India-Nepal relations at a trijunction: China's role and the Kalapani issue

With 98 per cent of the India-Nepal border neatly demarcated and a unique open border arrangement in place, none thought the statement could impact their ties

In June 1998, in an interview with Karan Thapar, then deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Jaswant Singh had said: “We have to recognise that map-making has to come to a stop in the subcontinent. If you are talking about a kind of cartographic, constant altering of the South Asian situation, that cannot take place. That is a reality.” The remark caused a furore and Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, immediately contradicted it on account of its implications for the status of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

With 98 per cent of the India-Nepal border neatly demarcated and