Amid tensions with India, Nepal introduces revised map in school textbooks

KATHMANDU: Amid heightened tensions with India, Nepal has introduced new textbooks in the school curriculum that include the country's new political map showing three Indian areas as part of its territory.

Earlier, the Nepalese Parliament had unanimously approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura -- areas which India maintains belongs to it. India has also slammed the "artificial enlargement" of the territorial claims by Nepal.

As per reports, Nepal's curriculum Development Centre, under the Ministry of Education, recently published the books with the revised map showing the contested land as Nepal's.

The new books titled "Nepal's territory and reading materials for border issues" for the 9th and 12th classes have a preface written by Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel.

6 months after India published a new map in November 2019, Nepal responded by releasing the revised political and administrative map of the country laying claim over the three strategically important areas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.

Nepal's Finance Minister Yuvaraj Khatiwada followed this up by declaring in front of the media that the government had decided to update the schedule of the Constitution and school curriculum incorporating the new political map.

India's Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava has responded to the episode by stating that "this artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable. It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues."

Taking the dispute forward, the Nepalese government has also decided to even issue coins with the inclusion of the Kalapani area. The Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal, has reportedly been asked to mint the coins with the revised map.

Tension between India and its smaller neighbour China began after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated an 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8 last.

Nepal has claimed that the road passes through its territory. India, however, rejected the claim asserting that the road lies within its territory.

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