New Delhi: Condemning Army chief Manoj Naravane's indirect reference to alleged Chinese hand in Darchula-Lipulekh link road dispute, Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ishwor Pokhrel on Monday said that the comments had hurt the sentiments of Nepali Gorkhas who have a long tradition of sacrifice for India.
"With this, the Indian Chief of the Army Staff has also hurt the sentiments of the Nepali Gorkha army personnel who lay down their lives to protect India. It must now be difficult for them to stand tall in front of the Gorkha forces," he said in an interview to online news outlet The Rising Nepal.
Calling Naravane's comments a 'political stunt', Pokhrel said that such opinions were not expected from the head of the Army.
The Gorkhas of Nepal have a proud tradition of valour in the Indian armed forces dating back to pre-Independence era. There are at least 40 battalions of Gorkhas in the Indian Army, which draws a bulk of the soldiers from Nepal.
Naravane had recently said there were reasons to believe that Nepal objected to India's newly-inaugurated road linking Lipulekh Pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand at the behest of "someone else", in an apparent reference to a possible role by China on the matter.
In an interaction at a defence think-tank, Gen Naravane said there was no dispute whatsoever between India and Nepal in the area and road laid was very much within the Indian side.
"The Nepalese Ambassador mentioned that the area east of the Kali river belongs to them. There is no dispute in that. The road that we built is on the west of the river," the Army Chief said. "There has never been any problem in the past. There is reason to believe that they might have raised the issue at the behest of someone else and that is very much a possibility," he said.
The 80-KM-long strategically crucial road at a height of 17,000 KM along the border with China in Uttarakhand was thrown open by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh two weeks ago.
According to a report in The Hindu, Pokhrel's comments came on a day when Nepal operationalised with China a freight agreement reached last October during the Kathmandu visit of President Xi Jinping. The agreement will allow Nepal to receive goods through the Tibetan city of Xigaze.
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