Nepalese Prime Minister Balindra Shah, also known as Balin Shah, on Sunday sparked a major controversy when he spoke in Parliament about the border dispute with India, saying that he had learned that his country was “encroaching” on Indian territory.
The Nepalese Prime Minister made the remarks while answering questions in Parliament regarding the long-standing border dispute with India.
This was his first speech Parliament of Nepal after assuming the position of Prime Minister of the Himalayan country in historic elections held last March.
The current Parliament session began on May 11. In his remarks, Shah suggested, without going into details, that India and Nepal have agreed to seek help from historians, surveyors and experts to resolve the issue, adding that Kathmandu has also taken up the matter with China and the United Kingdom.
“You will be surprised to know a fact that I only learned recently after I became Prime Minister. It was not only India that encroached on Nepali territory, Nepal also encroached on Indian territory in many places.” The Prime Minister said.
He added: “Now the two countries must study the facts, sit together as friends, and resolve the issue.”
What is the border dispute between India and Nepal?
It has been for Nepal and India for a long time A border dispute over Lipulekh, Limpiyadura and Kalapani, with both countries claiming the areas.
The dispute between India and Nepal concerns an area of 335 to 372 square kilometers at the strategic tri-junction between India, Nepal and Tibet.
The crux of the conflict stems from the different interpretations of the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli, which established the Kali River (also known as the Mahakali River) as the western border of Nepal. However, the treaty did not clearly specify the exact geographical source or point of origin of the river.
While India says the river originates from a spring below Lipulekh, Nepal says it originates from a point located to the northwest at the Limpiyadhura River.
India insists that these territories are part of the state of Uttarakhand and has said the issue should be addressed through bilateral dialogue.
Explanation Nepal
Hours after Balin Shah’s remarks, Nepal’s Foreign Ministry said the Prime Minister’s remarks were related to “encroachments on sacred lands” and “cross-border occupation” between the two countries, and not to any territorial claims.
“There are problems related to cross-border occupation and encroachments on no man’s lands (Dasgaga) in some other areas besides these. What the Prime Minister mentioned in Parliament was mainly related to encroachment on Dasgaga and cross-border occupation,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
The spokesman also said that there is a possibility that “lands used by people on the Indian side may fall into Nepalese territory” and vice versa.
“What the Prime Minister said about Indian territory located on the Nepali side relates to cross-border occupation,” the statement said.
There was no immediate response from the Indian side to Shah’s comments, but earlier this month, while rejecting Nepal’s objection to the upcoming Kailash Mansarovar Yatra project through the long-standing Lipulekh Corridor, India dismissed Kathmandu’s territorial claims over the region as a “unilateral artificial enlargement” that New Delhi finds “indefensible”.
Balin Shah’s government is facing the heat
Balin Shah’s statements regarding Nepal’s encroachment on Indian territory sparked controversy within his government in his country, despite the Foreign Ministry’s clarification.
Opposition lawmakers, including Pasana Thapa of the Nepali Congress and Ramesh Malla of the Nepal Communist Party, objected to Shah’s statements and demanded that they be removed from the parliamentary register.
They said the Prime Minister should either provide evidence to support his claims that Nepal has encroached on Indian territory or withdraw the statement.
Former Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali has reportedly demanded an apology from Shah.
Many Nepali social media users criticized the Prime Minister’s statements, while many experts rejected them.
Former Nepalese ambassador to India, Nilambara Acharya, told media website Kantipuronline that Shah “has no information about Nepal’s encroachments on Indian territory.”
According to Acharya, 97% of border disputes between the two sides have already been resolved. He said there were reports of some Nepalis using land in India and some Indians using land in Nepal due to the loss of boundary pillars in some border areas, but the Nepalese government, per se, has not encroached on Indian territory.
Another former ambassador of Nepal to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, said that Nepal’s encroachment on Indian territory has not been documented in any record.
“India also did not raise this issue officially… Till now, we have conducted studies, but this issue has not come up at all… I don’t know in what context the Prime Minister spoke about such a serious issue,” he told online news portal Nepal Press.
Nepal-India border expert and renowned geographer Buddhi Narayan Shrestha also denied the Prime Minister’s claims that Nepal is encroaching on Indian territory.
“Nepal has never encroached on Indian territory or expanded its occupation in the border area. In some border areas, due to mutual occupation, farmers from both countries have used each other’s lands,” he added.
Balin Shah’s comments come a day before a delegation from the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), led by its president Rabi Lamichhane, visits 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 others, the RSP said in a statement.
