Naravane’s visit can help pave the way for resolving the disputed border issue at the joint foreign secretary level amicably

Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane arrived in Kathmandu Wednesday on a three-day visit, during which he is scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his counterpart Nepal Army Chief General Purna Chandra Thapa. During his visit, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will confer on Naravane the title of ‘Honorary General of Nepal Army’, a long-held tradition exchanged between the two neighbours. He is the highest Indian military official to pay an official visit to this country after Nepal published a new administrative map, also endorsed by the Federal Parliament by a two-thirds majority, incorporating the Kalapani region (Limpiyadhura, Lipulek and Kalapani), which has been encroached by India since 1962, on May 20. Following the publication of the new map, relations between the two close neighbours have remained frosty though both the sides are trying their best to break the ice at the diplomatic and political level. Foreign policy experts from both the sides have taken Naravane’s Nepal visit as a way forward to thawing the age-old relations, although hiccups are felt from time to time. The relations between the two countries had reached an alltime low after India unilaterally opened an 80-kmlong road – 19 kilometres of which lies in Nepali territory – linking India with that of Mansarovar, Tibet on May 8.

More than that, after the Nepal government sent a diplomatic note to India protesting against the latter’s encroachment of its territory, Naravane had said, “They (Nepal) might have raised this problem at the behest of someone else,” without naming any particular country.

His statement attracted wide criticism even from the Indian diplomatic circle and former Indian army generals who had worked with the Gorkha solders there. It was an unusual misstep from a top military official, who also holds an honorary general’s title of the Nepal Army. He and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, however, resorted to damage control, saying Nepal-India relations were “time tested”.

Diplomatic experts from both the sides believe that Naravane’s visit will not only cement the age-old ties between the two armies, but also help bring Nepal-India relations back on track, creating an environment for other high-level engagements between the two countries. As expected, this visit should pave the way for holding a joint foreign secretary-level meeting, probably in December, on the border disputes, including the Kalapani region. Nepal has always emphasised a diplomatic solution to the disputes.

Both the sides have said they have jointly prepared strip maps of about 98 per cent of their border.

The Kalapani region and Susta in east-Nawalparasi are only two issues that remain unresolved. The border dispute in both the areas can be solved easily provided both the sides hold rounds of meetings based on historical facts. Nepal had proposed holding the meeting on the border issue even during the COV- ID-19 pandemic. But it has been deferred due to India’s reservations. With Naravane’s visit, we can expect an early meeting of the foreign secretaries of both the sides, which can be instrumental in resolving the border dispute amicably once and for all.

Feeding the hungry

Poor people were given free meals at Khula Manch in the heart of Kathmandu on Tuesday despite orders by the Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) not to do so. Charities provide free food to the poor and hungry throughout the world, and what some humanitarian groups were doing in Kathmandu should not have bothered the KMC. Yet from the perspective of the government, it has a point in stopping the distribution of free food at the open grounds. The place is a temporary bus park, where hundreds of large buses make their way in and out, spewing dust and fume continuously. Hence, the place is unhygienic, dirty and chaotic.

The pandemic has rendered tens of thousands of people jobless, with the daily wage earners especially hard hit. The really poor and destitute would, therefore, welcome any relief that comes their way, even if it is one free meal a day. But the lockdown period is over, and people are starting to find whatever work they can to tide over their daily necessities. Hence, people should be looking for work instead of free meals and other freebies. Charities might be able to sustain themselves for a few days, but they will not be able to distribute free food for months or even weeks on end.