Upreti calls everyone to fight ‘rampant corruption’ in Sikkim

SIKKIM OBSERVER     June 11 2011

After revocation of expulsion order Upreti calls everyone to fight ‘rampant corruption’ in Sikkim

Observer News Service

Gangtok, June 10: Former Minister and senior Congress leader KN Upreti wants the State unit of the Congress party to function in a democratic manner and welcome anyone to join the party to fight against “rampant corruption”, “ruthless repression” and “injustices” of the Chamling Government.

Upreti’s call comes after he and six Congress leaders’ expulsion from the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee was revoked by the party high command.

A press release by Upreti, who has just returned from Delhi, says the SPCC’s “illegal and arbitrary” expulsion of seven SPCC members in March this year has been revoked by the AICC.

After their expulsion Upreti and company made representations to the party high command challenging the impugned order.

Responding to their petition, AICC incharge of Sikkim, Luizinho Faleiro, in his order dated June 4, 2011, stated: “I am directed to convey that Expulsion Orders dated 25.3.2011 of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee expelling the following Congress members of the State for four years from 25^th March, 2011, have been revoked.”

The order added that Upreti and others – Phuchung Bhutia, Bharat Basnett, Arun Kumar Rai, Avinash Yakha, Nima Wangchuk Bhutia and Laxuman Gurung – who were expelled from the party for their alleged “anti-party activities”, “shall continue to be members of the Congress Party.”

The expelled members have thanked the party high command for its prompt and positive action regarding their expulsion.

Upreti and six others were expelled from the SPCC when Upreti tried to contest the SPCC President’s post during the party elections held here recently.

Upreti backed out from the contest after the party high command asked its State units to pass a one-line resolution authorizing party President Sonia Gandhi to choose party chiefs in the States.

However, the SPCC went ahead with the polls and as a result SPCC President N B Bhandari was re-elected.

GJM supporters hail Darjeeling agreement

Opposition condemn mandate misuse

C. Tamang

Darjeeling, June 10: Hundreds of Gorkha Janmukti supporters greeted party general secretary Roshan Giri and two other leaders when they arrived here from Kolkata, hailing the much-awaited agreement ending the 15-year-old Darjeeling problem.

Raising slogans in support of the 'positive' agreement, the supporters draped 'khada' around Giri and the two other leaders Harkabahadur Chhetri and Sankar Adhikari when they got down from train at the New Jalpaiguri railway station in the morning, reported PTI.

Chhetri, the GJM spokesman, expressed satisfaction at the agreement and said the hills would now witness all-round development, particularly in health, education and water supply.

Chhetri said the Gorkhaland demand would be discussed in the tripartite meeting to be called soon.

He said the decision to set up two committees - one to look into the territorial composition of the new hill council and the other on tea garden areas - was a welcome development.

While both chief minister Mamata Banerjee and leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) are happy at finally reaching a solution to the Darjeeling problem, Opposition parties in the hills have condemned the agreement.

AIGL President Bharati Tamang said the GJM, which won the Assembly elections on Gorkhaland issue, had betrayed the people.

The GNLF, too, accused the Morcha of betraying the people’s trust. “People trusted them and voted the GJM only because they thought that the party would help eke out Gorkhaland for them. Now, the GJM is singing a different tune,” stated GNLF’S Palden Dorje Lama.

The CPRM said by signing an agreement with Writers’ Building the Morcha leadership had misused the people’s mandate.

Cleanliness drive in Gurudongmar, Lachen

P. Rai

Lachen, June 10: Gurudongmar Lake situated at the 17,100 ft in Lachen, North Sikkim, is one of the most sacred high altitude wetlands in Sikkim. Though located in an isolated corner of the State, the wetland receives a large number of domestic tourists estimated at around 15,000 every year, and with Sikkim establishing itself on the tourism map of the country, this number is on the rise. Apart from tourists, Gurudongmar Lake is also visited by locals going on pilgrimage.

While tourism offers incentives to the communities, the threats that it poses to these fragile landscape also cannot be ignored.

