Wrong to blame India for blockade on the border: NPS

The Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NPS) on Tuesday criticised the local media reports and other people who blamed the Indian counterpart for its involvement in the blockade of several freight trucks on the border.

"The Blockade has been done by Madhesi people. The people of Madhesh have sat on the border. This is being done to malign India by anti-India people in Nepal and it won't affect our relationship with India, there is nothing to worry about," President NPS, Rajendra Mahto told ANI.

Mahato also said there was a wrong propaganda being spread against India in Nepal and that Nepal media was projecting wrong news deliberately, adding that India had nothing to do with the blockade.

"This has been done earlier also that a section of people in Nepal have accused India of its involvement in the internal issues," he added.

When asked whether India was helping Madhesi's in their protest on border, Mahato said "India is only providing security to their freight carriers as there is no security from the Nepal side but there was no help by the other side in the blockade."

However, Nepal's Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahant refuted the reports that Nepal was to redirect trade with China after undeclared blockade by India, saying "We can't fully redirect our trade with India to China due to geographical difficulties."

"It is not possible to redirect trade to China immediately," Mahat told to the local media.

Several freight trucks, including some fuel tankers, which were stranded on the Indian side for over 11 days, entered the Nepali side through different border check-points on October 4.