From Far & Near Continuing Nepal-India Border Disputes By Shashi Malla After it became known that India had more or less (surreptitiously) built a strategic road connecting its Uttarakhand state with the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), there was a hue and cry in the general public – in spite of the lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic. It is indeed stupendous that the Oli government did not have any idea or inkling about this road built partly on territory claimed by Nepal! This is especially the case since the Indian government last year published a political map showing parts of Nepal as sovereign Indian territory. Since then, the Communist government has been caught napping! However, until this incident of ‘cartographical aggression’ by India, all Nepalese governments since the signing of the Sugauli Treaty, 1816 with the British East India Company, bear full responsibility for the sad state of affairs regarding the border(s) with India. Even the Panchayat Regime (1960-19960) did manage to regulate Nepal’s border with its northern neighbor China, but woefully neglected the borders with Sikkim and India    …… Since India’s ‘Cartographical Aggression’ of November 2019, the Oli government should have been on its toes doing its home-work, background checks and preparing the groundwork for negotiations with India. But nothing of the sort happened. It seems that this Communist-Maoist government is too arrogant to seek and listen to experts. Nepal needs to undertake extensive research before taking the next steps. For this the expertise of noted specialists is of utmost necessity. Professor Surya P. Subedi of Leeds University, U.K. had offered his and those of the organization Global Policy Forum Nepal (GPFM)    which he heads, the necessary strategic help to move forward. Prof. Subedi is one of the leading luminaries of International Law in the UK. It is also known that the boundary specialist Buddhi Narayan Shrestha would be a source of much detailed information. His well-researched book Border Management of Nepal should be made compulsory reading for the concerned politicians and bureaucrats. Lately, the historian Professor Ramesh Kumar Dhungel of Tribhuban University has made available in My Republicaa video of the genesis of the border dispute. This should also be compulsory viewing by our decision-makers. Prof. Dhungel has done extensive research in various archives, including the British Museum. Another Briton, General Sam Cowan, formerly of the British Gurkhas is naturally very sympathetic to Nepal’s standpoint, but at the same time also critical of the lack of proper policy and decision-making at the highest levels. His well-researched article: “The Indian check-posts, LipuLekh, and Kalapani,” in The Record (December 14, 2015) is most illuminating. Recent Developments
  1. Nepal’s President Bidya Bhandari, in her address to the national parliament on behalf of her government, laid out that the government would soon publish political maps showing territories illegally occupied by Indian troops as part of the sovereign territory of Nepal.
This was not likely to impress the Burra Sahibs in New Delhi, nor will it change the situation on the ground. The government has now endorsed an updated political map of Nepal that includes “contested” [Nepal Govt.] lands on the northwestern edge of the country up to Limpiyadhura. Instead of a war of words, we will have a war of maps without any progress. It will be one map against another, and the border dispute will be reduced to a ‘duel of the maps’. The Nepalese government will have to come up with something better and something more convincing – also for our South Asian neighbours and the international community [which, of course, is a shadowy concept].
  1. India’s current chief of the army staff, General Manoj Mukunda Naravane last week made an unwarranted statement just out of the blue that Nepal’s ‘latest’, i.e. altered position on the border question was a result of ‘prompting’ from ‘another source’. He was unashamedly hinting that the Nepalese government was acting at the behest of our northern neighbor China, which itself has a massive border dispute with India.
This was manifestly incorrect, since Nepal had its own issue with China regarding its bilateral deal with India vis-à-vis LipuLekh. The triangular points in Nepal’s north-west [Darchula-Tibet-Uttarakhand] and north-east [Taplejung-Tibet-Sikkim] are still unchartered territory. But it did bring to the fore how lowly the Indian establishment regards the ‘Kathmandu swamp’ of congenital corruption and innate ineptitude. This brings to mind the peculiar and completely outdated bilateral practice of conferring the honorary title of ‘general of the army’ on each other’s chief of the army staff by the two heads of state. As long back as the 1960’s, King Mahendra had rejected the notion of a ‘special relationship’ with India. We are now in the era where we have to cultivate ‘equal and equidistant’ relations with both our giant neighbours. The Way Forward As we laid out in a previous write-up, the so-called diplomatic path only leads to a cul-de-sac. If we are get anywhere, the government has to be more resolute and adopt more robust measures, above all not reactively and retroactively, but proactively!
  1. On the political front, it has to prepare a case for presentation at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. For this, the help and assistance of Professor Surya P. Subedi [see above] would be inestimable worth.
  2. On the ground, the government must pursue a reliable and robust ‘forward policy’.
  3. The Nepal Army (NA) must be intimately involved in the pursuit of our national security – which is a concept more broader than the mere protection of our national borders.
Our Consultant Editor Emeritus, Manaranjan Josse has cogently set out that it is high noon for the concept of an ‘open border’ with India be consigned to the dustbin of history – vide his incisive feature: “In the time of Covid-19, scrapping ‘open border’ is a national priority” [The People’s Review, April 16, 2020]. Role of Nepal Army The Nepal Army must be immediately involved in all aspects of National Security writ large. This is too important a subject to be left only to the bickering politicians and ministers of home, foreign affairs and defence. It must also immediately explore the possibility of carrying out reconnaissance and sending patrols in all areas within our sovereignty. The Nepal Army is better equipped to carry out such sensitive assignments because of its international experience in UN Peace Keeping Operations. It must, of course, avoid any unintended consequences and encounters with the Indian border police, even if they are encroaching upon our sovereign territory. The Nepal Army should be up to the task of protecting our territorial integrity. The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com