By Golu Thapa Magar
Like in many other countries, individuals in Nepal are also very much concerned about even one inch of land if it’s taken away from others. Countries all over the world are even more concerned about their border and they feel it an encroachment over their sovereignty.
Nepal is also a sovereign country and no others have the right to encroach in its border. But sadly this has been happening for a long, long time, especially after the so called political parties came to power after 1990. There have been reports in the media many times that even the border pillars have been shifted by one of our neighbors completely changing the physical map of Nepal.
It is surprising why Prime Minister Balen Shah said in the parliament that not only India has encroached Nepali land but Nepal has also encroached Indian land. He must have been given a total wrong advice to speak like this in the parliament.
There is no doubt that these areas even in the no man’s land that separates the borders of two countries now can be seen occupied by both the Indians and Nepalese too. In fact it is said some buildings have been constructed right next to border pillars.
A few Nepalese may have used few lands for agriculture, establishing small shops.
First of all, we have to understand that no man’s land is really a no man’s land. No one can encroach on this area which is thirty feet wide on both sides but unfortunately people freely are using this area for their own personal gains.
It must be noted that there are very few Nepalese using such an area but other foreigners are encroaching such lands in the most part of Nepal.
The saddest part is while a few Nepalese may be breaking such international norms but India has formally put many areas of Nepal within its official map. That is why this is an outrageous move from the Indian side and also wrong on the part of PM Shah to have said that Nepal has also encroached Indian land.
Others may think differently on this issue but this author feels only Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, Ratan Bhandari, and some other border security campaigners, know fully about the reality of how much Nepalese land has been encroached by India.
This author has met several individuals who claim that they have visited all the districts of the country but I knew only Harka Gurung who actually travelled on foot to all these districts. In the same manner, Buddhi Narayan Shrestha and Ratan Bhandari, who know exactly where Nepal’s land has been encroached and how much area has been occupied by neighboring countries and their citizens.
Even the satellite images have confirmed how India has put some Nepalese territories in their formal map. That is real encroachment of another nation’s borders occupation. An eminent Youtuber who works in the Microsoft Corporation who has presently gained much respect among many Nepalese people was the person who showed the satellite images of how India has formally put Nepali territory in its map by even changing the actual rivers and constricting Nepal’s territory.
This should not have happened like said by own Prime Minister. This sort of dispute should be corrected by diplomatic means.
This is very correct but we must have real diplomats instead of only party cadres, cousins and those who dole out lots of money to get ambassadorial roles in various countries.
Like mentioned before, this author has seen very incompetent individuals acting as Nepal’s ambassador in different countries. This is totally a disaster. So no matter what the leaders of Nepal say, they must correct their own decisions by choosing the right people and not overlooking the real persons who know diplomacy well but those people are kept in shadows.
So while our Prime Minister has been talking wisely of settling all border issues through diplomatic means, he could also take the example of different other countries, like the United States and Canada which share the same border and people have houses with one side in America and the other part on the side of Canada. They still live in harmony and they draw only one line to separate their borders.
There are many such cases in Europe as well where many countries share borders as well without any disputes.
In the case of Nepal, it just cannot have bad relations with any of its neighbors or any other nations. So PM Balen Shah is correct in saying that the border issues should be resolved through table talks. Now it is only a question of how our neighbors react to such a magnanimous gesture of PM Balen Shah!
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