The Nepal-India border dispute escalates
The Nepal-India border dispute escalates
WRITTEN BY SANTOSH GHIMIRE
15 May 2020
The long running Nepal-India border dispute has further escalated this month after India announced on May 8 the opening of a strategic Himalayan link road to Tibetan Autonomous Region of China through Lipu Lekh. A territory which Nepal considers as its own.
Since then, Nepali political elites, civil society, media and ordinary people have been in arms against what they call India's encroachment upon sovereign Nepali territory.
A day after India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the 80 kms Lipu Lekh road through video conferencing from the Indian capital New Delhi, Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly objected to the development. In a strong-worded press statement on May 9, the ministry called upon the India's Hindu nationalist Modi government "to refrain from carrying out any activity inside the territory of Nepal."
The ministry also reminded the Indian government that Nepal has consistently maintained that as per the Sugauli Treaty (1816), all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) River, including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh, belong to Nepal.
India's encroachment of the Nepali territory Lipu Lekh has been widely viewed in Kathmandu as an attempt by New Delhi to occupy the area, with the long term goal of utilizing it as a vantage point for maintaining a close vigil on Tibet and China.
Reacting to Nepal government's statement, India's External Affairs Ministry came up with a statement hours later on the same day, arguing the "recently inaugurated road section in Pithoragarh district in the State of Uttarakhand lies completely within the territory of India."
"The road follows the pre-existing route used by the pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Under the present project, the same road has been made pliable for the ease and convenience of pilgrims, locals and traders," read a press statement issued by the Indian government.
A day after India released the statement, Nepal summoned New Delhi's Ambassador based in Kathmandu, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, to express its displeasure and handed a protest letter. Nepali Ambassador to India Nilambar Acharya also conveyed Nepal's displeasure with the Indian side.
Despite having close cultural ties and people-to-people relations, the two countries have had long-standing border disputes in Kalapani, and Susta areas. The 1880 kms open and porous border between the two next door neighbors has been a major source of tension between them for several years.
India's two motives
Behind the construction of road through Lipu Lekh, India has two motives—the first is one strategic and second one is religious.
The first one is: India's encroachment of the Nepali territory of Lipu Lekh has been widely viewed in Kathmandu as an attempt by New Delhi to occupy the area, with the long term goal of utilizing it as a vantage point for maintaining a close vigil on Tibet and China.
The second one is: India's Hindu nationalist Modi government seems to have been guided by the feeling that Hindus in the country would be pleased by the construction of the strategic road linking Manasarovar of Tibet via Lipu Lekh. It is because Manasarovar is a revered Hindu shrine in Tibet where thousands of Hindu pilgrims from India pay homage every year. For Nepal, which is feeling deeply hurt right now, the construction of road is a stark example of bullying by its powerful neighbor India.
China factor
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Beijing in May 2015, India and China agreed to develop Lipu Lekh Pass as a thoroughfare for carrying out trade. At that time also, Nepal lodged solemn protests in New Delhi and Beijing for the agreement without its consent. Nepal, which is sandwiched between the two giants, called the New Delhi-Beijing deal as an infringement on its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Beijing-- which was previously seen as non-interfering in Nepal's political affairs unlike New Delhi— also faced public resentment for infringing Nepal's territorial integrity, apparently to please New Delhi. Since then, even ordinary people in Nepal started thinking that China could do anything at the expense of another neighbor. Five years later in May 2020, the Indian has side opened up the strategic road via Lipu Lekh without Nepal's consent.
Now, people are raising voices in Nepal that there needs to be dialogue with Beijing as well because the deal was reached between India and China to open up the strategic trade route back in 2015. As the current ruling communist parties in Nepal have had developed bonhomie with Beijing in recent years, many suspect that they could really convince China and admit that Beijing had also done mistakes on its part, while signing the deal over Lipu Lekh in 2015.
Nepal and India both have their own claims
In his address to the House of Representatives of Nepal, Nepal's Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said that 1816 Treaty of Sugauli that Nepal entered with British colonial rulers determined the country's western border with India. According to him, Lipu Lekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura are sovereign Nepali territories as per the treaty and India should respect to Nepal's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Nepal has said that strategic locations like Kalapani and Limpiyadhura are its integral parts as per the Sugauli Treaty with the British rulers. Indian troops have been stationed in these areas since India and China fought in 1962.
In November 2019, India released its updated political map incorporating Nepal's Kalapani area within Indian borders. Nepal had strongly opposed to the Indian map and urged New Delhi for holding talks on the border issues by sending a diplomatic note to the Indian External Affairs Ministry. However, India did not give response to Nepal's call for having dialogue. Rather, India insisted that Kalapani area lies within Indian territory.
As per the Sugauli Treaty, Kali River was agreed as the demarcation line for the boundary between the two countries. However, the two neighbors have two different interpretations over the origin of Kali River.
Nepal considers the river originating in Limpiyadhura as the western border, but Indian claims that the river, which acts as the boundary, emerges from Lipu Lekh. Nepal says the river that India considers as the border is a tributary of the main river mentioned in the 1816 treaty. Lipulekh, the disputed land lies between the two rivers.
No concrete talks on border issues
As far as India and Nepal are concerned about settling the protracted border disputes of Kalapani and Susta, the two countries have been agreed to hold foreign-secretary level talks during high-level exchange of visits at the prime minister or presidential level several times. However, the foreign-secretary level dialogue focusing solely on the border issues has not had taken place for several years. Nepal and India had formed a foreign minister-level joint commission to deal with bilateral contentious issues in 2014 just before Indian Prime Minister Modi's maiden visit to Nepal. Although the commission held its meetings twice in the past six years, no concrete positive outcome towards resolving the bilateral border-related issues has been achieved as of now.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Santosh Ghimire is a Kathmandu-based foreign affairs correspondent. He is currently affiliated with Republica Daily. He has worked as a journalist since 2008. Image credit: Wikipedia Commons.