PLAYING THE ANTI-INDIA CARD
India is referred to as “mitr rashtra” (friendly country) in public statements by Nepali leaders, and the sheer size and scale of India-Nepal ties have few parallels. However, this ‘closeness’ also makes us the play board for domestic politics in Nepal with anti-India positioning paying rich political dividends. Providing space for regional and even global geopolitics vis-à-vis India, particularly with China but also with others in South Asia and beyond, are also part of the playlist in Nepal.
As the world and, indeed, India and Nepal grapple with the coronavirus pandemic and extraordinarily difficult economic times ahead, the latter has sought to rewrite its geography by releasing a new map that shows certain Indian areas in Nepal. The reasons appear to lie in its domestic politics and the influencing power it has now accorded to regional and global geopolitics.
The eastern and western borders of Nepal (with India) were fixed by the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli. The Kali (Mahakali) river was to be the western border of Nepal. The new map of Nepal includes Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh, which have been traditionally acknowledged as being west of the Kali. These areas are in the region where India, China and Nepal come together, not far from Mount Kailash. Most cartographic and other documentation, including from the time of Sugauli and thereafter, record these areas as India, but in recent years Nepal has laid claims to them based on its understanding that the water channel to the west of these areas was the principal source of the Kali. The matter is the subject of inter-governmental discussions and a highlevel mechanism has also been established to sort out border issues between India and Nepal.
Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli came to power in Nepal following the general election at the end of 2017, fanning shrill nationalist sentiments with an anti-India undertone. The victory of his party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) or CPN(UML), was also a result of its unification with the Maoists, led by former prime minister Prachanda, and possibly assisted by generous support from the Chinese. Useful as this coming together was for the electoral victory, power struggles among the Communist Party leaders continued and these intensified dramatically some weeks ago. Reports indicate that the fissuring was so profound that the Chinese felt compelled to intervene to keep the factions together.
The border issue with India was first raked up in late 2019 after India released its updated political map following changes in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Though that map made no changes to India’s external boundaries, political forces in Nepal accused us of infringing on their territories of Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh. The charge on the street, at that time, was led by the opposition Nepali Congress which saw an opportunity to underscore its nationalism and accuse the government and PM Oli of being pro-India.
The latest round appears to be triggered by the inauguration of a road by India on our side, and along a path used for years by Kailash Mansarovar yatris. The release of the map in Nepal has also been accompanied by the most egregious posturing at the highest level, with Oli wanting to know in parliament if India’s national emblem was about satyameva jayate (truth shall prevail) or the hard look of a lion! His further allusion to a virus from India being deadlier than the one from China (the source of the novel coronavirus) or from Italy (with its high Covid death toll) cannot be mistaken for anything other than a finger poked in our eye.
India-Nepal relations are time-tested and benefit the people of the two countries in countless ways that can’t be replicated or replaced by the Himalayan state. Provocative politics aimed at India has the potential to seriously vitiate relations, including at the popular level, given the huge and unbridled proliferation of social media in both India and Nepal. The way forward is dialogue and that requires an appropriate bilateral environment not only free of corona but also sans the pulls and pushes of others through regional and global geopolitics. ■
Manjeev S. Puri is a former ambassador of India to Nepal
Nepal has sought to rewrite its geography by releasing a new map that shows certain Indian areas inside its borders
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