R&W chief Samant Kumar Goel’s overnight visit comes on the heels of a controversial cabinet shakeup in Nepal that left the ruling PNC more divided than before.
Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has faced pressure from his own party leaders, following his so-called ‘covert’ meeting with the head of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Samant Kumar. Goel, Wednesday night.
The R&AW boss had flown to Kathmandu on a special flight on Wednesday and called the Nepalese prime minister late at night for a nearly two-hour meeting. The Indian Express reported.
The premise of the meeting, according to the Nepalese PMO, was a courtesy call, while Indian newspapers speculated that it was a preamble to a scheduled visit by the Indian army chief, General MM Naravane, to Nepal in the first week of November.
General Naravane is scheduled to visit him to honor a long-standing convention between the armies of the two countries. However, it is also the first high-level visit between the two neighbors, since June this year, when ties, already strained, took a turn for the worse after Nepal published a new map that claimed parts of Indian territory as own.
However, Goel’s visit was perceived differently in Nepal, with various political leaders calling it “inappropriate” and objectionable.
Oli’s meeting with Indian intelligence chief causes a stir
Thapa, in a press release, informed the nation that Goel paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
Thapa said that during the meeting, Goel “expressed his views on not allowing the disruption of friendly relations between Nepal and India, resolving all outstanding issues through dialogue and continuous mutual cooperation.”
However, the opposing Oli factions in their own party will not pass up an opportunity like this to criticize the prime minister who came to power with strong nationalist and anti-India sentiment.
In fact, Oli has more detractors in his own party than in the Opposition. In the midst of an ongoing political war for control of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal, Oli has few friends at home.
According to the Indian express In the report, cited above, the chief executive officer and rival of Oli’s party, Pushpa Kumar Dahal Prachanda, has decided to intensify his attack on Oli for this reason.
“Such a meeting, which keeps the party and the ministry in question in absolute darkness, requires an explanation from the prime minister,” Prachanda said at a meeting of his supporters, which also included two of Oli’s cabinet ministers.
The meeting that took place between RAW chief Goel and Prime Minister Oli was against diplomatic norms and does not serve Nepal’s national interests, said ruling party leader Bhim Rawal.
“As the meeting was held in a non-transparent manner without consulting the corresponding section of the Foreign Ministry, this may also contribute to weaken our state mechanism,” he said.
Bishnu Rijal, deputy director of the PNC’s foreign affairs department, said politicians should not overdo matters related to diplomacy.
Diplomacy must be handled by diplomats, not politicians, he said.
“The current confusion over the visit of the head of R&AW is the result of the handling of diplomacy by politicians,” he added.
The central leader of the Nepal Congress, Gagan Thapa, said in a tweet that the meeting posed a threat to national security.
“The meeting was not only a violation of our diplomatic norms, it also represents a threat to our national security, which must be investigated,” Thapa tweeted.
This comes despite reports in the Indian media that Goel had also met with Prachanda, the Nepalese opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and leader Madhesi Mahantha Thakur. However, these meetings have not been confirmed or denied by the relevant authorities of both nations. Only the encounter with Oli was recognized by his press secretary, Surya Thapa.
However, these leaders have categorically denied ever having known Goel, according to PTI
Why is Oli facing criticism for meeting with the head of R&AW?
This brings us to the second aspect of why a meeting between the Indian intelligence chief and the Nepalese prime minister was frowned upon: New Delhi’s widespread mistrust of Nepal’s corridors of power and the perception that India meddles in politics. internal of Nepal.
Goel’s visit comes on the heels of a controversial cabinet shakeup in Nepal that left the ruling PNC more divided than before.
Changes introduced on October 15 included the removal of Defense Minister Ishwar Pokhrel, who is seen as anti-India and pro-China. Pokhrel now holds the post of prime minister, while Oli took over the defense ministry himself.
“Pokharel, known for his northward bent, has been transferred to the prime minister’s office, apparently in a signal to New Delhi ahead of the Indian army chief’s next visit to Nepal,” senior journalist and editor of Janamanch Weekly Pralhad Rijal said PTI.
Now, Goel’s visit sparked criticism in Nepal that the ruling dispensation was trying to reach India after ruining ties in the first place.
Ties between the two countries were strained after Defense Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a strategically crucial 80-kilometer-long highway connecting the Lipulekh pass to Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.
Nepal protested the opening of the road, claiming that it passed through their territory. Days later, Nepal presented a new map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura as its territories.
In the middle of the line, General Naravane said there was reason to believe that Nepal opposed the road at the urging of “someone else,” in an apparent reference to possible Chinese involvement in the matter. The comments sparked angry reactions in Nepal.
India had also released a new map in November 2019 that shows the areas as its territories.
After Nepal released the map, India reacted strongly, calling it a “unilateral act” and warning Kathmandu that such an “artificial enlargement” of land claims would not be acceptable to it.
Prime Minister Oli has been claiming that Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura belong to his country and promised to “get them back” from India.
Bijay Lal Kanta Karna, former Nepalese Ambassador to India said The Kathmandu Post that visits by senior Indian officials to Nepalese politicians, although not traditional in common parlance, have been a long-standing tradition in Nepal. However, he said, Oli, of all the people who met the head of R&AW behind the back of his own party and cabinet, has questioned his “nationalist credentials.”
The extent of this can be gauged by the fact that a simple festive greeting from Oli’s office created quite a stir on Twitter after citizens pointed out that the coat of arms in the greeting had the old map, which did not It included Limpiyadhura, the current bone of contention between the two nations.
The same message was shared by Prime Minister Oli’s foreign affairs adviser Rajan Bhattarai on the microblogging site, adding his own greetings, without acknowledging the controversy over the use of the ancient map.
– KP Sharma Oli (@kpsharmaoli) October 23, 2020
Many linked this omission to Goel’s visit and questioned why the prime minister abandoned the controversial new map right after a high-profile visit.
However, the local press carried the PMO clarification later in the day that the coat of arms in the greeting message has Limpiyadhura on the map, but it is not visible due to the small size of the image.
The Lipulekh Pass is a western extreme point near Kalapani. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory: India as part of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand and Nepal as part of their Dharchula district.
With PTI inputs
Find the latest and upcoming tech gadgets online at Tech2 Gadgets. Receive tech news, gadget reviews and ratings. Popular devices including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, pricing and comparison.
