Since day one, I have been urging the government of Pakistan to take the matter of continuous unprovoked Indian aggression across the Line of Control (LoC) and targeting the civilian population to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as the aggressive Indian policy towards its neighbors is endangering regional peace and security. Pakistan must take the international community into confidence about the Indian anti-Pakistan war plans, recent consistent violations across the LoC, and now the spying through drones. By escalating tension at borders with Pakistan and China, India is pushing the region into war to divert to the world’s attention from its state terrorism in occupied Kashmir and crimes against religious minorities in India.
In the given situation, Pakistan has to be vigilant to expose the malicious intentions of India before the international community not merely by statements or a few tweets, but by taking practical steps and moving a resolution in the United Nations. Nepal, for the first time, has shown its resistance ignoring pressure from India as last week, it published a new authoritative political map showing the areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura as part of its territory, reinforcing its stance on a recently flared-up territorial dispute with India. Some six months ago, India published its map in which it included the Lipulekh and Kalapani areas in its claimed territory. India escalated tensions with Nepal when it inaugurated a road linking Dharchula in the Uttarakhand state to Lipulekh, as part of the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage route. Kalapani is a strategic region, at a height of 3500m, in the easternmost part of Uttarakhand. The region makes a tri-junction of India, China, and Nepal while the borders of India and Nepal both meet China on the dividing line of the Kali River. Hence India wants to continue to have its hold on the east side of the river.
But this region has been disputed by India whereas the claim of Nepal is right and legitimate. The de-facto control lies with India as its temporary use was allowed by the ex-king of Nepal. The River is a cause of dispute between India and Nepal only because the British signed the Treaty of Sougali with Nepal in 1816, defining the Kali River as western boundary of Nepal whereas India is now not recognising the British decision by disputing the origin of Kali river. Nepal rightly claims that the river Kali originates from Limpiyadhura using old British maps and hence, India has illegally occupied nearly 370 Sq Km of Nepali territory. Recently, India built a temple in the area, namely Kali and is now making a new claim that, Kali River doesn’t even originate from Kalapani but from a pond near this temple. Therefore, Kalapani is Indian territory, which is a false claim.
As a matter of fact, historically, the Lipulekh was deleted from the map of Nepal by the kings of Nepal under Indian pressure to get favours from India while the territory of Kalapani was offered to India by King Mahendra after the 1962 India-China war, but the king had only allowed India to use the territory temporarily. The matter got heated when recently, India’s Defence Minister inaugurated a link road that connects India and China. The road passes through territory at the Lipulekh pass, claimed by Nepal. Nepal protested against India strongly earlier as well when India published a new map which showed the region of Kalpani to be the part of Indian territory. India wants to use this as a defence road against China. In 2015, Nepal had strongly opposed the agreement between India and China for using the Lipulekh pass for trade, without asking for Nepal’s consent.
The Government of India has moved in Lok Sabha to declare this area a part of India and this is likely to come up next week. If the Indian parliament declares this territory a part of India, it may trigger war between the two countries, pushing the whole region into instability. Nepal has strongly reacted and reputed the statement of Indian Army Chief wherein he said, “Nepal’s strident objections to a new road being built in Uttarakhand is at the behest of someone else.” Nepal’s Defence Minister, Ishwor Pokhrel said, “such a statement is an insulting statement made by ignoring Nepal’s history, our social characteristics and freedom. With this, the Indian CoAS (Army chief) has also hurt the sentiments of the Nepali Gurkha army personnel who lay down their lives to protect India. It must now become difficult for them to stand tall in front of the Gurkha forces.”
India has no respect for others’ sovereignty and integrity, and is bent on provoking neighbouring countries. This is obviously reflected in the fact that India has developed tensions against China and is firming up as part of the international agenda to ignite tensions in the whole region. India, in a very undiplomatic way, is instigating and provoking all its neighbouring countries simultaneously.
On the other hand, the exchange between China and USA is getting serious, which cannot be ignored in the present situation as the dubious Indian role is giving rise to many doubts. India is actually trying to push the world towards World War-III. PM Narendra Modi, is likely to be trapped in the hands of his masters in the west. Earlier, PM Modi had been threating Pakistan and is now engaged with China. India must not forget that any such initiatives of warcraft in the region will be highly dangerous for this area, and the ultimate loser will be India.
Will India explain to the world why it has made five defence bases outside the country? I have written a detailed article on this. PM Modi knows well in which country all these airports are made and from which locations all these bases are maintained underground. Can India explain why it has given one Indian Ocean island to Australia while defence strategists think that Modi has done it for use against China? Amid coronavirus, India and Australia are all set to lay the foundation for mutual use of their two strategically located islands – India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Australia’s Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean for surveillance and military purposes. In reality, these islands will be used for some third party to restore heavy ammunition and fighter planes. I have persistently and repeatedly stated that Modi will be used to destabilise South Asia and China.
The situation with India, Bangladesh and Nepal is looking bad, but whether this is not disinformation to give the impression of isolation needs to be examined. The Indian role needs to be examined strategically and a potential regional war between India and Nepal where China has certainly developed its interest in Nepal to block the double road on its border. It is to be seen as to what would be the reaction of China and USA. I suggest that Pakistan should not feel comfortable with this developing situation as India may take its initiative of a limited war with China subject to clearance from western masters, though China has never reacted aggressively and has always offered India to hold dialogue to settle issues. It is possible that Nepal may be a trigger point in this fast-developing situation.
We need to go to the UNSC to expose Indian violations on the LoC, detailing how India is building tensions on the borders of China, Pakistan, and Nepal. Launching a high-quality Indian drone in Pakistan is not the scene of a Bollywood movie; India is collecting qualitative ground intelligence to fulfil its evil design against Pakistan.
The government must give this a top priority as anything could be expected from PM Narendra Modi to act against Pakistan and China to serve his masters and divert attention from his own internal high-level disturbances because of his unwise decision, the slipping Indian economy and the inability to control the killings and rising agitation by the public against his uncouth moves. PM Modi has not yet grown into the role of PM or a statesman but continues to behave like a group leader of RSS.
It looks like Modi is preparing a plan to create a conflict environment for WW-III in South Asia and he is creating a number of trigger points to give the ability to those who are waiting this grand opportunity. President Trump’s recent offer of mediation between India and China is very meaningful and it looks like tensions engineered by PM Modi have been taken notice of by the US. Hypothetically, if this war triggers then the divided world will be sucked into this unfortunate situation and basically more efforts conducted will be to reduce China’s power. The Italian political philosopher, Niccolò Machiavelli’s quote well explains the cunning nature of India, “One must, therefore, be a fox to recognise traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”
Note: Opinions expressed are solely my own and not necessarily to reflect the views or opinions of my party.
Senator Rehman Malik
The writer is a PPP Senator, former Interior Minister of Pakistan, and Chairman of think tank “Global Eye” and Senate Standing Committee on Interior. He can be reached at: rmalik1212@gmail.com, Twitter
@Senrehmanmalik