WWF-India Khangchendzonga Landscape Programme, as part of its High Altitude Wetlands conservation Project in Sikkim, has been working with the local youths of the village of Lachen  under the banner of Lachen Tourism Development Committee since early 2011 on sensitizing the community on conservation issues. Awareness programmes have been organized for students, taxi drivers as well as tourists.

As part of the same initiative, to mark the celebration of world environment day WWF –India in collaboration with LTDC organized a two- day event on 5th and 6th June at

A 29 member team comprising of members of Lachen Dzumsa, LTDC, WWF – India and media representative organized a cleanliness drive around  Gurudongmar Lake. While at first glance the area around the lake looked clean and garbage-free, on closer inspection the team found that over the years there had been quite an incredible accumulation of garbage. The team divided into groups to tackle different areas of the lake and armed with sacks and gloves collected all the waste lying in these areas.

Phensum Lachenpa, President LTDC later remarked – “Never had we imagined that thirty big sacks we were carrying would be filled with the garbage from Gurudongmar Lake”.

Pipon II from Lachen,  Tenzing Choyang Lachenpa, who was also part of the team, encouraged them by participating in the cleanliness drive himself. He said that it was a great initiative taken up by the youths of Lachen, which had to be continued and supported.

During the cleanliness drive it was found that most of the garbage had accumulated towards the outlet of the lake. The team also got support from the Army based there, and 20 jawans also helped in collection of the garbage.

During the occasion, signage providing useful information on Gurudongmar Lake and a Code of Conduct to be followed by visitors were put up near the holy lake. A separate site for offerings was also designated near the lake side, so as to regulate the practice of making offerings inside the lake.

All the waste material was collected in large sacks and brought back to Lachen, where the team again spent the evening segregating the waste into recyclables consisting of tins, plastic and glass bottles. Clothes, cardboards and paper were also segregated into different sacks.

It was found that while a large part of the collected garbage consisted of tins and plastic bottles that could be sent for recycling, there was also a large quantity of plastic wrappers that could not be recycled and would have to be dumped. But the segregation of the recyclables at least did reduce the amount of garbage to a considerable extent.

On the second day of the campaign 6th June, the team targeted the Lachen Village for the cleanliness drive. The Chief Guest for the day was MLA – Lachen Mangan  T.W Lepcha, while addressing  the gathering prior to the cleanliness drive, appreciated the efforts made by the youths of Lachen and congratulated them for cleaning up the sacred lake of Gurudongmar. As a word of caution, he also mentioned that youths had to look beyond the scope of contracts and build their capacities and skills for entrepreneurship.

A rally was also organized to flag off the cleanliness drive in which students from Lachen School actively participated and also assisted in clean up of the village. Members of LTDC targeted the local dumping site of Lachen to retrieve all the plastic bottles, tins and glass bottles that had been dumped to send for recycling. A total of 35 sacks of recyclable items were retrieved from the dumping site.

The Army posted at Chaten, located below Lachen, offered support for transport of the waste to the dumping site nearby. The materials segregated will be sold off for recycling. Chewang Lachenpa, General Secretary of LTDC, thanked the Army for lending their support to the cause and hoped for their cooperation also in the future. On the occasion Landscape Coordinator of WWF- India Priyadarshinee Shrestha and Senior Project officer Laktsheden Theengh also participate at clean drive programme.

Editorial

NEW SITUATION

Strike A Fine Balance

As talks begin on formation of a new council for the hill people in Darjeeling criticisms will start pouring in blaming the Bimal Gurung-led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for betraying the people on the statehood issue. The Morcha leadership had stated that their landslide victory in the recently-held Assembly elections in West Bengal, where Morcha candidates won all three seats in the hills (Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong) with an overwhelming margin, was a mandate for Gorkhaland state. Howver, within less than a month after the results of the polls were declared Morcha leaders are all excited about the formation of the new interim set-up. According to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the inititial deal of the new council has already been signed at Writers’s Building.

Morcha’s opponents in the hills will surely try to raise the statehood issue with a view to exposing Gurung and Co.’s mischief. They will also raise the issue of seeking justice to the murderers of AIGL Madan Tamang and put more pressure on the Morcha leadership. The demarcation of the Gorkha-inhabited areas in the plains of Dooars and Terai will take more than six months. The new council cannot be formed before the territorial issue is finalized. All set and done the Morcha leadership needs to show more tact and wisdom in dealing with the changed situation. While Darjeeling desperately needs an economic face-lift, which Mamata has promised, the Gorkhas believe that their main issue is identity and not development. To pull through this situation the Morcha leadership must strike a fine balance between conviction and compromise.

ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN

BJP on Sikkim padyatra from June 12

Gangtok, June 10: The Sikkim unit of the BJP has decided to begin a village-to-village campaign in the State from Sunday (June 12) to access “corruption and malpractices” in centrally-sponsored schemes in all the four districts of the State.

Speaking to Sikkim Observer, State unit BJP President Padam Bahadur Chettri said he and some of his colleagues will meet the villagers and find out how the State Government has misutilised central funds in the name of development.

He said the decision to go on a padyatra was taken at the recent national executive meeting held in Lucknow.

In his letter to Chief Secretary ND Chingapa, Chettri has said the party’s decision to “access the development works at the level of Gram Panchayat Units, Primary Health Centre and Lower Primary Schools” comes in the backdrop of 2G spectrum scam and CWC scam and is aimed at pointing out “corruption and malpractices” into all ongoing programmes and projects at the grassroots level.

The BJP has also asked government officials to accompany them to “enlighten” them on these projects.

TIBET-CHINA DIALOGUE – II

“The Tibetan issue needs to be resolved between the Tibetans and the Chinese”

The second and last portion of the statement of Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, on the present status of dialogue between the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government delivered at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore, November 24, 2010.

The Essence of the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way Approach

One of the fundamental points that the Chinese officials fail to acknowledge is the fact that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is sincere and serious in his efforts for a solution within the framework of the People’s Republic of China through his Middle Way Approach.

His Holiness and the Tibetan leadership in exile took the courageous decision not to seek Tibetan independence but genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people that would ensure their basic needs of safeguarding their distinct culture, language, religion and identity and the delicate natural environment of the Tibetan plateau.

The Middle Way Approach is a way to peacefully resolve the issue of Tibet and to bring about stability and co-existence between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples, based on equality and mutual co-operation. Its origin goes back to the mid-1970s when His Holiness had internal discussions with his advisors. Over the years the Tibetan leadership in exile refined the concrete features of the Middle Way Approach to in the light of existing political realities in the PRC.

Official Chinese media continue to label His Holiness as being a separatist, who wants to regain Tibetan independence. They refer to contents of his statements of the past, including the Five Point Peace Plan and the Strasbourg Proposal, deliberately ignoring His Holiness’ subsequent appreciation of Chinese concerns and clarification of his position.

Our Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People clearly outlined His Holiness’s Middle Way Approach.

Our Memorandum and the Note to the Memorandum have been well received by many governments, parliaments, institutions, organizations and individuals as being very reasonable and legitimate. Many are surprised and deeply disappointed with the Chinese government’s reactions. Finding the Chinese government’s position inappropriate, they continue to emphatically urge them to engage in a substantive dialogue with us on the agenda of the Memorandum. For example, following a meeting between His Holiness and President Obama on February 18, 2010, the White House released a statement saying, “The President commended the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government.”

Wider Implications of the Unresolved Tibetan Issue

Resolving the Tibetan issue concerns not merely the rights of the Tibetan people. Rather, it concerns the future of the Tibetan Buddhist culture, which impacts both the Tibetan people and the broader international community. Tibetan Buddhist culture, which, promotes a culture of compassion that is much needed in Tibet, in China and the region as a whole. When we talk about Tibetan Buddhist culture we are not talking about the religious aspects of Tibetan Buddhism.

Specifically, China is aspiring to be a superpower but such a status cannot be achieved purely through military and economic strength. Rather, moral authority is a very important condition and this can be imparted by the Tibetan Buddhist culture.

From the geopolitical perspective, too, if the issue of Tibet is resolved, it will be a positive factor not only in the relationship between the two upcoming global powers, India and China, but also to the region as a whole. Here, I concur with Singapore's Foreign Minister, Mr George Yeo, who wrote in an article that “Tibet is part of a much larger Asian drama that is changing the world”. Certainly, on account of geo-political, strategic and environmental reasons, the situation in Tibet will have deep impact to the changing landscape in Asia.

