He said he would give up the post of the Vice President, but not take the oath in Nepali language, during a meeting with the representatives of Linguistic Rights Joint Struggle Committee today. The Joint Struggle Committee had submitted a memorandum to Jha asking not to take the oath again.

Quoting the Vice President, a member of the Joint Struggle Committee informed, “I am ready to resign as per the verdict of the Supreme Court.”

The SC on Sunday gave Vice President Jha a 7-day timeline to retake the oath of office in Nepali, failing to obey which, he will cease to remain the vice president.

Lawmakers of major political parties and others as well floated the opinion that Jha should not be sworn-in again, at the programme titled “Political Parties’ Opinion on Srupreme Court’s Decision” organised at Madhes Media House in the capital on Wednesday.

Unified CPN (Maoist) lawmaker Prabhu Sah said, “Nationality doesn’t strengthen jus because you speak Hindi language. Nationality should be searched in sentiments, not clothes and language.”

Similarly, Nepali Congress lawmaker Ajay Chaurasiya opined the forces working on stalling the constitution-drafting process want the issue to become a language debate.

Although the CPN-UML hasn’t given its official  opinion on the issue, its lawmaker Gopal Thakur said the repeated swearing-in means recognising the rights of Khas language.

Other major Madhes-based political parties are of the opinion that this is a conspiracy to get rid of the spirit of the Madhes Uprising.

“The same people didn’t protest when the lawmakers of Sadbhawana (party) took the oath in Hindi language in the parliament. But now they are conspiring as a Madhesi was able to hold a prestigious position,” lawmaker and joint chairman of Nepal Sadbhawana Party Laxman Lal Karna claimed.

Source-ekantipur.com