SIKKIM OBSERVER  Dec 3-9, 2011

Poudyal backs Golay, says he’s ready for opposition unity

Observer News Service

Gangtok, Dec: Veteran politician and former minister of the ‘merger’ era Ram Chandra Poudyal (65) has backed dissident ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) legislator and former minister Prem Singh Tamang to lead the Opposition to oust Chief Minister and SDF President Pawan Kumar Chamling.

After several years in political hibernation the maverick politician, who is also President of the Rising Sun Party (RSP), said he was ready to become a “catalyst” for unity among the Opposition. Poudyal, who has been living in Siliguri for around two years in self-imposed exile, has backed the State’s former Lok Sabha MP Nakul Rai on his call for Opposition unity to unseat Chamling.

Briefing reporters here yesterday, Poudyal said the only person to unite the Opposition is Tamang, who is looked on by a wide section of the people to take on Chamling with help of other Opposition leaders, including former chief minister and Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee President Nar Bahadur Bhandari.

Rai recently hinted that people were looking for the right man to unite the Opposition and Poudyal’s open declaration that he supported Golay (Tamang) on the leadership issue will certainly lend weight to the call for unity among the anti-Chamling forces in the State.

“I am ready to play a crucial role in the anti-Chamling agitiation,” said Poudyal. Those close to Poudyal say that he will now not return to Siliguri but stay in his ancestral village near Gangtok at Chhota Singtam.

“Bhandari was yesterday’s leader, Chamling prevails now, but Golay is the future leader,” reported Himalayan Mirror, a local daily, quoting Poudyal. 

WB Guv ignores China's 'advice', attends Dalai Lama meet

Kolkata, Dec 2: In a rebuff to China, West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan attended a lecture on Mother Teresa by Dalai Lama ignoring an advice from the Chinese cosulate in Kolkata.

The Chinese consulate had reportedly advised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Narayanan to stay away from the function Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, The Times of India reported.

Narayanan, however, refused to comment on the issue when asked by the reporters.

Speaking to reporters at the venue, Dalai Lama said he was not surprised to hear about the China note asking West Bengal Governor and Chief Minister not to attend the meet.

The Tibetan leader said the matter should not be "politicised".

"I am no longer a political leader. I don't like this visit to be politicised," he said adding he had faced similar opposition from China before as well.

Karki yet to take charge as Nepalese Ambassador to India

Kathmandu, Dec 2:  Nepal's Cabinet early last month nominated senior Maoist leader Ram Karki, considered close to Premier Baburam Bhattarai, as the country's new Ambassador to India.

 Karki, also known as Partha Chettri, a Politburo member of the ruling UCPN-Maoist, will succeed Rukma Shumsher Rana after the Parliamentary Special Hearing Committee (PHSC) formally approves his name.

 The Cabinet meeting, which was held at the Prime Minister's Office in Singha Durbar here, approved Karki's name along with two others for diplomatic postings in different countries.

 Health professional Mahesh Kumar Maskey has been nominated as Ambassador to China while Joint Secretary Dhananjaya Jha's name has been proposed as envoy to the United Arab Emirates.

Karki is currently in-charge of Maoist party's Limbuwan State Committee and regarded close to Prime Minister Bhattarai. Karki's wife hails from Sikkim, where she is currently serving as a senior government official, according to Maoist party sources.

The Maoist leader is believed to be close to Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling. Former Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari, Chamling’s arch political rival, had earlier informed New Delhi on Chamling’s communist leanings.

Karki, whom India once suspected to have links with underground organisations in north-eastern India, had lived in West Bengal and New Delhi during the "People's War" and was arrested by Indian police and handed over to Nepal to serve a jail term. He was released after the government started peace negotiations with the Maoists in 2003.

When the Maoists first came to power in Nepal in 2008 after winning the election, the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's cabinet nominated Karki  as the ambassador to India.

However, India objected to the proposal on the strength of its intelligence reports that Karki had links to Indian insurgent groups in the North-East and the subsequent fall of the government led to Nepali Congress nominee Rukma Shumsher Rana get the coveted diplomatic post.

It now remains to be seen how New Delhi will react to Karki's re-appointment. 

Sikkim’s former lottery baron behind bars for cheating

K & Co boss Khurana was one of the top tax payers in India

New Delhi, Dec 2: He was once known as of the king of Indian lottery and was the one-time promoter of the enormously successful Sikkim Lottery - a Rs 1000-crore business venture. Today Ashwani Khurana is behind bars for allegedly cheating his four business partners while trying to "expand" the business from lotteries to leasing and finance.

