India’s proposal to widen the road to Lipulekh has sparked uproar in Nepal

The proposal to enlarge the road to the Lipulekh Pass area in Uttarakhand has sparked a new outcry in Nepal, with both the Opposition and ruling coalition parties pleading with India not to jeopardize Nepal's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Nepal claims the areas of Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and Kalapani at the Sino-Nepal tri-junction as its own, and has released a new political map to back up its claim.

While the Nepal coalition government has been silent on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on the road's expansion last month, the Nepali Congress, the country's primary ruling party, stated in a statement Friday that India's plan to build the route was undesirable. India was also urged to withdraw its soldiers from the region immediately.

It says in a statement, "Nepali Congress is clear that Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura, and Kalapani are Nepalese territories. Nepal should have its rights to use this geography. Indian troops stationed in Kalapani must be returned."

Apart from working on the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh all-weather road, Modi announced at a public event in Haldwani on December 30 that India had also constructed the road up to Lipulekh and that "it is being developed further."

While the construction of the road to Lipulekh Pass near the tri-junction with China sparked the worst of all diplomatic crises in recent memory between India and Nepal, the Indian government has maintained that the road only pursues the pre-existing route used by pilgrims on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

As the government previously stated, the same route has been made malleable for the ease and convenience of pilgrims, locals, and commerce under the current project. Even though the Lipulekh and Kalapani areas in Uttarakhand are within Indian governmental control, Nepal claims them.

Former Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal, who also heads the party's international branch, said as much, "The Indian government knows very well that the area of Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura are the sovereign territories of Nepal. We would like to request the government of Nepal to take necessary measures to protect our territory on the border,"

In a statement earlier this week, another ruling party, the CPN (Unified Socialist), claimed that any development effort in the area that is not coordinated with the Nepal government is "totally illegal" and "a flagrant violation of our territorial integrity and national sovereignty."

According to Khanal, the comment was made in response to Modi's remarks in Uttarakhand that the road being "illegally built" in the Nepali territory of Lipulekh is being widened further.

The main opposition Nepal Communist Party-UML has added to the controversy by urging India to stop interfering with Nepal's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and self-respect.

The party said in a statement, "CPN-UML unwaveringly believes that construction of roads and other structures should be stopped, the issue should be promptly resolved through dialogue and no structure should be built at the state level until resolution is reached through dialogue."