Environmentally, the Tibetan plateau is of great importance with scientists virtually naming it as the Third Pole. Tibet is the source of many major Asian rivers. Thus, if the Tibetan environment is impacted, it affects the global environment.

There is another implication about the Tibetan issue that impacts the Chinese people themselves. Today, there is increasing awareness of the Tibetan situation among the Chinese people. This is even more evident among the intellectuals and with younger generation. Many of them have courageously called for pragmatic approach to the Tibetan issue and sees His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the key factor in helping resolve the Tibet issue. They have realized that the attitude of the Chinese Government to the issue of Tibet will have a direct bearing on China’s own future, including its domestic stability and international standing.

Some Challenges

I have no reasons to doubt the Chinese authorities repeated assertion on the Tibetan issue that the “door is open for dialogue and the negotiations”. At the same time, I cannot help but feel concerned about their sincerity and seriousness in pursuing the present process for a substantive and meaningful outcome.

It seems that a section of leadership in Beijing continues to entertain the illusion that the problems in Tibet can be solved or confronted by economic means and that the China’s global standing as a economic and political power provides them leverage both domestically and internationally to impose its arbitrary stand.

They also continue to deceive themselves with the belief that the Tibetan problem will cease to challenge them once His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is no more with us or the issue will lose its edge due to his advanced age.

The biggest concern of the Chinese leadership is the legitimacy of its rule in Tibet. The Chinese leadership knows that only one individual, the Dalai Lama, has the capability and authority to provide that. His Holiness is aware of the People’s Republic of China's concerns and sensitivities. For this reason we have conveyed directly to the Chinese leadership, and His Holiness has also publicly stated, that he stands ready to lend his moral authority to endow an autonomy agreement, once reached, with the legitimacy it will need to gain the support of the Tibetan people and to be properly implemented.

    The Chinese Government has also been making the case that it would like everyone to respect its core issues, most importantly, the issue of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the PRC. As can be seen from the points I have made here, we respect these concerns. At the same time, we also have a core issue, namely the preservation and promotion of the distinct identity of the Tibetan people. The Chinese Government must acknowledge and respect this legitimate right of the Tibetan people and work with us accordingly.

     Fundamentally, the Tibetan issue needs to be resolved between the Tibetans and the Chinese. Just as the Chinese Government does not want a third party involvement, we Tibetans, too, feel the right way is to resolve it through talks with the Chinese leadership. At the same time the issue of Tibet is of international concern with direct bearing on the peace and stability of Asia.

It is essential for students of the Tibetan-Chinese conflict to clearly understand and appreciate the differences between the fundamental positions of our two sides. Some experts do not seem to understand this.

The Way Forward

We do not see any reason why we cannot find a common ground on the Tibetan issue if the Chinese leadership has the sincerity and the political will to move forward.

We are convinced that this could be done without rewriting the history of Tibet. This is because if we go on the path of rewriting history of Tibet it will then not only lead to complicating further some of the existing conflicts in China’s relationship with others, but even give birth to new ones. Furthermore, the Chinese leadership needs to ponder whether it should make claims on the basis of some past imperial actions and should understand the international ramification and repercussion if it continues to do so.

Today’s Chinese leaders are also talking about establishing a harmonious society. We certainly support this endeavor as we believe it will directly impact China’s policies on the Tibetan people. However, it is clear that there cannot be a harmonious society without equality among nationalities.

Tibetans, especially those who are inside Tibet, continue to face the stark reality of the absence of equality at every level. Prominent Tibetan leaders, including the Late Panchen Lama, have repeatedly voiced their concerns in this regard by saying that any talks about unity should be preceded by the presence of equality.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has a forward-looking approach and has shown his willingness to take any initiative necessary that is in the interest of the Tibetan people, that will encourage harmony and stability in the People’s Republic of China, and that will promote peace in the region. His Holiness is committed to work with the Chinese Government so that the Tibetan people can maintain their distinctive identity, regain their pride and dignity and the stability and unity of the People’s Republic of China are ensured.

Once again, I am grateful for this opportunity to share my thoughts at this prestigious institution. (concluded)