Diplomats at the foreign ministries of Nepal and India have been forced to control damage wreaked by unwarranted and false claims of the politicians in their respective countries instead of sitting for a dialogue to resolve the border dispute.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday was forced into damage control mode following the false claims of its minister S Jaishankar that Lord Buddha was Indian less than a month after the Foreign Ministry in Nepal similarly had to clarify about the controversial remarks by Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli that the real birthplace of Ram now lies in a village to the west of Birgunj in Nepal.
Responding to media queries after the claims of Indian Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar's--that Lord Buddha was Indian—were widely condemned in Nepal, Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava on Sunday clarified that Jaishankar was just referring to the shared Buddhist heritage of Nepal and India.
Indian Minister for External Affairs Jaishankar addressing the India@75 Summit: Collaborating for a New Self-reliant India, a virtual event organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Saturday, had claimed that Lord Buddha was Indian. "Who are the greatest Indians ever that you can remember?" he asked while addressing the program virtually and then added in answer, "I would say one is Gautam Buddha and the other is Mahatma Gandhi."
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has been forced to clarify about the controversial claims of its minister after being widely condemned in Nepal.
"External Affairs Minister’s remarks yesterday at the CII event referred to our shared Buddhist heritage. There is no doubt that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, which is in Nepal," Srivastava has said responding to media queries.
The Indian response came after the Foreign Ministry of Nepal issued a statement about Jaishankar's comments earlier on the day.
"It is a well-established and undeniable fact proven by historical and archaeological evidences that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal. Lumbini, the Birthplace of Buddha and the fountain of Buddhism, is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites," the statement said.
The statement pointed that Indian PM Narendra Modi himself had said that "Nepal is the country where apostle of peace in the world, Buddha, was born" while addressing Nepal's parliament during his Nepal visit in 2014.
"It is true that Buddhism spread from Nepal to other parts of the world in the subsequent period. The matter remains beyond doubt and controversy and thus cannot be a subject of debate. The entire international community is aware of this."
The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) also took exception to Jaishankar's claims that Lord Buddha was Indian.
"Lord Buddha was born in Nepal. We have serious reservations about the expression of Indian Foreign Minister against the ancient and established facts that the land is in today's Nepal. The act of hurting the sensitivities of Nepal and Nepalis by 'serving passion in response to passion' is never acceptable to us," NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma tweeted on Sunday.
Leaders in the two neighboring countries have been resorting to one-upmanship making irresponsible claims about religious figures instead of sitting for a dialogue to resolve border disputes in recent times.
PM Oli on July 13 had accused India of encroaching on cultural facts and claimed Ayodhya, the birth-place of Ram, is not in India but is a village to the west of Birgunj.
Addressing a program organized at the PM's official residence in Baluwatar to mark the birth anniversary of the First Poet Bhanubhakta Acharya, Oli rued that Nepal has been oppressed culturally.
"We have been oppressed a bit culturally. Facts have been encroached. We still believe that we gave Sita to Indian Prince Ram. But we gave to the prince from Ayodhya not India. Ayodhya is a village a little west to Birgunj, not the Ayodhya created now," he elaborated.
Oli argued how can a prince from so far come to Janakpur for marriage if the Ayodhya claimed by India were real. He claimed that science and knowledge originated and developed in Nepal and rued that it could not be continued.
Oli's claims about Ayodhya were widely condemned by those within his ruling party and the opposition alike with CPN Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam urging him to self-criticize and take back his Ayodhya claims.
Oli's unwarranted claims were seen by many as a dig against Indian PM Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that rose to power on the back of promise to build a Ram temple at the site of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya that it raged in 1992.
Oli's comments that came less than a month before Modi was scheduled to lay foundation stone for the Ram temple in Ayodhya had further compounded the recent tension between the two governments regarding border disputes.
The Foreign Ministry was forced to clarify that the Ayodhya claims made by PM Oli were non-political and not made with intention to hurt anyone's feelings and sentiments.
Issuing a statement a day after PM Oli's controversial claims that India has encroached on cultural facts and Ayodhya is not in India but is a village to the west of Birgunj, the ministry had stated that the remarks were not meant to debase the significance of Ayodhya and the cultural value it bears.
"As there have been several myths and references about Shri Ram and the places associated with him, the Prime Minister was simply highlighting the importance of further studies and research of the vast cultural geography the Ramayana represents to obtain facts about Shri Ram, Ramayana and the various places linked to this rich civilization," the statement read.
The ministry had also pointed at the tradition of celebrating Bibaha Panchami where a marriage procession coming from Ayodhya, India to Janakpur takes place every year to stress in the statement. "The Prime Ministers of Nepal and India launched the Ramayana Circuit in May 2018, of which Janakpur-Ayodhya Passenger Bus Service is an important component. These facts signify the bond of time honored cultural affinity between our two countries and peoples."
The bilateral relation between Nepal and India has been strained after India imposed blockade on Nepal in 2015 due to its reservations over the new Constitution promulgated by Nepal.
The governments had been working to undo the damage in recent years but that again hit a roadblock when India issued a new political map in November 2019 including Nepali territory of Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura. The new Indian map was condemned by the ruling and opposition parties alike and the political parties unanimously instructed the government to resolve the dispute through dialogue.
But India refused to sit for dialogue and the situation worsened after India inaugurated a road via Lipu Lekh as part of its bilateral trade route with China on April 8. The Nepal government subsequently passed a new map including Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura and has amended the Constitution since to implement the new map.
Both the countries maintain that the border dispute should be resolved through dialogue but there has been no dialogue. India has not showed interest to sit for dialogue despite Nepal sending letters in November and December 2019, and January after India issued its new map, and even after Nepal issuing a new map in April.
The diplomats who should be sitting for a dialogue to resolve the dispute instead have been forced to issue statement to clarify the controversial remarks by their respective politicians.
