Friendship on a rocky road

The video-inauguration by defence minister Rajnath Singh on May 8 of a somewhat shorter route through the Lipulekh pass for the KailashMansoarovar Yatra has set off fresh tremors in India-Nepal relations, and it is best that India act pro-actively to finesse this disagreement quickly.

India-Nepal relations have been extremely close on account of the deep-going cultural affinity at the people level, but at the level of State the relationship has scarcely been free of friction. Close ties with Nepal are a sine qua non in the context of India's security vis-a-vis China.

Our giant neighbour to the north has sought to use rough edges in IndiaNepal ties to its advantage. For their part, sections of the Kathmandu Valley elite have not been above playing off India and China to secure advantage. This was as true when Nepal was the world's only Hindu Kingdom as it is in Nepal's republican phase.

Lipulekh is a high Himalayan mountain pass where the Indian territory of Uttarakhand meets Tibet (China) and abuts Nepal. Historically, and by ancient custom Indian pilgrims to Mansarovar as well as Indian and Tibetan traders have used this pass as a natural link between India and Tibet, a fact reconfirmed in 1994 when Taklakot became the first trading post to be opened between India and China after 1962. In 2015, Lipulekh itself became an expanded border post when Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an agreement to that effect with the Chinese in 2015.

This did draw protest from Nepal. Kathmandu has claimed Lipulekh and territories east of the Mahakali river in terms of the 1816 Treat of Sugauli between the East India Company and Nepal, although subsequent British era surveys do offer other interpretations. Given this background, India appears to have acted in a hurry in not negotiating a settlement to the boundary issue before making a motorable road though Lipulekh. Every effort must be made to guard against a Kathmandu-Beijing concord developing on this to prevent a Doklam-like problem arising.