Talks with China must regarding Link Road : Minister Thapa

10 May Kathmandu : Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa has spoken of the need to hold talks with China as well regarding the road built by India leading up to Manasarovar via Nepal’s territory- Lipu Lekh.

The 80-km link road was inaugurated by Indian government last Friday through videoconferencing. Taking part in today’s meeting of the federal parliament’s State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, Minister Thapa said that the issues should be addressed through trilateral talks.

“The newly inaugurated road is built for trade purpose. The move of Nepal would yield success if Nepal holds trilateral talks and bars the use of Lipu Lekh Pass,” Thapa said.Parliamentarians have outlined the need to hold talks with the UK government regarding the territories as Lipu Lekh as they argued that Sugauli Treaty was signed between Nepal and UK in 1816 to which Minister Thapa deemed appropriate.

As per the Sugauli Treaty, all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) River, including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh, belong to Nepal. The Minister also said that this issue should be broached in the international platform and speed up the diplomatic efforts to resolve this issue. He also pointed out the need to issue Nepal’s map that encompasses all the Nepal’s territories. He said he would take the matter seriously and take the issue to the decision-making agency.

He viewed that the present generation of Nepalis were bearing the brunt of the thoughtless decisions made by our former rulers. “The major blunder regarding the nationality made by our former rulers was allowing the Indian Army to build a post in Nepal’s border to safeguard themselves from China’s attack,” the Minister described, terming it as a serious historic blunder.

According to him, Nepal’s inability to send back the Indian Army personnel from Kalapani had shown the seed for India’s presence and dominance in that area. He claimed that the India had captured Lipu Lekh, Kalapani not only militarily but also politically. Thapa shared that India has built many infrastructures besides administrative units in Kalapani in Nepal’s territories. The Minister shared that India had encroached around 400 square kilometer of Nepal’s territory. He also recalled Nepal’s objection after the Indian government had issued a political map including Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipu Lekh in its territory last November.

The government of Nepal has already objected the Link Road officially and preparation was made to set up a Border Outpost at Chang, informed the Minister.  The parliamentarians had requested Minister Thapa to deploy security personnel in the places where India had constructed the Road.

The 14 parliamentarians taking part in the meeting had drawn the attention of government to immediately safeguard Nepal’s border. They viewed that sending a diplomatic note alone would not undo the mistake made by India.