Delhi fumes as Nepal releases new map including areas claimed by India

Nepalese PM said that COVID-19 spread by the Indians in his country were more lethal than from China or Italy

Nepal on Wednesday published a new map of its territory including areas claimed by India, triggering a strong protest from New Delhi, which called it a “unilateral act” by the government of the neighbouring country.

Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli too took the rhetoric against India to a new level, stating that the COVID-19 virus spread by the Indians in his country were more lethal than the ones that came from China or Italy.

The new map of Nepal published by the Ministry of Land Management of the Nepalese Government included Lipulekh Pass, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura – the areas New Delhi claims to be part of the territory of India. Oli’s cabinet had on Tuesday decided to publish the new political and administrative map of Nepal, in order to re-assert its claim on the disputed areas. The move was in response to construction of a strategic road by India from Dharchula in its Uttarakhand State to Lipulekh Pass near its disputed boundary with China.

New Delhi strongly reacted to the move by Kathmandu, stating that such “artificial enlargement of territorial claims” by Nepal was “not based on historical facts and evidence” and would not be accepted by India. “It is contrary to the bilateral understanding to resolve the outstanding boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue,” Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi. “Nepal is well aware of India’s consistent position on this matter and we urge the Government of Nepal to refrain from such unjustified cartographic assertion and respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”

India also urged the leadership of Nepal to “create a positive atmosphere for diplomatic dialogue to resolve the outstanding boundary issues”.

Kathmandu has been raising its pitch on the Nepal-India territorial dispute over Lipulekh Pass over the past few days. But what came as a shocker for New Delhi was Oli’s remark.

“Those who are coming from India through illegal channels are spreading the virus in the country and some local representatives and party leaders are responsible for bringing in people from India without proper testing,” said Nepalese Prime Minister, adding: “It has become very difficult to contain the COVID-19 due to the flow of people from outside. Indian virus looks more lethal than Chinese and Italian now. More are getting infected.”

Nepal shares an open 1753-kilometer-long border with India. The people of the two countries can freely travel to each other without requiring passports or visas. Nepal also shares a 1414-kilometer-long border with China.

Oli’s statement raised eyebrows in New Delhi as the first person to be found COVID-19 positive in Nepal was a youth, who was a research scholar at an institute in Wuhan in central China – the “ground zero” of what now turned into a pandemic that left over 47.61 lakh people around the world infected by the virus with over 3.17 lakh of them succumbing to it so far. The 32-year-old Nepalese, who had returned to his home in Kathmandu in early January, was also the first to be found COVID-19 positive in South Asia.

A source in New Delhi said that Oli’s statement is being viewed by the Government of India as an attempt to silence his detractors within the ruling Nepal Communist Party, which was nudged by China to raise the clamour against India.

Nepal is one of the South Asian countries where India and China compete for geo-political influence.

Nepal’s borders with both India and China were closed on March 22 in order to contain the pandemic. With 62 and 45 new cases being reported on Monday and Tuesday respectively, altogether 402 people have so far been infected by the virus in Nepal, while two of them died. It is still the second least COVID-19 affected country in South Asia.

Over 1.06 lakh people were so far infected by the virus and 3303 of them died in India. China, where the outbreak started in December, flattened the curve of the spread of the infection by mid-February, with over 84,000 confirmed COVID-19 positive cases and 4645 deaths.

The Nepalese Government has been crying foul ever since Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on May 8 had a video-conference from New Delhi to inaugurate the road from Ghatiabgarh in Dharchula and ends in Lipulekh Pass – an India-China-Nepal tri-junction boundary point. Kathmandu claimed that the road built by India went through the territory of Nepal and its construction ran against the understanding reached between the two nations that they would resolve the boundary dispute through negotiation.

New Delhi, however, rejected the contention of Nepal, asserting that the new road lay completely within the territory of India.