High Court acquits former minister P L Gurung in corruption case

SIKKIM OBSERVER JUNE 25, 2011

High Court acquits former minister P L Gurung in corruption case

By A Staff Reporter

Gangtok, June 24: The Sikkim High Court on Tuesday acquitted former minister PL Gurung of all corruption charged leveled against him by the State Government.

The single bench headed by Justice SP Wangdi in his order said the trial court “has not at all taken into consideration and completely overlooked the evidence of the witnesses” and has “summarily rejected” the claims “on pure presumptions and conjectures of prevailing market rate in the area without there being any cogent and tangible evidence.”

In October 2008, Gurung was sentenced by a local court to one year's imprisonment in a corruption case registered against him 16 years ago.

District and Sessions Judge S W Lepcha passed the order sentencing the former minister and also fined him Rs 5,000, in default of three month's additional imprisonment. The judge had convicted him for having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income amounting to Rs 33 lakh while he was a minister in the Nar Bahadur Bhandari government (1984 and 1994).

Murder accused Nicole Tamang in Nepal, CBI tells HC

Observer News Service

Kolkata, June 24: The CBI on Thursday informed the Calcutta High Court that Nicole Tamang, prime accused in the murder of All India Gorkha League chief Madan Tamang, has fled to Nepal after escaping from CID custody and steps were being taken for a red-corner notice against him.

 CBI counsel Himangshu Dey submitted a report before a division bench comprising Chief Justice JN Patel and Justice Asim Kumar Roy stating that it had credible information that Tamang had fled to Nepal.

He said that at 7 a.m. on March 11, Tamang was seen crossing the Indo-Nepal border.

Interception of the mobile phones of Tamang's relatives also indicated that he was in Nepal, Dey submitted.

According to the report, Nickole had entered Nepal on March 15 this year with two of his aides. After his escape, the Morcha leader had stayed in several places in south India, including Kochi and Coimbatore.

In its report submitted to the court, the CBI said Nickole was in Nepal’s Pashupatinagar, just across the border from Darjeeling.

The CBI counsel said that steps were being taken to issue a red corner notice against him and Interpol has already been informed.

The court asked Dey to produce Nickole in court within four weeks. The matter would be taken up for hearing again on July 21, when the CBI would have to file another progress report.

Madan Tamang was murdered in broad daylight on May 21 2010 at Chowrasta in Darjeeling town where he was to address a public meeting.

Nicole, a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha central committee member, absconded after the murder and was arrested by the CID on August 15 from a hideout at Bijonbari in Darjeeling.

He disappeared from CID custody in Pintail village near Siliguri on August 21.

While the CID had claimed that Nicole had fled from its custody, his wife Pema Tamang filed a petition in the High Court alleging foul play by the state investigating agency and prayed for a CBI probe.

Pema had filed a habeous corpus petition in the HC asking the police to produce her husband before the court.

Editorial

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

Congress Stands Exposed

Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev are not the issue in the fight against corruption in India. Their character and credibility may not be up to the expectations of some people, particularly politicians of the ruling elite in India. Criticism and condemnation of their  style of functioning and mode of operation in leading a nationwide crusade against corruption may also not  be justifiable to some extent. Some people may also doubt their motive for their anti-corruption campaign due to their alleged links with political parties and the Sangh Parivar. But the fact is that India needs a real shake up in dealing with rampant corruption. Even our judges, generals and journalists are hand-in-glove with the establishment in looting public money. And they are all doing it out in the open. The politicians are not taking the lead on his vital issue even though we have perhaps the most clean and honest Prime Minister since independence. And when civil society, fed up of the growing nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, has an opportunity to protest against rampant corruption in public life it is the ruling Congress leaders who have become obstacles in the path of transparency, accountability and good governance, which they so often profess to champion.

It is not just the Commonwealth Games corruption scandal and the 2G scam that have shaken the foundations of Indian democracy; the reluctance and opposition to the clean-up process initiated by men such as Anna Hazare and Baba  Ramdev by India’s ruling elite has dampened the nation’s march towards ‘Shining India’. The UPA government and the Congress party’s reaction that the campaign against corruption is politically-motivated has not convinced those who are fed up with the way things are. Their accusation that “unelected tyrants” have threatened “parliamentary democracy” are just lame excuses to stay in power and continue looting the people. The real threat to parliamentary democracy and secularism in India comes from those who feel that once elected it is their birthright to trample over the rights and dignity of the common man. The Supreme Court this week has rightly stated in the 2G scam case involving DMK MP Kanimozhi that “corruption” is “the worst form of human rights violation.”

