New Delhi: Amid Nepal puts its revised map on hold after opposition parties sought more time, India is carefully following the development in the neighbouring country and also monitoring the situation closely.
“We are carefully following developments in Nepal. Border issues are sensitive by nature and require trust and confidence to be resolved to mutual satisfaction,” sources in the government establishment said.
The sources also added that “We note that there is a larger ongoing debate on this matter in Nepal. It underlines the seriousness of this issue.”
“It also demonstrates the value being attached to relations between Nepal and India,” they added.
The bill, set to be introduced by Law Minister Shiva Maya Tungbahamphe, was removed from the scheduled list of business as the main opposition party -- the Nepali Congress -- sought more time to decide on its stand over the matter.
Since it was a constitutional amendment, it would have required a two-thirds majority for which support of the main opposition would have been vital.
Last week, the Nepali government had issued a new, controversial map of the country which showed Indian territories of Lipulekh, Kalapani, Limpiyadhura as its own.
The ongoing dispute is not new and dates back to 1816 when under the Treaty of Sugauli, King of Nepal lost parts of its territory to British including Kalapani and Lipulekh.
India had rejected the map, cleared by the Oli cabinet, as a “unilateral act” and had asked Nepal to refrain from such “unjustified cartographic assertion”.
“Such artificial enlargement of territorial claims will not be accepted by India,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said last week after Nepal released its revised map.
Nepal had objected to the link road inaugurated by India on the Kailash Mansarovar route in Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand leading to Lipulekh on May 7.
Nepal’s foreign ministry had issued a press release objecting to the link road claiming it passes through Nepalese territory.
India had rejected the claim, saying it “lies completely within the territory of India”.
India has said the road follows the pre-existing route used by pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
