Nepal unveils revised map showing India’s territories as its own
Kathmandu [Nepal], May 20 (ANI): Nepal on Wednesday officially unveiled a revised political and administrative map of the country showing India’s territories of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani as part of its own sovereign territory. Nepal ‘s Minister for Land Reforms and Management, Padma Aryal , unveiled the revised map during a televised press conference held at the ministry late on Wednesday afternoon.
“We have come to the point of unveiling our revised map which includes the territories which were not incorporated in earlier map s on the basis of ample evidence and proofs collected,” Minister Aryal claimed in the address broadcast by state-owned Nepal Television.
The updated map including those territories was submitted to the Ministry of Land Management by the Department of Survey which claims to have taken accurate scale, projection, and coordinate system. The department has collected a map drawn during the Treaty of Sugauli, another brought from London, receipts of payment of land revenues, and the order issued on by the then Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher.
The three territories are unresolved between India and Nepal and both claim that they are part of their territory. India and Nepal share a 1,800km (1,118-mile) open border. Nepal has said it has “consistently maintained” that as per the Sugauli Treaty (1816), “all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) river, including Limpiyadhura , Kalapani and Lipu Lekh, belong to Nepal .”
The Lipulekh Pass is claimed by Nepal based on the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli it entered with the British colonial rulers to define its western border with India. Kathmandu also claims the highly strategic areas of Limpiyadhura and Kalapani, although Indian troops have been deployed there since New Delhi fought a war with China in 1962.
The publication of the new map comes less than a fortnight after a new road was inaugurated on May 8 by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh connecting the Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand with the Kailash Mansarovar route in China.
Nepal has protested against it and is also considering putting up a security post in the area. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said the road going through Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district “lies completely within the territory of India”. (ANI)
PM Oli’s Parliament address was a deadly cocktail of half-truths and arrogance’
Kathmandu [Nepal], May 21 (ANI): Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli failed to offer hope to the people about the government’s determination to fight COVID-19 during his three-hour address in the parliament with and remarks were filled with “half-truths and arrogance”, leaders and analysts have said.
Kathmandu Post said citing political observers and politicians that Oli squandered away an opportunity to provide any short or long-term solutions and just outlined a litany of problems facing the country in his address to the parliament. Former Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai also criticized Oli for his speech.
“After listening to Prime Minister Oli for three hours, I do not see any indication that he has acknowledged his weaknesses and is trying to improve. Listening to him talk about coronavirus, nationality and democracy, I saw a deadly cocktail of half-truths and arrogance,” Bhattarai wrote on Twitter.
In his three-hour address, Oli talked about border row with India and blamed the rising number of coronavirus cases on individuals breaking the nationwide lockdown and especially blamed those “sneaking” into Nepal from India.
Kathmandu Post reported that the prime minister mentioned the problems but did not provide specific measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the country. “The prime minister looked like the Health Ministry spokesperson,” said Krishna Pokharel, a political commentator. “I could not find any compassion in his speech as the head of the government.”
According to Pokharel, at a time of crisis when citizens were looking towards the prime minister for leadership and hope, Oli was unable to give an assurance to the nation. He only endorsed his only visible achievement–the endorsement of a new political map.
During his address, where he was supposed to respond to lawmakers regarding the government’s priorities for the upcoming year, he took credit for coming up with a new political map , one that includes India ‘s territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura. “Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura belong to Nepal,” said Oli.
“This is not just rhetoric, we will bring our land back” through diplomatic means, he added. Though Oli has said he would initiate dialogue with India to reclaim the land, the opposition has objected that the release of the new map on Wednesday saying it could further complicate matters. Former minister and diplomat Bhekh Bahadur Thapa said, “My concern is, what next?” “We did not get any clear roadmap from the prime minister.
Now, both countries have two different maps and that is not going to provide a solution,” said Thapa, who was also the coordinator from the Nepali side on the Eminent Persons’ Group on Nepal-India relations. Members of Oli’s own party did not support him during the speech.
In past years, the ruling party stood behind Oli but this year, in marked contrast, no one from the ruling party, particularly party chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, spoke in defence of the Oli government, according to a ruling party leader.
“The changing dynamics inside the party manifested in the House,” the Central Committee member said. “Only Deputy Parliament ary Party leader Subas Nembang and party General Secretary Bishnu Poudel defended the government in the lower house,” he said. (ANI)
