Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Sunday said he has learnt about his country “encroaching” territories in India, as he sought to answer questions in Parliament on a long-running border dispute and instead triggered a controversy.
In his maiden appearance in the ongoing parliament session that started on May 11, Shah, in his remarks suggested without elaborating that India and Nepal have agreed to take the help of historians, surveyors and experts to seek a resolution, adding that Kathmandu has also taken up the matter with China and the United Kingdom.
Hours later, Nepal Foreign Ministry said PM Shah’s comments were related to “no-man’s land encroachments” and “cross-border occupation” between the two countries, rather than any territorial claims.
Nepal and India have had an old boundary dispute over Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani, with both countries claiming the areas. India maintains that the territories are part of Uttarakhand and has said the issue should be addressed through bilateral dialogue.
There was no immediate response from the Indian side on Shah’s comments but earlier this month, while rejecting Nepal’s objection to the upcoming Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the long-established Lipulekh Pass, India had dismissed Kathmandu’s territorial claims over the region as an “unilateral artificial enlargement” that New Delhi finds “untenable.”
On Sunday, Shah told Parliament: “The Nepal government has officially sent a diplomatic note to India, mentioning the issue of encroachment of territories by India, including Lipulekh, and we have already received their response.”
“Both the countries have agreed to resolve the issue sitting together with the help of historians, surveyors and concerned experts through diplomatic means,” he said.
When specifically asked by a lawmaker about the government’s view on the dispute concerning the Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani areas, Shah said it is not just India that has “encroached” land in Nepal, the latter too had done the same with its southern neighbour.
“You will be surprised to know about a fact, which I have learnt recently, only after becoming the Prime Minister. It is not only India that has encroached Nepalese territories, but Nepal has also encroached India’s territories in many places,” said the prime minister, who came to power after a sweeping election victory earlier this year.
“Now both countries should study the facts and sit together as friends and resolve the issue.”
The three places are located near the trijunction of India, Tibet and Nepal.
Shah said Kathmandu has also taken up the matter with China and the United Kingdom. He said he raised the matter with the UK because it dates back to a period when the British government left the region.
Shah’s comments about Nepal encroaching Indian territories have triggered a controversy.
Opposition lawmakers, including Basana Thapa of the Nepali Congress and Ramesh Malla of the Nepali Communist Party, objected to Shah’s remarks and demanded that they be expunged from the parliamentary record.
They said the prime minister should either provide evidence to support his claim that Nepal had encroached on Indian territory or withdraw the statement.
Former Nepal foreign minister Pradip Gyawali has also reportedly sought an apology from Shah.
Many Nepalese social media users criticised the prime minister’s comments, while several experts dismissed it.
Former Nepalese ambassador to India Nilambara Acharya told Kantipuronline media portal that Shah has “no information regarding Indian territories being encroached by Nepal.”
According to Acharya, 97 per cent of the border disputes between the two sides have already been resolved. There are reports about some Nepalese using land in India and some Indians using land in Nepal due to the missing border pillars in some border areas, he said, but the Nepal government as such has not encroached India’s territory.
Another former ambassador of Nepal to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay said that Nepal encroaching India’s territory is not there in any record.
“India has also not raised this issue on record… So far we have conducted studies, but this issue has never surfaced… I don’t know in which context the prime minister spoke about such a serious matter,” he told the Nepalpress online news portal.
Nepal-India border expert and renowned geographer Buddhi Narayan Shrestha has also dismissed the prime minister’s statement about Nepal encroaching Indian territories.
“Nepal has never encroached Indian territories or extended its occupation in the border area. In some border areas due to cross-holding occupations, farmers of both the countries have used each other’s land,” he said.
Hours after PM Shah’s comment raised a storm and sent ripples of shock across Nepal, prompting media queries, Nepal’s Foreign Ministry came up with a clarification that his answer related to encroachment of no-man’s land and cross-border occupation between the two countries, rather than any territorial claims.
Asserting that Nepal’s current border (with India) is based on the Sugauli Treaty of 1816, the Foreign Office said, “Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani and Susta in Nepal-India border area are territories that remain to be demarcated.
The Treaty of Sugauli was an agreement signed in 1816 between Nepal and the British East India Company that set the basis for much of the current-day India-Nepal border after a war between the two sides then.
“There are problems relating to cross-border occupation and no-man’s land (Dasgaja) encroachments in some other areas besides these. What the prime minister mentioned in Parliament was related mainly with Dasgaja encroachment and cross-border occupation,” the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson also said that there are possibilities that “land being used by people on the Indian side may lie in Nepalese territory” and vice versa. “What the PM said about Indian land lying in Nepali side is related to the cross-border occupation,” the statement said.
Shah’s comments come a day ahead of a delegation of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) led by its chairman Rabi Lamichhane is set to visit India at the invitation of BJP president Nitin Nabin.
During his five day visit, Lamichhane will hold high-level political and diplomatic meetings in New Delhi among other engagements, the RSP said in a statement.
