Ice-Breaker In Strained Ties
The anxiety that India is losing control in the Subcontinent is not new. Time & again, it has been proven that India’s relations with its neighbors will always be about carefully managing the inevitable difficulties that arise.
Despite the diplomatic row over a new map issued by Nepal, Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane is going to visit the country next month, to attend a traditional ceremony where he will be accorded the honorary rank of General in the Nepalese Army. He will visit Kathmandu early next month as part of New Delhi’s ongoing attempts to reboot Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Neighborhood-First’ policy announced with much fanfare in 2014. He is also likely to be part of bilateral discussions during the visit, which can result in a good bilateral relationship between both the countries amidst the ongoing arguments.
The visit was approved by the Nepal government in February this year but was postponed due to the lockdown in both countries after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. President of Nepal Vidya Devi Bhandari will confer the honorary rank of General of the Nepalese Army upon General Naravane, a statement from the Ministry of Nepal said.
“There is reason to believe that they must have raised these problems, these issues at the behest of someone else. That is very much a possibility,” the army chief had said.
Last November, India issued its own new map showing the Kalapani region within its own territory. Nepal had protested back then too and sought talks to resolve the matter. India has agreed to foreign secretary-level talks but only after the Covid-19 threat dissipates. But Nepal has taken this to mean that India is not serious about mutually resolving the issue.
In signs of worsening bilateral relations between India and Nepal, the latter has now issued a new map that includes the disputed areas of Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh. So any misunderstandings between the two countries should be resolved quickly and efficiently. That things have come to such a pass shows that communication gaps have developed between Indian and Nepali political leaders. Now betwixt this territorial tensions, the visit of Indian Army Chief hints that the relations between India and Nepal could be back on track.
Recently, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has also shunted out the country’s deputy PM Ishwar Pokhrel out of the defence ministry in Wednesday’s cabinet reshuffle, a move seen as an effort to reset ties with its giant neighbour India, people familiar with the matter said. As defence minister, Ishwar Pokhrel had been one of India’s sharpest critics in PM Oli’s cabinet.
Indian Army Chief Gen M M Naravane had earlier hinted at China’s role in pushing Nepal to protest against India’s road construction at Leipulekh pass at 17,000 feet close to the India-China-Nepal trijunction.
This was never the case earlier as Nepal was always economically intrinsically linked to India, with the most essential items moving from India to Nepal. This step hints that India is in the process of repairing ties with Nepal, which took a hit earlier in the year over what was dubbed as a “cartographic war” between the two countries.
By Karishma Gwalani
