Onus on PM Oli to create 'positive and conducive atmosphere' for border talks: Reports

The Indian side did not receive any response to these proposals and it is now up to Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to create a “positive and conducive atmosphere” to initiate dialogues to sort out the problem, media reports said, quoting people familiar with the matter.

Reports said India repeatedly conveyed its readiness to discuss the issue around time when the Nepal government tabled a constitutional amendment bill to approve the country's new map in Parliament on May 31.

In the updated map, Nepal has claimed the land touching China, included in former's territory under a treaty with East India Company during the British rule.

“As recently as when the [constitutional amendment] bill was being tabled in [Nepal’s] Parliament and before that, India offered a phone call and a video-conference between the foreign secretaries and visits of the foreign secretaries. However, the Nepalese side didn’t respond to the offer and went ahead with passing the bill,” Hindustan Times reported, quoting a source.

Saturday last, Nepal's lower house of Parliament endorsed the updated map with what Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli called "unprecedented" support cutting across party lines. It is set to be taken up in the upper house this week.

"The Nepali side did not respond and they went ahead with the bill in parliament," sources said, rejecting Nepal's claim that they offered talks but India did not respond, an NDTV report said.

Media reports said people familiar with the matter revealed that Nepal “pre-judged the outcome of any talks” and created a difficult situation after it gave legal backing to the new map.

The Hindustan Times report cited above said it was not clear why Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli or his government did not tell Nepalese people or the Parliament about India's offer for talks.

On the other hand the Nepali side said it made three offers for talks between November and May last, it added.

India had described Nepal's decision to issue a new map as a "unilateral act", not backed by historical facts or evidence.

Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said: “This artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable. It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues.”

The Nepal government has decided to form a team of experts to find and collect evidence to support its claim over Kalapani up to Limpiyadhura and in Susta area after publishing the map and passing the bill endorsing it in the lower house, the HT report said quoting sources.

“These actions do not reflect any seriousness on their part to resolve the issue through dialogue, and these actions are myopic and self-serving to further a limited political agenda,” the source said, adding that Nepal government's "unilateral act of updating the map and the hasty effort to amend the constitution in Parliament reflect the intention of Prime Minister Oli and his government to politicise the boundary issue," according to the HT report.

Despite the escalation of the issue, India would continue to cooperate with Nepal on key humanitarian and connectivity projects, including Covid-19 crisis, as part of which India has already provided medicines and equipment worth more than Rs 4.5 crore to Nepal, the report said.