The irony is when Ramdev has demanded that black money amounting to rupees four lakh crore stashed away by the corrupt in Swiss banks be brought back to India it is Congress leaders and UPA stalwarts who want to investigate into Ramdev’s alleged Rs 1100 crore ‘empire.’ Go ahead and probe Ramdev’s ‘illegal assets’. Send him to jail if necessary but for goodness sake don’t make a fool of yourself by making lame excuses. Fact is that Baba Ramdev has given a call to all, including political parties, to join the crusade against corruption. The BJP and others parties have joined the anti-corruption campaign. Why is the Congress party behaving in a peculiar manner?

BJP takes Sikkim hydel projects scam to PAC

‘Dubious companies’ forced to disclose details

Observer News Service

Gangtok, June 24: The Sikkim Power Development Corporation Ltd (SPDCL) has reportedly asked all the 27 private hydro power project developers in the State to furnish all relevant details about their companies.

This move follows directions from Ministry of Power and Public Account Committee (PAC) Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi to the Corporation.

BJP National Secretary Kirit Somaiya had earlier sent a report to the PAC alleging serious lapses by the State Government in the development of hydroelectric power projects in the State.

The allegations range from projects being allotted to dubious companies and shady deals. The BJP wants CBI probe into the State’s power projects to uncover corrupt practices running into thousands of crore of rupees.

The companies will now be forced to disclose details such as company profiles, memorandum of association, balance sheet and details of shareholders.

Earlier, the Sikkim BJP President, Padam Bahadur Chettri, alleged that the SDF government has not disclosed details of the “up-front” money received from the many power project developers. He alleged that this amount which should go to the state exchequer has been deposited into ‘personal accounts’ in foreign banks.

After holding a day-long anti-corruption dharna here last month the State unit of the BJP is currently on a 6-month-long padyatra in the State to expose the Chamling Government’s alleged misrule and rampant corruption in the administration.

During the party’s poll campaign in Assam, BJP President Nitin Gadkari said corruption to the tune of Rs 63,000 crore had hit Northeast states, including Sikkim, in development projects, including hydel projects.

Somaiya, who is part of the three-member team constituted by the party to probe into the charges, said, “All the seven states of the Northeast and Sikkim have been witnessing systematic looting of the state exchequer by politicians in power and officials.”

“The BJP will not remain a mute spectator to this loot raj and if required, we will approach the apex court to bring the culprits to book,” he added.

Referring to the State Government’s dealing with hydel projects in the State, the annual CAG report released here recently said the State Government awarded project works to private parties at “throwaway charges”, leading to neglect of “environmental issues”, loss of huge revenue and lack of development in the local area concerned.

“The State Government commenced award of hydro power projects to Independent Power Producers (IPP) without working out any effective modality and finalizing any plan or policy,” the CAG report said.

OBITUARY Tenzing Dahdul

A True Son of Sikkim

Jigme N. Kazi

The ’70s was a historic period in Sikkim’s long and checkered political history. The political turmoil in the former kingdom, which began in early 1973, led to the signing of the historic Tripartite Agreement on May 8, 1973 between the Chogyal of Sikkim, Government of India and leaders of three major political parties in Sikkim.

Led by former Chief Minister Kazi Lhendup Dorji Khangsarpa of Sikkim Congress, the Indian-backed April 1973 agitation culminated in abolition of the monarchy, leading to Sikkim’s merger with its protecting power, India, in April 1975.

Inspired by the 12^th Chogyal of Sikkim , Palden Thondup Namgyal, nationalist forces in Sikkim led by Nar Bahadur Bhandari not only opposed the ‘merger’ but fought against the Kazi Government’s devious tactics to deceive the people in what later came to be known as “the selling of Sikkim.”

But despite New Delhi’s tacit backing of anti-Sikkim and pro-India elements in the former kingdom led by Kazi and Co., the Bhandari-led Sikkim Parishad struggled to expose the many misdeeds of the fake democrats who led a phony revolution that promised freedom and democracy to the Sikkimese people. As time passed by the Sikkimese people came to the bitter realization of how their beloved country was mischievously and deviously gifted away by those who promised janta raj and greater political rights to the majority Nepali community.

