Nepal Exerts ‘Indirect Effort’ to Play Anti-India Card

Nepal Prime Minister, KP Sharma Oli’s push to fast-track release of a new political map is linked to his huge climb-down last month when he had to cancel an ordinance within five days. There is an intensive effort by the Oli Government in recent days to play the anti-India card to whip up ultra-nationalistic emotions to settle domestic scores.

“By raising an ultra-nationalistic sentiment, Oli has left his comrades - former PMs, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Madhav Kumar Nepal - with no option but to side with him and make India the casualty in the cross-firing between the two groups, a second person”, an internal sources said.

Nepal’s new political map that claims the Lipulekh Pass, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh as its own is only one part of this exercise. PM Oli’s statement in parliament on May 20, 2020, through which he claimed that the coronavirus infection was coming from India appeared more lethal than those from China and Italy.

The two former Prime Ministers, who have been accused of destabilizing the KP Sharma Oli-led government, are seen to have played a lead role in the tug-of-war that played out in Nepal’s power politics.

At a time when Nepal, like the rest of the world was battling Covid-19, the prime minister had surprised his country when he got twin ordinances notified. These two made it easier for the parties to split and register a new faction.  These were widely perceived to be part of an exercise by PM Oli to strengthen himself in the party and the government.

Oli stood down on April 23 and scrap the ordinances within five days to buy peace with his prime detractors. The Communist Party of China’s international liaison department also stepped up efforts to broker peace between the comrades in Nepal, a media report from Nepal reveals. It was this shade of domestic power play at work when land management minister Padma Kumari Aryal held up a new map of Nepal.

“In a press conference, Padma K Aryal, had hoped that India would take Nepal’s decision to publish the new map in a positive way. She didn’t elaborate further”, a report in the Katmandu post revealed. The 80-km stretch of road that New Delhi built Uttarakhand’s Dharchula to Lipulekh to make it easier for pilgrims to reach Kailash Mansarovar in the Tibet Autonomous Region offered the perfect opportunity.

Army Chief, Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane, brushed aside the shrill voices from Kathmandu, underlining that there was no dispute over the land on which the road had been built. He further went on to suggest that the protests could be at the behest of someone else – an indirect reference to China.

Prime Minister Oli, who is seen to be heavily tilting towards China, has described Gen Naravane’s comment as ‘inappropriate.

Kalapani is a 35 square kilometer area in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district. Nepal claims this area as part of its Darchula district. The tri-junction point of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura in Nepal’s northwest separates China and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the north and India’s Kumaon to the south. The Mahakali river has been considered as a natural demarcation line to separate the borders.

Indian security officials say China has tacitly recognized India’s claim over the Kalapani area when it agreed to open a border trade post at Lipulekh in 2015.