Khurana was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of crime branch on November 11 and has been sent on police remand for seven days till November 19. The cops said that the promoter has been charged under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 471 (using as genuine a forged document which is known to be forged) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), The Times of India reported.

Joint commissioner (EOW) Vivek Gogia confirmed the arrest. "We are questioning Khurana to untangle the entire criminal conspiracy,'' said Gogia. A top Delhi police source said that the arrest came after several years of "painstaking" investigations and data collected from various banks and financial institutions.

Sources said that Khurana was one of the five partners in a leading lottery firm. It is being alleged that a few years back, Khurana had approached the company board and asked that he be relieved of his post. His partners reportedly found out that while he was entrusted with the job of expanding the company's profile across the country, he had allegedly siphoned off several crores of money, the report said.

Family and friends of Khurana could not be reached for comment but those in the industry felt that Khurana was "being harassed" on account of personal vendetta. "Towards the end of 80's Khurana was one of the top taxpayers in this country. Why will he be involved in such petty activities,'' asked an associate.

Khurana, who even appeared on an underworld hit list with a 'supari' on his head, was forced out of his Rs 1,000 crore lottery business that had been a moneyspinner for over 20 years. During the '80s, Khurana shot into the limelight as the youngest personal income tax payee when he submitted a Rs 2 crore tax return in 1989. Khurana began his journey in 1979 when his father set up a small lottery shop at Sadar Bazar in north Delhi. He got a lottery contract from the Sikkim Government in 1981 and never looked back. Between 1981 and 1999 the Sikkim government income from the lottery business grew from Rs 500,000 to Rs 600,000 in 1981 to Rs 46 crore in 1999.

During this 20-year period, his company K & Co, made Sikkim Lottery, a formidable force in the business with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. By the time it closed down, Khurana printed 5 crore lottery tickets per day under 77 different brands.

Editorial

OPPOSITION UNITY

The Gathering Storm

Duk Nath Nepal, one of Sikkim’s most articulate political activists, recently informed the media that he was confidant that the Opposition will soon come under a unified platform to unseat Pawan Chamling’s uninterrupted reign of nearly two decades. Former Lok Sabha MP Nakul Rai, who was recently expelled from the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), has expressed much the same sentiment. Now, veteran politician Ram Chandra Poudyal has joined the bandwagon to unseat Chamling. Poudyal is more articulate. He has backed ruling party’s dissident legislator P S Tamang (Golay) to take on the SDF supremo. If Golay comes out in the open without fearing any retaliation from Chamling there could be a realignment of forces in the State on communal and casteist lines that could disturb Chamling’s vote-bank.

While Nepal and Poudyal belong to the upper-caste Nepalese Golay can claim himself to be a member of the tribal community as well as the OBC. Things could get worse for Chamling if former Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari, presently the Congress chief in Sikkim, and A D Subba of Himali Parishad join the anti-Chamling campaign in the State. With Bahun-Chettri and Tamang-Limbu communities poised to take on Chamling much would not depend on which side the minority Bhutia-Lepcha (BLs) tribals will go.

With 13 reserved seats in the Assembly the BLs, still very much united, could still play a decisive role in the coming days. In May 1994 it took just six hours for the BLs to topple the Bhandari government.

QUAKE RELIEF

More Funds Coming

The Sikkim Government has projected a massive Rs 7,400 crore to meet expenses incurred during the recent earthquake in Sikkim. Even if the Centre does not agree to the amount the State Government, it appears, is free to approach other sources, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The process of availing funds from these international financial institutions has already begun and the State Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso has already held a meeting with nationalized banks in Sikkim on the matter.

On the official level the State Government has also managed to get “Disaster Affected State” status for Sikkim and no matter what the Opposition might say Chief Minister Pawan Chamling seems confidant to receive a massive amount to meet his government’s needs to rebuild Sikkim. It is now left to the people to ensure that the money received for quake victims is spent for the right purpose and not for anything else. This seems to be a tall order for the Sikkimese people who, even after thirty years of ‘democracy’, still does not know that participatory democracy is all about.

Upreti laments govt’s failure to provide land for Bhaichung’s football academy

Gangtok, Dec 2: Senior Congress leader KN Upreti has expressed his regret and unhappiness of the failure of the State Government to provide land for Sikkim’s ace striker Bhaichung Bhutia to establish a football academy in the State.

