New Delhi: A major diplomatic row has erupted after Nepal released a new Rs 100 currency note on Thursday, with a map of the country including the Indian territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura printed on it.
Officials in New Delhi said that they have taken up the matter at the appropriate level.
The new currency note from the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) bears the signature of former governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. The date of issue on the banknote is 2081 BS, which corresponds to the year 2024.
An NRB spokesperson has said that the Rs 100 banknote always had a map of the country. The map was revised recently, in accordance with the government’s directives.
Among various denominations of bank notes, such as Rs 10, Rs 50, Rs 500, and Rs 1,000, only the Rs 100 currency note bears Nepal’s map, he clarified.
The former K P Sharma Oli-led government, in May 2020, had unveiled a new political map of Nepal, showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas as the country’s territory. The move was later endorsed by the Parliament.
India had then termed the “unilateral act” as “artificial enlargement” and “untenable and New Delhi continues to maintain that Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura are Indian territories.
In 2024, when Kathmandu announced the printing of a new Rs 100 currency note, external affairs minister S Jaishankar had asserted that Nepal’s move to include Indian territories in its currency note will not change the situation or the reality on the ground.
“Our position is very clear. With Nepal, we are having discussions about our boundary matters through an established platform. In the middle of that, they unilaterally took some measures on their side,” he had said.
The border between Nepal and India spans over 1,850 km, connecting five Indian states: Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Recently, Bangladesh had released a book with a map on its cover that showed India’s northeastern states as part of that country.
