Nepal recently published a new political map claiming Uttarakhand’s Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh as part of Nepal ‘s territory. The region of Susta (district of western Champaran, Bihar) can also be noted in the new map.Nepal’s action came after India’s Defense Minister recently inaugurated a motorized link road that links India and China, limiting Kailash Mansarovar Yatra ‘s time significantly.India’s defence ministry virtually introduced a new 80-kilometer Himalayan road connecting the border with China at the Lipulekh Pass on 8 May. The Nepali government protested instantly, claiming that the road crosses the territory it claims and accusing India without diplomatic consultation process of changing the status quo.
Nepal has sent security forces to the area, summoned the Indian envoy to Kathmandu, and launched a constitutional amendment to formalize and expand its territorial claims to roughly 400 sq km.India, on the other side, has expressed its commitment to dialog but does not seem to share Nepal’s sense of urgency: it decided to dialog in its initial declaration but only after the COVID-19 situation.Nepal had previously protested strongly against India, after India released a new map displaying the Kalapani area as part of Indian territory.Nepal also expressed disappointment with the 2015 India-China agreement to use the Lipulekh pass for trade, without Nepal being consulted.
More than a month later the bilateral dispute now seems to be locked in a stalemate, a worrying development in normally pleasant ties between India and Nepal.
Why did India construct this road across territories occupied by Nepal?
India has been in continuous control of this region for at least sixty years, while Nepal claims to have carried out a survey there in the early 1950s and that the Sugauli Treaty of 1815 confirms its arguments. Yet India ‘s latest path is not an extraordinary shift in the status quo, up to the Lipulekh bridge.India previously monitored this territory and constructed other infrastructure here, in addition to conducting its administration and deploying military forces up to the China border crossing.The area is of symbolic significance, and the new road has become one of the shortest links between Delhi and the Tibetan plateau.
China also acknowledged Indian sovereignty in a statement in 2015, by agreeing to expand trade through the Lipulekh pass. Ultimately, this is also an important path to reach the holy Mount Kailash for thousands of Hindus who trek across the frontier with China each year.Given the ongoing military tensions with China, the region’s future trading prospects, and religious significance, India will undoubtedly continue to exert both civilian and military influence.
The Indian road was not constructed suddenly and the Government of Nepal was certainly conscious of and controlling the condition in Kalapani over the months and years preceding it.The concern had arisen in November last year, when India revealed its new political map, after the abrogation of article 370: as many decades before, the Indian map proceeded to include territories stated by Nepal, however this time it was officially and publicly taken up by the Kathmandu Government. It also became a common topic in Nepal, with trending on social networking sites hashtag # BackOffIndia.
To the beleaguered prime minister of Nepal, India’s May 8 declaration thus looked like a divine gift when it confronted the biggest internal turmoil since coming to power in 2017. He was able to rally popular opinion easily, play up nationalist feelings towards India, bring his internal party opponents on board, and deflect focus from his unsuccessful ordinances and pandemic containment task.The current border dispute is reflecting a growing structural problem in relations between India and Nepal. C. Therefore, Raja Mohan describes the territorial conflict as “only a result of the systemic changes taking place within the external and internal sense of the bilateral ties.”
Days after intervening in a border conflict with India, Nepal again questioned the external boundary and laid claim over the territories of India. The region of dispute this time happens to be the Nepal boundary with Bihar Indian state.The Nepalese authorities have now stopped Indian officials from carrying out construction work along the border area, in a surprising turn of events. The embarkment-related research was carried out by the Bihar state government’s Water Resources Department (WRD) in what is now designated ‘No Man’s Land’ in Nepal.The incident took place on June 15 at the banks of the Lal Bakey River in the East Champaran district of Bihar, 45 kilometers from the town of Motihari.As the work was proceeding, Nepalese authorities interfered and prevented the fortification of the embankment from being completed.
The Indian authorities say Nepal unexpectedly comes as a shock to pose this sort of opposition as building work along the river has been ongoing for a long time, with the embankment itself being constructed several years earlier.Indian-side officials tried to resolve the issue locally but to no avail. The matter has now been reported to Nepal ‘s Union Home Ministry and the Indian Embassy.
This is the 2nd time Nepal has claimed Indian territory, the earlier case being where the nation annoyed India by showcasing the provinces of Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and Kalapani in Uttarakhand like its own in a new map that was authorized in a bill that was passed earlier this month by the lower house of the Nepal Parliament.In response to this development , India strongly called for this action to alter territorial boundaries by re-designing the Nepalese government’s map as a “artificial territorial expansion” and called the expansion of claims “unacceptable and untenable.”
The Indian government, however, have often maintained that the problems can be resolved through dialogue. Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said India and Nepal share “roti-and-beti” ties which mean people from both sides share bread and family ties.This latest development, however, is likely to draw Indian authorities’ ire and push even further the possibility of talks.