Upreti said the fact that the Bengal Government has been able to provide land for the academy to Bhutia in Siliguri and the State Government has failed to provide the same to a “son of our soil” is a big “shame”, a press release issued by him said.

“I am utterly sad on coming to know that the State Government was unable to provide a land for our national football star and our local boy Bhaichung Bhutia to establish a football academy in his own state. It is also a shame on the part of the Govt. when the government of West Bengal had to provide the same purposed land at Siliguri to the son of our soil and the former Indian Captain from Sikkim,” Upreti said.

“This is really unfortunate that Mr Chamling and his Govt. is good in lip service only, encouraging local talented youths with mesmerizing dreams and shattering the same if they do not see their personal interest in it,” the Congress leader said.

Sikkim demands Rs 7,400 for quake disaster

Gangtok, Dec 2: The State Government wants a total of Rs 7, 400 crore to rebuild the State after the devastating earthquake of September 18.

The government has reportedly submitted a memorandum to the Centre last month demanding Rs 7, 400 crore to rebuild the State. The said amount is a projection prepared by various departments of the government. A total of 17 departments are believed to have submitted Detailed Project Reports (DPRs), which has been submitted to the Centre.

Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised Rs 1,000 to the State to meet relief and rehabilitation works in the State it is learnt that the State has received only Rs 50 crore from the Centre.

As the State has now been declared “Disaster Affected State” it is likely to receive funds from financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The Centre’s reluctance to release funds for quake victims may be linked to the Opposition’s allegation that funds are beings misused and distribution of relief funds discriminated.

Former Chief Minister and Congress chief in the State Nar Bahadur Bhandari has voiced his opposition to the State Government’s demand for more funds from international financial institutions. He says the State should not be burdened with more loans.

PERSPECTIVE

Doomsday prediction by Guru Rimpoche

This can be prevented if realized beings perform spiritual duties

By Deyang Dolkar Gyatso

My fascination with kalyug, “Theuyeng Ningma” in lhopo(Bhutia) or the Dark Age, began ever since I was a school going kid. I would eagerly await those evening walks with my aunt, when she would tell us all about the age of the Kalyug, about famous Gurus, their predictions and the outcome of the same if their instructions were not complied with. Little did I realize then, that we would be witness to those stories and the prophecy (Namthar) of the Great Guru in this lifetime itself.

It is amazing how uncanny the predictions made by “The Greater Beings” from all religions known to us, have evidently mentioned the same things…the Pecha (“Theuyeng Ningma”), the Bible (The Book of Revelation), the Geeta (Kalyug), the Koran (Quayamat)…all these religious texts and scriptures talk about this “DARK AGE” in unison.

From what little I could gather at that tender age about “Theuyeng Ningma” (Kalyug) and from what I could mostly “borrow” thereafter, I will share with you, so that we recognise when the time comes and be mindful of the same… if that time is not already here.

It is believed that as the Kalyug progresses towards the final blaze, life expectancy of man decreases and the weight of darkness become more intense. However, these can be limited to a minimum degree when the Voice of Buddha is heard and the Path of Dharma followed.

It is believed that towards the end of the era, when the duration of man's life span has been reduced from sixty to fifty years and there has been no respite in man's increasing egoism, the following conditions will prevail: - Householders fill the monasteries and there is fighting before the altar even as temples are used as slaughterhouses. The ascetics of the caves return to the cultivated valleys and the sages become traders; thieves own the wealth and cattle; monks become householders while priests and spiritual leaders turn to robbery, brigandary and theft. Disorder becomes chaos, turning to panic which rages like wildfire. Corrupt and selfish men become leaders, and the images of the Buddhas, the sacred icons, the scroll paintings and the stupas will be desecrated, stolen and bartered at the market prices.

Once religious duties are forgotten, spirits of darkness (demons that were subdued by Guru Rimpoche and transformed into local deities), which had been controlled by ritual power (by prayers that are recited and offerings that are made to appease protecting deities), become unloosed and frenzied and govern the mind of whatever being they possess. Spirits of vindictive power possess monks; enchanting spirits causing disease possess men; selfish, quarrelling spirits possess women; spirits of wantonness possess maidens; spirits of depravity possess nuns; spirits of rebellion and malice possess children; every man, woman and child in the country becomes possessed by uncontrollable forces of darkness. The signs of these times are new and fantastical modes of dressing-traditional styles forgotten; the monks wear fancy robes and the nuns dress up before a mirror.

