Following Prime Minister Balendra Shah's statement in Sunday's House of Representatives meeting that "Nepal has also encroached upon India’s land," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is reportedly in a state of confusion regarding how to address the resulting diplomatic questions both within and outside of Parliament.
Officials say the prime minister's remarks, coming on the eve of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane’s visit to India, have further confounded the Foreign Ministry.
RSP President Lamichhane is scheduled to depart for India on Monday with a three-member delegation. It is reported that he will hold high-level meetings there, including one with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With these meetings imminent, MoFA officials are reportedly anxious about what to say if Delhi raises the issue regarding the prime minister's remarks during the visit.
PM Shah, who appeared unexpectedly for a question-and-answer session on Sunday, said that he learned about Nepal encroaching on Indian territory only after becoming prime minister.
Responding to a question from Shram Sanskriti Party lawmaker Aaren Rai regarding the Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura border dispute, PM Shah said, “This issue should be addressed diplomatically through table talks. You may find this surprising, but I also learned only after becoming prime minister that not only has India encroached on Nepal’s land, but Nepal has also encroached on India’s land in many places.”
“I came to know about this only recently. We have encroached [on their land]; they have encroached [on ours]. We are planning to sit down as friends and resolve this.”
Since this is an assertion that has never been heard before – either formally or informally – the prime minister's statement in Parliament has ignited a controversy.
Opposition lawmakers have demanded that the statement be expunged from the parliamentary record, and the Foreign Ministry is finding it difficult to answer questions about "where exactly Nepal has encroached on Indian land."
The Foreign Ministry is the primary body tasked with handling border disputes. Therefore, many have started asking questions about it following the prime minister’s remarks, according to officials at the ministry.
However, it appears the ministry itself is unsure how to respond to these questions. One official said that the ministry is also grappling with the problem of how to resolve disputes the remarks could create in diplomatic relations with India.
Meanwhile, another high-ranking official suggested that PM Shah may have been referring to “cross-holdings” in border regions, where residents on one side of the border own land on the other side.
“The prime minister may have been referring to cross-border land ownership in border regions,” a Foreign Ministry official told Setopati. “We are preparing to discuss and clarify the matter.”
According to the official, the Foreign Ministry is preparing to issue a statement clarifying the prime minister’s remarks regarding the alleged encroachment of Indian land.
