Nepal to send updated map to India, UN and international community
The Nepal government will send its recently revised map to India, the United Nations, and the international community by the middle of August, a minister has said. The revised map includes Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura areas that figures in the Indian map.
“We will be sending the updated map including Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura to various UN agencies and the international community including India. The process will be completed by the middle of this month,” Padma Aryal, Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation told news agency ANI.
Nepal foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali points to a map of Nepal during an interview with the Associated Press (AP)
The Ministry has asked the Department of Measurement to print 4,000 copies of the updated version of Nepal’s map in English and send it to the international community. At least 25,000 copies of the updated map have been distributed across the nation. Nepal’s map is part of its emblem and is used on all official stationary by that country, just like the Indian government’s letterheads have the Lion Capital of Ashoka.
However, the development comes amid a bitter internal feud in Nepal’s ruling Nepal Communist Party. A rival faction led by party executive chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” have demanded Oli’s resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were “neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate.”
In June, Nepal’s Parliament cleared a Constitution Amendment Bill that endorses the country’s new map that includes territories with India. India termed the move untenable and said it was not based on “historical facts or evidence”. “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,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.