Nepali Congress (NC) leader Sujata Koirala has proposed a talks team under her for dialogue to resolve the border dispute with India.
Speaking in the International Relations Committee of the parliament on Monday, she has demanded a team under her including representatives of all political parties at a time when ruling and opposition lawmakers alike are criticizing the government for its failure to take effective steps against encroachment of Nepali land.
"I think I can resolve the problem," former foreign minister Koirala said during the meeting.
Pointing at some news reports stating that she called for giving Kalapani to India, she conceded that she had proposed leasing Kalapani to India for five years six months back, and added the proposal's relevance has been finished now.
She claimed that leaders only resort to nationalist rants and don't give measures for resolution of the problem. She also called for looking at Bangladesh as an alternative to India for transit. "We need to hold dialogue with India on border. We should take port from Bangladesh rather and increase access toward that."
Inauguration of the Indian road via Lipu Lekh on Friday has been widely criticized by the ruling and opposition parties alike.
Nepal has consistently maintained that as per the Sugauli Treaty (1816), all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) River, including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh, belong to Nepal.
Nepal had also expressed its disagreement in 2015 through separate diplomatic notes addressed to the governments of both India and China when the two sides agreed to include Lipu Lekh Pass as a bilateral trade route without Nepal’s consent in the Joint Statement issued on 15 May 2015 during the official visit of the Prime Minister of India to China.
