Kathmandu, 14 May : India has responded to Nepal’s move of passing the constitution amendment bill to update the national coat of arms by incorporating Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani in Nepal’s map.
“We have noted that the House of Representatives of Nepal has passed a constitution amendment bill for changing the map of Nepal to include parts of Indian territory. We have already made our position clear on this matter,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava. He added, “This artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable. It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues.”
Meanwhile Indian media have reported stating that PM Oli ignored the offer of diplomatic dialogue and gone ahead with amending the constitution, it is now up to him to create, if he so wishes, a conducive atmosphere in case he is interested in a bilateral dialogue on the boundary issue. A leader of PM Oli’s experience and wisdom would know well that the time for verbal fudging is over; he now needs to walk the talk.
Hours before the lower house of Nepal’s Parliament voted on the amendment, Indian Army chief Gen MM Naravane emphasised the strong relations between the two countries. The remarks marked a U-turn from his earlier comments about Nepal working at someone else’s behest to raise the border issue. “We have a very strong relationship with Nepal. We have geographical, cultural, historical, religious linkages. We have very strong people-to-people connect. Our relation with them has always been strong and will remain strong in the future,” Naravane is reported to have said.
The India-Nepal border row comes at a time when India is engaged in a tense stand-off with Chinese troops in several sections of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and Constantino Xavier of Brookings India said it was time for New Delhi to move towards de-escalation with Kathmandu. “India spent too many years wasting scarce resources on micro-managing Nepal politics. Useless, counter-productive. Delhi can’t be petty. Ignore symbolic amendment. Olis will come and go. Move on, focus on de-escalation, delivery,” Xavier tweeted.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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