Constitutional tussle between the President and five-party ruling alliance

Constitutional tussle between the President and five-party ruling alliance

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari refused to give her assent to the controversial citizenship bill, which was forwarded to her office by the House of Representatives (HoR) for the second time, after holding it for 15 days.

The five-party ruling alliance has heavily criticized the president's refusal to assent the citizenship bill. It has issued a joint statement this afternoon criticizing her refusal and blaming her for violating her constitutional rights.

Both houses of the Parliament had passed the bill as it is and forwarded it to the president for the second time. In fact , she had returned the bill to the HoR on August 14 with her message asking the house to reconsider it and address her concerns, particularly about the dignity of single mothers, citizenship with provincial identity, and provisions relating to matrimonial naturalization.

This scary political situation may create a rift between the head of the state and executive head and could also trigger a constitutional crisis.

It remains to be seen whether this constitutional tussle between the head of state and the coalition government will invite a political chaos in the nation or end in an amicable manner realizing their blunder which does not seem likely to happen.

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