No power can break India, Nepal ties, says Rajnath

NEW DELHI: Rejecting Nepal’s territorial claim, Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh asserted on Monday that the LipulekhDharchula Road falls very much in India and conveyed the Modi government’s willingness to sort out the “misunderstanding” with the neighbouring country through dialogue.

Singh stressed on the centuries-old ties between the two counties, noting that they were not only social, geographical, historical and cultural but also spiritual.

India can never forget this reality and Indians can never have any bitterness towards Nepal, the Defence minister added.

“Our relations are not only of this world but also of the ‘other world’ and they cannot be changed even if someone wishes to,” he said at a BJP’S virtual rally for Uttarakhand, the state in whose border region the road has been built.

“These are no ordinary ties and we are bound by ‘roti’ and ‘beti’ (livelihood and marriage). No power in the world can break it,” Singh said.

The bilateral ties between the two countries came under strain after Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically-crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal’s Parliament had on Saturday unanimously voted to amend the Constitution to update the country’s new political map, laying claim over three strategically key areas, including Lipulekh, along the border with India.

“If the Lipulekh-dharchula Road has given rise to some misunderstanding among the people of Nepal, I believe we can sit together to address it. We can do it through dialogue,” the minister added.