Aniruddha Live (FB)-India Nepal Relations
This is the matter of my FB live on 13th
June, 2020. You can watch the video here.
You can check out my Facebook Page here and my Instagram page here
You can also check out my list of books here.
Hi good evening friends. Hope you all are doing
well as the numbers of people infected by the novel coronavirus keeps
increasing every day.
Recently the diplomatic tension between Nepal and
India has been one of the top news on the front of foreign affairs for us.
Nepal is strategically an extremely important
country for us and also our immediate neighbour. So, as responsible citizens of
India, let us try to understand what exactly is the problem about.
The Issue
The problem started during the inauguration of the
new link road from India to China that was meant to shorten the travel time for
pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. The road, which has been built by our Border
Road Organization, starts from Dharchula in Uttarakhand and covers a distance
of 80 km till Lipulekh pass.
Now the issue is, Nepal has claimed that this “link
road” connecting Lipulekh passes through Nepalese territory. The Himalayan
nation has claimed that India has breached the agreement reached between the
Indian Prime Minister and his Nepalese counterpart in 2014 which sought to work
out the boundary issues on Kalapani and Susta. Lipulekh lies within Kalapani
region.
Now what has India’s response been on this issue?
The Ministry of External Affairs has clarified that
the road passing through Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district lies completely
within the territory of India. The ministry has also stated that the boundary
delineation exercise with Nepal is an ongoing process and we are committed to
resolve the outstanding boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue and our
close and friendly bilateral relationship with Nepal will always be a
consideration.
Now Kalapani is located at an altitude of around
3600 m above sea level. It borders India’s Uttarakhand and Sudurpaschim Pradesh
of Nepal. As on date the area is controlled by India’s Indo-Tibetan Border
Police which has been deployed in the region since the 1962 Indo-China war.
Now two very important question arises.
- Where is the origin of this dispute and
- Why, all of a sudden Nepal has become so concerned about the area?
The Origin of this Dispute
The genesis of this dispute started with the treaty of Sagauli, signed between Nepal and the British East India Company in 1816. As per the treaty the Kali river was demarcated as the western boundary of Nepal with India. However, the British surveyors did not mention anything about the ridgeline and subsequently maps of the areas drawn by British surveyors showed the source of Kali river at different places. This discrepancy has led to the boundary disputes and each country is producing their own maps including the territory within their boundary. Even the size of the Kalapani territory varies as per different sources.
Why, all of a sudden Nepal has become so concerned about the area?
So, coming to the second question as to why Nepal is
suddenly so geared up about the area. This is a very open ended and
controversial topic. I don’t really have a conclusive answer to the same.
However, there are suppositions and educated assumptions that have been doing
the rounds in the media.
One hypothesis suggests that it’s a plan of the
communist government in Nepal to stay in power by diverting attention from the
crisis that the country is currently in and also to get support from the
oppositions. It has been noticed that
most sections except for the Madhesis has been supporting the Nepal government
on the issue.
While some experts are of the opinion that they are
being influenced by the Chinese forces. Nepal has always been a ground for
diplomatic competition between two of the most populous countries in the world.
Some are of the opinion that the landlocked country
wants to assert its importance alongside India, after being so very shadowed by
its much larger neighbour. India has always been like a big brother to Nepal in
almost all aspects.
Conclusions
Whatever the reasons are, we must clearly
understand that India and Nepal have shared age old cultural and political ties
and has been complimentary to each other in all their endeavours. It is in the
best interest of both, to sort out the issue diplomatically and preserve the
closeness that we have always enjoyed.
You can watch the video here.
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You can check out my list of books here.
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