Kathmandu, May 19:

At a time when a few political parties have been demanding to scrap the Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty 1950, a renowned political scientist and a legal expert today rejected the idea, saying that a revision of the treaty would be enough.

They argued that the annulment of the treaty in rush would not benefit the nation. “There is no need to scrap the treaty,” political scientist Dev Raj Dahal said. “Removing unequal provisions from the treaty would help us.”

Communist parties, specially the CPN-Maoist, have been demanding that the treaty be scrapped, saying that it contains ‘several unequal provisions’.

Dahal said there were a few unequal provisions, such as: sharing of natural resources with India, need for prior consultation with India before launching any project in Tarai and provision on security issues whereby Nepal and India need to help each other if either of them faces threat from a third party. He said these provisions, which do not support the cause of Nepal, should be removed.

Expert on international law Sher Bahadur KC said a revision of the treaty in line with the UN principles would be a mature decision. “It would be an immature decision if we terminate the treaty in a hurry.” He said the treaty should be amended in line with the international treaties adopted by the Vienna Convention in 1969.