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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 13
Nepal’s House of Representatives on Saturday unanimously passed a Constitutional amendment revising the map in the Coat of Arms to include three areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura that India later in the evening asserted were part of its territory.
While the political momentum behind the changes in map was unstoppable for Baluwatar, both sides made attempts to ensure that the killing of an Indian by Nepal Police did not add to the differences. Nepal released an Indian arrested on serious charges of attempting to snatch weapons from the police while India said the firing as having occurred “deep inside Nepal territory”.
The die for a change in the Constitution was cast about 10 days back when Nepal’s Lower House unanimously approved a resolution to change the map on its coat of arms.
The Ministry of External Affairs here accused Nepal of violating “our current understanding” to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues. “We have already made our position clear on this matter. This artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable. It is also a part of Indian territory,” said the MEA official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.
Nepal’s map change was in response to two Indian moves over eight months. First in early November, India released a new political map. Its basic aim was to reflect the new reality of erstwhile state of J&K divided into two union territories but netizens it also included Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura. India handled that dissonance by promising dialogue.
On May 8, the controversy was re-stoked when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a road from Dharchula in Uttarakhand to the controversial spot of Lipulekh.
This set in motion a political process that has led to changes in Nepal’s political map and while Nepal’s PM and Foreign Ministry publicly asked India to hold a dialogue, especially at the level of Foreign Secretaries, it was on Saturday that the MEA seemed to suggest that it had made an offer for talks.
The amendment in the lower house hung in balance as the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was 10 seats short of the needed two-thirds majority. But Madheshi parties, who were asked to display their nationalist credentials, and the Nepali Congress came on board, making the passing of the resolution a fait accompli. The Bill will now go to the Upper House where NCP holds 50 of the 59 elected seats.
Sad day: Cong on Nepal move
Commenting on the Nepal Parliament’s unanimous passage of the Bill to redraw the country’s political map, Congress media chairman Randeep Surjewala tweeted, “This is a sad day in the long standing Indo-Nepal relationship! Tragic that self professed “strong leadership” of BJP remains in ostrich like denial, when it comes to protecting “National Interest”. Delusional TV warfare can’t substitute the absence of mature political leadership."