The period 1973-79 was a sad and painful era in Sikkim’s recent political history. While the Chogyal was under house arrest, Sikkimese nationalists, who opposed the merger and wanted Sikkim to retain its distinct international entity while being close to India, were victimized, harassed and hounded. Many of them had to flee their homes to spend weeks in their jungle hideouts while leaders such as Bhandari, AK Subba and ‘Capt’ Sonam Yongda were jailed for their pro-Sikkim stand.

One such leader who stood firm and resolute in this hour of crisis was Tenzing Dahdul, who is often referred to as ‘Tholung Agya Maila’. The second son of Tholung Pipon (Pipon is the village headman), who was a prominent leader of the minority Bhutia-Lepcha tribals, Agya Maila breathed his last in the night of Saga Dawa, the thrice-blessed day for Buddhists, on June 15 last week.

He leaves behind his wife, three sons and a daughter.

While his father died in 1980 his mother passed away only very recently and among the survivors of the Tholung family are his three brothers and five sisters. Though the main Tholung families now reside in Mangan, headquarters of north district, they belong to Tholung, a remote area north of the Lepcha-inhabited region of Dzongu. Close to Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, the abode of Sikkim’s Guardian Deity Khangchendzongpa, the Tholung family has traditionally been given the rare privilege of being the guardian and keeper of the Tholung Gompa (monastery), where rare and precious holy scriptures and articles belonging to Sikkim’s patron saints, including Lama Lhatsun Namkha Jigme and Jigme Pao, are kept.

Agya Maila was 73 when he passed away. He was unwell for a while due to heart ailments. To those around him he gave enough indications that his time was up.

   Elected to the Sikkim Legislative Assembly on Sikkim Parishad ticket in the historic 1979 Assembly polls from Lachen-Mangshilla constituency from the tribal-dominated north district, Tenzing Dahdul remained firm to his ideals and principles to the very last. He was a simple, straight-forward villager who was not only the pillar of Tholung family but a prominent leader of the Bhutia-Lepchas and  a true Sikkimese.

When the Assembly seat reservation of his community, the Bhutia-Lepchas, was under attack politically and legally in the ’70s and ’80s Tenzing Dahdul came out in the open and defended his community valiantly and successfully.  That the Bhutia-Lepchas continue to have 13 reserved seats, including the lone Sangha seat, in the 32-member Assembly is mainly due to the efforts and sacrifices of people like Tenzing Dahdul, who was not only a petitioner in the seat reservation case in the Supreme Court but actively defended his case in the people’s court and sought to champion Sikkim’s special status within the Union.

And yet this was the same person who refused to accept chairmanship in the Bhandari Government mainly because he felt that due to his lack of formal education he would not be able to do justice to the post. He was perhaps the only Parishad MLA who did not accept any official post in the Bhandari Government (1979-1984).

And yet it was largely due to his help that another of his Parishad colleague, Athup Lepcha of Dzongu (North Sikkim), was able to defeat Kazi from Dzongu Constituency in the 1979 Assembly polls. This historic victory against the man who ‘sold Sikkim’ not only vindicated the Sikkimese people’s struggle to preserve their own distinct political identity but also gave peace and hope to the people who longed for truth and justice to triumph.

After Parishad merged with the Congress party in July 1981 Dahdul remained a loyal and faithful Congressman till the very end. He once told me, “We cannot and must not go against the Congress party because it is Gyagar Jheung (Government of India).”

Today, a portrait of Rajiv Gandhi still hangs in his drawing room at Tholung House in Mangan, a constant reminder where his loyalty lay.  Though he was not an active Congressman or politician when he passed away Agya Maila was a prominent social worker and a face in the crowd in Sikkim, particularly in North Sikkim.

A few months after his death in 1982 the Sikkim Assembly paid rich tributes to “the last representative” of the Namgyal Dynasty: “During the hour of his trial, when his very throne was at stake, Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal stood like a rock and sacrificed petty considerations for the lofty ideal he had espoused…. And his descendents will be able to walk with their heads held high whatever their circumstances in life happen to be.”

In his own way Tenzing Dahdul, too, stood like a rock and sacrificed petty considerations for the lofty ideal he had espoused. His family members, friends, well-wishers and descendents will, therefore, be able to walk with their heads held high whatever their circumstances in life happen to be.

Tenzing Dahdul is now no more but his deeds and dreams will live on in the hearts and minds of generations of Sikkimese yet to be born.