The forestalled border talks between Nepal and India to resolve the dispute on the Kalapani, Lipu Lekh, Limpiyadhura border tri-junction will happen sooner than later. Both countries have issued their political maps, and the sticking points need to be sorted out so they can deal with their more urgent humanitarian crises caused by the COVID-19 lockdown.

Much has already been written and shown to prove Nepal’s claim to Kalapani. But the war of the maps rages on with former Indian diplomats and commentators preposterously accusing Nepal of ‘unjustified cartographic assertion’, ‘artificial enlargement of territorial claims’, or even ‘cartographic aggression’.

The shouting heads on Indian television have been known to be belligerent and biased on many of India’s domestic issues, but for the first time they exposed their darker side to the Nepali audience many of whom who understand Hindi and get Indian channels on the dish.

Nepal’s media has also supported the country’s historical claim to the territory, but the coverage has been much more measured with a lot of the blame also going to successive governments in Kathmandu for not pushing Nepal’s rightful claim to the region more assertively.

The former Director General of the Topographic Survey of Nepal, Punya Prasad Oli, says there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” between officials from Nepal and India to publish maps only after demarcation/delineation activities and the joint issuance of strip maps of their common border.  After India issued its map in November, there was no recourse for Nepal but to issue its own.

It was only in 1981 that the two countries set up the Nepal-India Technical Level Joint Boundary Group which decided to demarcate the borders, carry out maintenance of dilapidated and disappeared boundary pillars, and to densify them in built-up areas.

As has been exhaustively pointed out, Nepal’s position regarding the Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura regions is based on the British East India map published after the 1816 Sugauli Treaty — especially British maps up to 1857.

India’s position on the other hand is based on the British Survey of India maps between 1857-1881 and later. It should be remembered that the Topographic Survey of Nepal published Nepal’s first map in 1976, but Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura were not shown on them. On the other hand, Nepal’s maps published in text books during the Panchayat period incorporate these regions. The new political map has an appendix-like portion that juts out of the northwestern corner of Nepal.

There is no other treaty that Nepal has signed with British India which states that Nepal’s western boundary has changed because of natural causes. Even if the course of rivers changed in some sections of the Tarai after the Treaty, as per the international boundary principles, the position of the river at the time of the Treaty will be taken as the border.

One Indian contention is that it was British cartographers who kept shifting the line demarcating the Kali river eastwards for strategic reasons, and therefore Nepal should just accept it without any questions asked.

There are no records in Nepal to suggest that these demarcations were done jointly between British East India Company and Nepal. The shifting of the international boundary based on changes in the course of a mountain river does not hold water, literally. Even if these changes in the course of the river were depicted in the maps published by the Survey of India during British rule, they cannot be used as reference in deciding the international border.

 Perhaps the most vexing statement was made last week by Indian Army Chief Gen M N Naravane, who hinted that Nepal was influenced by a ‘third party’ in bringing forth the Kalapani issue. This created an uproar not just in Nepal, but even in India itself where a former Indian ambassador to Nepal called the statement ‘ill-advised’.

According to Bishwabandu Thapa, who was the Home Minister during King Mahendra’s rule in Nepal in 1962, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a personal letter to King Mahendra asking him to let the retreating India Army stay temporarily in an open area in Kalapani during the Sino-Indian war.

Mahendra agreed to that and Prime Minister Matrika Prasad Koirala followed up to make that happen. Not only did the Indian Army never leave the post, it has expanded its presence at Kalapani ever since – even up to this week by building new infrastructure and adding troop strength.

None of the historical maps that Nepal has presented as proof, nor documents of the population census of 1962 and tax receipts of the inhabitants of Byas VDC in Darchula in 1962 seems to matter to the Indian side.  

Public pressure in Nepal has now built up to such an extent that Prime Minister Oli has made statements in Parliament such as: “We will reclaim our land since they cannot even be classified as disputed.” Manisha Koirala, the grand daughter of Nepal’s first elected prime minister and a Bollywood star, has been trolled viciously in India for her support for Nepal’s position.

Indian television’s rhetoric is even more aggressive than that of its politicians. Egged on by flag-waving on India’s social media sphere, it will be difficult for New Delhi now to find a face-saving way out of the crisis even if it wants to.  

For the leaders of India and Nepal this has been a welcome distraction for the failure of both governments to lay down a social safety net for the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 lockdown. Sooner or later, the mass hardship of their populations will once more be in the news, including Nepali and Indian workers seeking to return to each others’ countries who are stuck at the border.

India’s unilateral actions since November have only confirmed the worst fears among Nepalis about India. It is now time to reduce the tension, lessen the rhetoric, and work towards confidence-building measures so that substantial political, diplomatic and technical dialogue can take place in an atmosphere of mutual respect.  

(Prabhakar Sharma is an international border expert)

https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/politics-and-history-of-nepals-kalapani-claim/