LIBERATION FOR REAL PARIVARTAN

SIKKIM OBSERVER   Vol 20 No 13 Page 1 May 14 2011

They won, we lost: Duk Nath Nepal

LIBERATION

FOR REAL

PARIVARTAN

Jigme N Kazi

Gangtok, May 13: Journalist, writer and political activist Duk Nath Nepal has done the right thing finally. He has stopped joining other parties and following other leaders. He has finally come to his senses and formed his own political outfit – Sikkim Liberation Party (SLP) – and has set his own agenda with like-minded Sikkimese.

Though he is presently holding the post of Convenor of the party, Nepal, often referred to as “DN”, will surely become its president when the party gets going.

Nepal’s perception is clear: in the last 35 years of ‘democracy’ after the Indian takeover of the former kingdom, Sikkim and the Sikkimese people have lost; they have become refugees in their own homeland; they have been promised a lot and constantly been betrayed by their leaders; it is now time for real parivartan, change which would bring real democracy, freedom, rule of law, justice and bread.

“Real parivartan” will come when the people’s mindset is changed, says Nepal. How true. It does not come by changing the person who occupies Mintokgang, chief minister’s official residence, adds Nepal.

Referring to who ruled Sikkim in the past three and half decades after the ‘merger’, Nepal says while  parties led by LD Kazi (first CM – 1974-1979) and NB Bhandari (CM – 1979-1994) got 31 out of 32 and 32 out of 32 seats in the House respectively, Sikkim and Sikkimese people were the losers.

Nepal says while Sikkim lost its “independence and sovereignty” under Kazi, Sikkimese people “lost their communal harmony” and Assembly seats of the Sikkimese Nepalese under the Bhandari regime. Nepal does not spare the present ruling Sikkim Democratic Front led by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling, which has all 32 seats in the House. He says under Chamling’s rule Sikkimese people have lost their dignity and self-respect.

He says the Chamling Government has sold Sikkim’s hills, rivers, brooks and lakes to big business houses.

“In the last 35 years while those in power plundered the land, Sikkimese people have become unprotected and helpless,” Nepal said, while adding, “There is a large section in Sikkim which has not enjoyed democracy in the past 35 years. Democracy has been kidnapped, leaving the people always craving after democracy.”

With 13 convenors and the party’s red and blue flag with a flaming torch, Nepal and his Sikkimese liberators have set upon an audacious task to change the present political system in Sikkim which is built on lies, deceit and corruption.

“DN” rightly says that his new party believes in “deeds and not words”. In the days and months to come SLP’s well-wishers, sympathizers and supporters will surely hope that the new party will live out its creed and liberate the Sikkimese people from their apathy and lead them towards a future that they can cherish.

If “DN” and his comrades fail to liberate the Sikkimese people within the system then the hills of Sikkim will surely be ripe for a revolution that gives people the freedom to shift gears without asking for permission from anyone.