The new Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, who is said to be close to China, has started fanning the anti-India nationalism. Nepal’s ruling Dahal government has promised to take back Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Nepal has been presenting its claim on these areas adjacent to Nepal. This has been revealed in a document issued under the Common Minimum Program of the Government of Nepal.
It has been said in this document that India has encroached on Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura areas and the new government will try its best to take back these areas.
The special thing is that in the political map of the year 2019 and the year 2020, those areas which Nepal wants to occupy, have been told by India within its border. A lot of controversy was also seen between Nepal and India on this matter at that time.
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Under the Common Minimum Program, the Government of Nepal aims to strengthen territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence. The surprising thing is that India is on the target of Prachanda government under this program, but there is no mention of China regarding any dispute related to the border.
However, in the document of the Common Minimum Program, it has been said that the Government of Nepal wants balanced diplomatic relations with both the neighboring countries, India and China. At the same time, it has also been said in the document that the Dahal government of Nepal will move forward with the mantra of “friendship with all and no enmity with anyone”.
Prachanda will discuss this matter during his first visit to India after becoming PM
If sources in Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Office are to be believed, the issue of border areas like Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura will be taken up on priority in Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s first official visit to India. However, it is not yet decided when Prime Minister Prachanda will go to India. This visit of his can happen in February or in the next month as well.
The foreign minister has not even been appointed in Dahal’s new government. While it is very important to appoint a foreign minister to resolve the border dispute between India and Nepal based on the relationship between bread and daughter.
The Prime Minister and Ministers of Nepal themselves will have to take up the responsibility of talks.
Nilambar Acharya, who was Nepal’s ambassador to India, told the Kathmandu Post about this, “For talks with India on such a sensitive issue, we should first clear to what level we want to take it.” Nilambar further said that our ambassador in New Delhi hardly meets any Indian minister or foreign secretary, so the Prime Minister and ministers of Nepal themselves will have to raise this issue.
In April last year, when the then Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba was on a visit to India, he also raised this issue before Prime Minister Narendra. However, this matter could not progress further and the matter became pacified.
Former diplomat Acharya further said, “Not only the Government of India but the people of India should also be aware of the border dispute with Nepal.” We have to look at different options of diplomacy to achieve this goal. It can be done publicly or secretly. But the question is, at what level, when and how will we start these things.
At the same time, former Nepali ambassador Khaganath Adhikari said that there is no other option to talk to India to get back the occupied land. He said that efficient diplomacy is needed for talks about this.
The officer said that neither we can quarrel with India nor can we get possession of our land again by sending the army. That’s why it can be discussed only through diplomacy.
Increasing border dispute between Nepal and India since 2019
In the year 2019, everything was not well between the government of the then Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli and the Government of India when India released its political map. The government of Nepal had protested against the inclusion of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh in this political map. Nepal presents its claim on these areas.
At that time, KP Sharma Oli had sent a diplomatic message asking India to discuss this. Also said that the map should be improved from the Indian side. Corona arrived only a few days later and seeing the time of the epidemic, India refused to discuss the matter immediately.
In May of 2020, when Corona was at its peak, a political map was released from India, in which all the three areas were described as part of India. Angry over this, the KP Oli government also released a new map of Nepal, in which these three areas were shown inside the Nepalese border.
Prachanda has broken the custom of his first visit to India after becoming the Prime Minister
This is not the first term of Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda as the country’s top leader. Prior to this, Prachanda was the Prime Minister from 2008 to 2009 and from 2016 to 2017. It has been a custom in Nepal that whenever a Prime Minister becomes there, his first official visit is to India. But when Prachanda got the power of Nepal for the first time, he did not take any time to break this custom and he reached China instead of India.
Now that Prachanda has once again taken over the power of Nepal, many political experts believe that Prachanda can capitalize on this border dispute in the name of nationalism. In fact, as The nationalism of India, which saw the dawn of freedom from slavery a few decades ago, is not seen in Nepal.
When India got independence, a dispute started with Pakistan and China, on which people also got angry and the wave of nationalism remained. But there is nothing like this in Nepal. Now there is only opposition to India which can at least brighten the domestic politics of Nepali leaders.