Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Sunday said he has learnt about his country “encroaching” territories in India, as he sought to answer questions in the parliament on a long-running border dispute.
He further said both countries have agreed to take the help of historians, surveyors and experts to seek resolution, adding that Kathmandu has also held diplomatic discussions on the issue with China and the UK.
Nepal and India have an old boundary dispute over Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, with both countries claiming the areas. India maintains that the territories are part of Uttarakhand and has said the issue should be addressed through bilateral dialogue.
“The Nepal government has officially sent a diplomatic note to India, mentioning the issue of encroachment of territories by India, including Lipulekh, and we have already received their response,” Shah told the parliament. “Both the countries have agreed to resolve the issue sitting together with the help of historians, surveyors and concerned experts through diplomatic means.”
He, however, added that it is not only India that has “encroached” land in Nepal, the latter too had done the same with India.
“You will be surprised to know about a fact, which I have learnt recently only after becoming the Prime Minister. India has not only encroached Nepalese territories, but Nepal has also encroached India’s territories in many places,” said Shah. “Now both countries should study the facts and sit together as friends and resolve the issue.”
Shah said Kathmandu also held diplomatic discussions on the issue with China — the three places are located near the trijunction of India, Tibet and Nepal — and the United Kingdom. The prime minister said he took up the matter with the UK because it dates back to a period when the British government left the region.
Shah’s comments about Nepal encroaching Indian territories have triggered a controversy. Many Nepalese social media users are criticising it, while experts have dismissed it.
Former Nepalese ambassador to India Nilambara Acharya told Kantipuronline media portal that Shah has “no information regarding Indian territories being encroached by Nepal.”
According to Acharya, 97 per cent of the border disputes between the two sides have already been resolved, but there are few that still linger.
There are reports about some Nepalese using land in India and some Indians using land in Nepal due to the missing border pillars in some border areas, but the Nepal government as such has not encroached India’s territory, Acharya said.
Another former ambassador of Nepal to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay said that Nepal encroaching India’s territory is not there in any record.
“India has also not raised this issue on record … So far we have conducted studies, but this issue has never surfaced … I don’t know in which context the prime minister spoke about such a serious matter,” he told the Nepalpress online news portal.
Nepal-India border expert and renowned geographer Buddhi Narayan Shrestha has also dismissed the prime minister’s statement about Nepal encroaching Indian territories.
Nepal has never encroached Indian territories or extended its occupation in the border area. In some border areas due to cross-holding occupations the farmers of both the countries have used each other’s land, he said.
Earlier this month, Nepal’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said the country is committed to resolving the border issue with India through diplomatic channels.
Chhetri’s comments had come days after India firmly rejected Nepal’s objection to the upcoming Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via the long-established Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand, dismissing Kathmandu’s territorial claims over the region as an “unilateral artificial enlargement” that New Delhi finds “untenable.”
