India sends tacit message to China, says no one can break its ties with Nepal

New Delhi offers talks with Kathmandu, but puts onus on Oli Government to create positive, conducive atmosphere

India on Monday sent out a tacit message to China, stating that “no power in the world” could break its bond with its northern neighbour Nepal.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh struck a conciliatory note to soothe the ruffled feathers in Kathmandu, two days after the House of Representatives – the lower house of Nepal’s Parliament – endorsed the new map, which the government of the neighbouring country recently issued showing within its territory nearly 400 sq. km of areas claimed by India.

Singh said the 80-kilometer-road New Delhi built from Dharchula in Uttarakhand to Lipulekh Pass was well within the territory of India. He, however, also acknowledged the road built by India created “some misunderstanding” in neighbouring Nepal.

“If the road from Dharchula to Lipulekh Pass created any misunderstanding in Nepal, we will resolve it through dialogue. But I want to say it with firm conviction that no Indian could have in mind any bitterness for the people of Nepal,” Singh said, addressing a virtual Jan Samvad rally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The government sources in New Delhi, however, put the onus of creating “positive and conducive atmosphere” for talks on Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s Government in Kathmandu. The sources said that Kathmandu had not responded to New Delhi’s repeated offers for talks between Foreign Secretaries of India and Nepal to settle the boundary dispute, as the two sides had agreed upon in 2014. They also said that the Oli Government had ratcheted up the India-Nepal boundary dispute for the sake of domestic political interests.

The sources pointed out that by issuing Nepal’s new maps and including in its territory areas claimed by India, Oli Government had pre-judged the outcome of any bilateral engagement to settle the dispute and violated the understanding between the two sides to settle the row through dialogues.

Singh on Monday said that India and Nepal “shared not only social, geographical, historical and cultural ties, but also a spiritual relation” and “no power in the world” could break this bond between the two nations. His statement came amid suspicion in New Delhi that Beijing nudged Oli’s Government in Kathmandu to ratchet up India-Nepal territorial dispute. New Delhi suspects that Beijing’s move was apparently aimed at mounting pressure on India amid the continuing stand-off between Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along India-China disputed boundary in eastern Ladakh.

He said that the road New Delhi built from Dharchula in Uttarakhand to Lipulekh Pass would make it easier for pilgrims from India to travel to Kailas Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

The road is one of the four New Delhi had decided to expeditiously build to link high-altitude mountain passes along the Line of Actual Control – the de facto boundary between India and China – after the June-August, 2017 stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA. The road would make it easier for the Indian Army to mobilize troops in case of a conflict situation on the disputed India-China boundary near the Lipulekh Pass.

The Defence Minister, however, on Monday did not mention the strategic significance of the new road, which he himself had inaugurated during a video-conference in New Delhi on May 8, triggering protests from Kathmandu which had alleged that the road built by India passed through the territory of Nepal.