The coalition partners forged an agreement to this effect during a meeting on Thursday morning upon realization that the citizenship issue and recruitment of Madhesi youths in the national army -- two major agendas raised by ruling Madhesi parties -- can not be addressed under the existing constitutional and legal provisions. [break]
“Our party as well as the government will fully support the amendments,” Raj Kishor Yadav, a Madhesi leader, quoted Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai as saying at the meeting.
Though the parties have not linked the necessity to amend the constitution and the military law to the last month´s Supreme Court stay orders, it seems that they took the decision in view of the court´s intervention on the issues of citizenship and recruitment.
Taking up two separate writ petitions, the apex court last month stayed the government move to award citizenship to children of citizens by birth and to recruit Madhesi youths in the national army.
The present constitution is silent about grating citizenship to children of citizens by birth while the military law does not permit exclusive recruitment of persons from a particular group or community in the national army.
According to Yadav, who is the acting chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Republican (MPRF-R), the prime minister has already directed the law minister to make preparations for the amendments.
According to the leaders present at the meeting, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal also lent support to the move to amend the constitution and military law and get the pending inclusion bill passed in parliament.
The agreement has been inked at a time when some ruling Madhesi parties have asked the prime minister to step down if their agendas are not addressed.
The prime minister also directed Finance Minister Barshaman Pun, who was also present at the meeting, to allocate necessary budget for the recruitment of Madhesi youths in the national army.
At the meeting, Madhesi leaders had expressed concern over delay in the peace process and constitution writing. But the Maoist leadership, in response, stated that the twin tasks of peace and constitution drafting process cannot be concluded if Madhesi issues are not addressed.
“The UDMF has raised issues that our party should have raised. So, we are ready to address them,” Yadav quoted the prime minister saying at the meeting.
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