Take alternative steps to defuse border dispute, India tells Nepal

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

Nepal’s Parliament is slated to take up a Constitutional amendment resolution on Tuesday after the Nepali Congress came on board to give a two-thirds majority.

It has cited the India-China Army commanders’ meeting and the virtual summit between PM Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison to suggest a similar arrangement between the two Foreign Secretaries.

Sources said while the resolution should not be bandied as a threat, there are other mechanisms to discuss Nepal’s claim over territory that has an Indian military post along with 19 kms of an Indian-built road to China border.

They pointed out Nepal’s haste in taking the Constitutional amendment route, but felt the situation was retrievable. The ties could have taken a turn for the worse had Nepal approached the International Court of Justice or the UN which was the stage of a slanging match between India and Nepalese delegations over an “economic blockade” in 2015.

There were existing modalities such as the report of the Eminent Persons’ Group on resolving the outstanding issues which was convened by the Foreign Secretaries of both countries and has been pending official airing for two years.

Besides, there was also a pending proposal for a field survey to demarcate Kalapani for which a joint boundary committee was to be set up. “There are no dead-ends with Nepal. It is a question of how we handle it from here,’’ said a source.

The border dispute came to the fore last month when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh digitally inaugurated a link road to Mansarovar Yatra.