Nepal PM’s Comments About ‘Encroaching’ Indian Land Triggers Row
Kathmandu: Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Sunday that he learned that his country was “encroaching” on territory in India while trying to answer questions in parliament about the long-running border dispute. He also stated that both countries agreed to get help from historians, researchers and experts to find a solution, adding that Kathmandu also held diplomatic talks with China and the UK on the issue.
Nepal and India have an old border dispute over Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura and both countries claim these areas. India maintains that the regions are part of Uttarakhand and says the issue should be resolved through bilateral dialogue.
“Nepal government has officially sent a diplomatic note to India talking about India’s encroachment on its territory, including Lipulekh, and we have already received their response,” Shah said while addressing parliament. he said. “Both countries agreed to resolve the issue by sitting together through diplomatic channels with the help of historians, researchers and relevant experts.”
However, he added that it was not only India that was “insulting” the land in Nepal, but Nepal was also doing the same to India.
“You will be surprised to know a fact that I learned recently only after I became Prime Minister. India has not only encroached on Nepalese territory, Nepal has also encroached on Indian territory in many places,” Shah said. “Now both countries should examine the facts and sit together as friends and solve the problem.”
Shah said Kathmandu is also holding diplomatic talks on the issue with China (the three places lie at the intersection of India, Tibet and Nepal) and the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister said that he discussed the issue with England because the issue dates back to a period when the British government left the region.
Shah’s comments that Nepal was encroaching on Indian territory triggered the debate. While many Nepali social media users criticized this, experts dismissed it.
Former Nepalese ambassador to India Nilambara Acharya told media portal Kantipuronline that the Shah “had no knowledge of the occupation of Indian territory by Nepal”.
According to Acharya, 97 percent of border disputes between the two sides have already been resolved, but a few are still ongoing.
Acharya said there were reports of some Nepalis using land in India and some Indians in Nepal due to missing border posts in some border areas, but the Nepalese government did not encroach on Indian territory.
Deep Kumar Upadhyay, another former Nepali ambassador to India, said there was no record of Nepal encroaching on Indian territory.
“India has also not put this matter on record… We have worked so far but this issue has never come to light… I do not know in what context the Prime Minister talked about such a serious issue,” he told online news portal Nepalpress.
Nepal-India border expert and renowned geographer Buddhi Narayan Shrestha also rejected the prime minister’s statement that Nepal was encroaching on Indian territory.
Nepal has never encroached on Indian territory or expanded its occupation in the border region. He said that in some border areas, farmers from both countries were using each other’s lands due to cross occupations.
Earlier this month, Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lok Bahadur Chhetri said the country was committed to resolving the border issue with India through diplomatic channels.
Chhetri’s comments had come just days after India flatly rejected Nepal’s objection for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via the long-established Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand, dismissing Kathmandu’s territorial claims over the region as “unilateral artificial expansion” that New Delhi deemed “untenable”.
