Madhav Nepal utters mistakes

Sujit Mainali / September 14, 2017

Madhav Nepal. Photo: Youtube

During an interview aired on Himalaya TV on September 12, CPN-UML leader and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal made the following three statements. South Asia Check has examined the statements:

First statement: The constitution amendment bill was tabled in parliament to serve the interests of foreigners. The bill proposed allowing foreigners to become president and prime minister. [The amendment was brought] to serve the interests of the newcomers not the Nepali Madhesis.        

Nepal said this while commenting on the constitution amendment bill which was rejected by the parliament on August 21. By saying “foreigners’ and ‘newcomers’, he was hinting toward naturalized Nepalis in the tarai. And he meant that the bill had proposed allowing even naturalized citizens to assume topmost posts of the state like president, prime minister, chief justice, chief of security bodies, etc. But the amendment bill did not have such provision.

Therefore, this claim is wrong.

Second statement: There was no policy to recruit women in Nepali Army. When I was prime minister, I set up a special camp in Rajbiraj and recruited women in the army.

Nepal was prime minister from May 25, 2009 to February 5, 2011. Here he claimed that it was during his term that Nepal Army started recruiting women.

But the fact is that Nepal Army started recruiting women in its technical service since 1961. When the army was fighting the Maoist insurgency in 2004, Nepal Army began recruiting women also for combat duty. At that time Madhav Kumar Nepal was not the prime minister.

Therefore, this claim is also not correct.

Third statement: The poorest district of Nepal lies in the hills. The second-poorest district is also in the hills. The fourth poorest district Rautahat is in the tarai, followed by another tarai district of Mahottari. Why don’t you study the human development index?

According to the “Nepal Human Development Report, 2014” prepared by the National Planning Commission and the UNDP, out of ten districts with lowest human development index ratings, eight are in the hills and the mountains and the remaining two are in the tarai. The two tarai districts are Rauthat and Mahottari, which are sixth and seventh districts with lowest human development index ratings.

Nepal’s this claim is also incorrect.

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