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By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

A small news item in the government organ The Rising Nepal has gone unnoticed. Perhaps the government is quite happy that there was no hue and cry, because it was about something that all Nepalese are very concerned about – the integrity of the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity (TRN/Dec. 27).

The Basic Facts

Some time back, at an important Sino-Indian meeting in Beijing, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, reached a crucial agreement to resume the direct Indo-Tibetan Kailash Manosarovar pilgrimages that had been discontinued due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

All very well and good, were it not for an important catch.

Travel from the Indian side from Uttarkhand to Manosarovar in Tibet involves passing through Nepal’s own Lipulekh and Kalapani regions, which have already been incorporated in Nepal’s official map.

However, India has already secretly built a motor road through sovereign Nepalese territory.

The Oli government of the Himalayan Republic is underplaying this gross violation of international law.

When the road was first built and inaugurated, the then Nepalese government had objected to both India and China, citing that the two had taken the decision without consulting Nepal.

Nepal had pointed out that Lipulekh and Kalapani are within the catchment area of the Mahakali River —  the official boundary between West Nepal and Uttarkhand according to the Treaty of Sugauli between Nepal and British India.

Both India and China have chosen to ignore this historical fact.

This time around, the Oli government has also chosen to keep silent, thinking discretion is the better part of valour, or to put it more crassly, to run away like a dog with its tail between its legs!

Wonder of wonders, the Oli government has concluded that the latest agreement between India and China to open the route to Kailash Manosarovar is not a matter of concern for Nepal!

After a cabinet decision, the government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung said that the agreement does not affect Nepal’s sovereignty! (TRN/Dec.27).

This is a wholesale contradiction of the facts, and the craven Oli government is willfully downplaying the attempt by both India and China to achieve a situation that is against Nepal’s vital national interests.

Why is the remaining patriotic Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) keeping quiet?

If the current Nepali foreign minister had any guts, she would, at least, summon both the Indian and Chinese ambassadors to the ministry and ask for clarification(s).

The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com