. According to him, the prime minister was for endorsing the bill in consensus with the other political parties.
According to chief whip of the CPN-UML Bhim Acharya, they decided to talk to the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) and other political parties about the matter. "We decided to endorse the bill within a week if possible after talking to the Maoists and the small parties as well," Acharya said.
The bill, if passed, would allow the president and the vice-president to take their oath of office and secrecy in any of the mother tongues spoken in Nepal.
The Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) has threatened to obstruct parliamentary proceedings to block the bill. Jha, who was a Constituent Assembly (CA) member for an MPRF proportional representation seat, was later elected from the CA as vice-president.
Law Minister Singh tabled the bill Thursday with the objective of resolving the issue of Paramananda Jha as his vice-presidency has been invalidated by the Supreme Court after he refused to take his oath of office in Nepali. Following the Supreme Court verdict the government has withdrawn state privileges from Jha. The government was forced to amend the constitution after Jha publicly vowed not to take his oath of office in Nepali, something that is mandatory for the head of state and the vice-president, as per the current constitution.
Any party willing to register an amendment to the bill can do so by Sunday, or within 72 hours after the tabling of the bill.
MPRF has demanded that an index with a list of mother tongues spoken in the country be enclosed with the amendment bill so as to ensure that Jha is allowed to take his oath in Hindi. MPRF has termed the wording used in the bill ambiguous. It has said that it would be unacceptable to the party if the government is planning to administer the oath of office to Jha in Maithili instead of Hindi.
The UCPN (Maoist) has, meanwhile, objected to the government proposal to enforce the amendment bill with retroactive effect. Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Maoist lawmaker Khim Lal Devkota objected to the government´s plan to enforce it with retroactive effect. The Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party has supported the bill.
Devkota said that the Maoist party is against the bill as the government brought it in with an intention of prolonging the tenure of the coalition government which was already in trouble.
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