CPN Vice-Chairman Bam Dev Gautam has said Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli should not be deified for the decision to issue new map including Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura calling it a party decision.
Issuing a press note on Wednesday, he has urged to not deify any person for the work done in accordance to the party decision. He has not explicitly taken Oli's name but left little to imagination as to who he meant was being deified for the decision.
"Disciples are individual-oriented and are busy deifying a particular person," Gautam has stated. "But everybody should accept this decision was taken as per the collective decision making process and was similarly endorsed by the Nepal government."
Accepting that all the Nepali people are grateful to PM Oli for the decision to issue the new map, he has instead claimed that he was the one to strongly raise the issue of bringing out a new map. "I want to remind that I have been putting strong views and making vehement demands right from the beginning that Nepal should issue a new map including the encroached territory," he added. "I want to inform everyone that the proposal to issue a new map including the missing territory was presented in the party by me even this time."
The government on Monday passed a new map including Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura.
The Cabinet meeting at Baluwatar Monday evening took the decision to that regard. Minister for Land Management Padma Aryal had presented the map to the Cabinet.
PM Oli was generously praised for the decision to issue the new map including the parts encroached by India.
The government in its policy and programs presented to the House on Friday had pledged to issue a new map including Limpiyadhura.
Inauguration of the Indian road via Lipu Lekh on April 8 has been widely criticized by the ruling and opposition parties alike.
The Foreign Ministry has already expressed regret over the unilateral construction and urged India to refrain from carrying out any activity inside the territory of Nepal. It then summoned the Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra and handed a diplomatic note conveying Nepal's position on the issue.
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.