The Abbot and Master poison their pupil's minds and hearts ... men become lecherous and shameless; women become unchaste; monks ignore their discipline and moral code; Drunkards preach the Path to Salvation; the advice of sycophants is followed; fraudulent teachers give false initiations; devious imposters claim psychic powers; loquacity and eloquence pass as wisdom. The arrogant elevate profanity.

With the guidance of the Great Guru execrated, the precepts of the Buddha ignored and the celestial order being disrupted, plague, famine and war is loosened to terrorize terrestrial life. The planets run wild, and the stars fall out of their constellations, great burning stars will arise bringing unprecedented disaster. No rain falls in season, but out of season; the valleys are flooded. Famine, frost and hail govern many unproductive years.

And…it gets worse.

Because man has lost contact with his true self, rather than seeing these things as karma and signs of falling of the Spiritual Path, the blame goes elsewhere. We sue everybody and don't take accountability. We blame another country for this or that. We blame fluorocarbons, aerosol cans, cars, whatever, when the greatest, most damaging pollution are the thoughts and words that come out of our own heads.

The disciples of the Lotus-Born Buddha were baffled when they heard of the dreadful prophecies of the future, but Guru Rimpoche did leave them with one piece of heartening prophecy. The Karma that is loosened to slow down man's evil doings eventually disgusts him and awakens him, so that "in his actions and governed by sympathy and compassion towards the sufferers, he will dedicate himself to the restoration of the Great Stupa. He will aspire to the highest human achievement and fulfil his wish to rebuild perfection.”

He goes on to describe the reincarnation of a great lama, Pema Khungsten, to restore Buddhism, but if the work is postponed then a great war breaks out and Tibet is overrun by Chinese hordes. But then again if a certain number of dedicated Yogis and Boddhisatvas, both in embodiment and out continue to hold the precepts and go about doing their spiritual duties and mantras, then and only then will there be Victory over the forces of Darkness.

Now if there was any one thing that I could wish for to happen on the 21-12-12 it would simply be for everyone to pause a moment and reflect on the year(s) gone by…..to drop all religious and social inhibitions and to think about what it really means to be alive and to be happy, to be here at this given time and space, to be free of all judgement and criticism, to have an unbiased understanding of what is really going on all around us. At some level we all just crave happiness but that would depend on what happiness means to each one of us…..the happiness that I am therefore referring to here would be the most basic one, the one we feel when all material things seem immaterial and we are happy just to have about enough to get us by. We can achieve this by being compassionate toward one another, to be more patient and considerate of each other and, more importantly of the future - and knowing there is always room for a change in the positive direction, first within ourselves and then the whole world …..eventually.

We are all here in this great web we call life and contrary to the very essence of our human minds and hearts that we must all conform to the existing norms and standards that have been set as the result of the propaganda of ten thousands of years, whereas to simply ask a question is to actually ask it of yourself.

What I write here will be of very little consequence, for you will forget all about it the moment you are finished with this piece, or you will quote a few phases or sentences that you find interesting but you will not face your life for all it’s worth. And ultimately that is all that matters, isn’t it? Your life, your opinions, your pain and suffering, your gratification, your visions, your shallowness, your greed, your pettiness, your hopes and dreams, your everyday anguish and misery, your goals and ambitions -  and this is exactly what we have to understand because nobody in heaven or on earth (and neither hell for that matter!) can save you from it but yourself  - and from that point on self-realization and enlightenment, is the evident phenomena just on the horizon of our self-existence, finally.

Baichung football academy in Siliguri soon

Kolkata, Dec 2: The much-awaited academy of Indian football icon Baichung Bhutia  has got a green signal from the West Bengal government and it will come up in Siliguri.

The former India captain said getting land would not be an issue and he is now looking forward to setting up a world class facility with three artificial turfs in Siliguri.

"The academy will have three artificial turfs and will have top coaches to train carefully-chosen talented footballers," Bhutia said after his meeting with North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb at Writer's Building recently.

"It will also have world class facilities like swimming pool, gymnasium which can be used for other sport." Bhutia, who also owns a club United Sikkim FC, said he would rope in top coaches in the world for the upcoming academy.

"Top football coaches would be available for the academy and it would have world class facilities in four to five years time. We will carefully choose the trainees," he said.

Asked why he chose Siliguri, Bhutia said, "The target is north Bengal and Northeast. Siliguri is the biggest football hub in Bengal after Kolkata which already has good facilities," he said.

The North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said Bhutia has written about this in a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

"We have agreed in principle to have the academy in Siliguri. The details of this would be finalised after the CM comes back. It will be named as the North Bengal Football Academy," Deb said.