Nepal parliament unanimously passes bill to redraw political map amid land row with India

The lower house of Nepal’s Parliament on Saturday passed a Bill to amend the country’s constitution to endorse the new map its government issued last month showing within its territory nearly 400 sq. km of areas claimed by India.

New Delhi dismissed the move, stating that Nepal’s move to expand its territorial claims was “not based on historical fact or evidence” and “not tenable”. India also subtly indicated that Nepal’s latest move would make it difficult for the two sides to hold talks to settle the border dispute.

Nepal has been ratcheting up its territorial dispute with India over the past few weeks. It coincided with the stand-off on the disputed boundary between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

The Nepal Communist Party’s government led by Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli received support from the Nepali Congress and other opposition parties in the House of Representatives, which passed the Bill to amend the Schedule 3 of the Constitution of Nepal to update the country’s national emblem by incorporating in it the new map.

Though the opposition Nepali Congress initially dithered, it finally decided to vote in favour of the Bill – thus helping the Oli Government secure the support of two-thirds of the total members of the House.

Nepal’s new map includes Lipulekh Pass, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura – the areas, which New Delhi claims to be parts of the territory of India and which are also close India’s disputed boundary with China.

“The House of Representatives unanimously adopted the Constitution Amendment Bill, paving the way for accommodating the updated political-administrative map in the national emblem,” Pradeep Gyawali, Foreign Minister of Nepal, posted on Twitter, shortly after the proposed legislation was passed by the lower house of the country’s Parliament.

The Bill is now set to move to the National Assembly, the upper house of Nepal’s Parliament, where it is likely to sail through, as the ruling Nepal Communist Party itself has two-thirds majority.

“This artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable,” Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi. He said that Nepal’s move also violated its “current understanding” with India “to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues”.

Oli’s cabinet had on May 19 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. Kathmandu alleged that the road built by India passed through the territory of Nepal.

India rejected Nepal’s allegation and its “unjustified cartographic assertion” and “unilateral move”.

The dispute has its origin in the Treaty of Sugauli, which Nepal had signed with the British East India Company in December 1815. Both New Delhi and Kathmandu are still committed to the treaty, which identified the Kali River as the India-Nepal border in the region. They, however, could not resolve differences in perception over the source of the river.

New Delhi suspects that the Oli Government had been nudged by Beijing to raise its pitch on the Nepal-India territorial dispute at a time when Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army are engaged in a stand-off along India-China disputed boundary in eastern Ladakh.

A source in New Delhi said that Nepal had encroached upon territory of India in Narsahi and Susta in Bihar by settling its own population and through various construction activities. “India has always stressed on resolution of the boundary issue through diplomatic dialogue,” said the source.

India and Nepal had in 2014 mandated the Foreign Secretaries of the two Governments to settle the dispute over Kalapani as well as Narsahi-Susta with technical inputs from a joint Boundary Working Group.