Sikkim Observer May 17, 2012

 ‘STATE DAY’

Former CMs, ex-Chief Secy, Bhaichung Bhutia get State awards

Gangtok, May 16: Two former chief ministers, BB Gooroong and SM Limboo, former chief secretary TT Dorjee and former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia were among those who received  State awards on the State Day here today for their contribution to the State.

Governor BP Singh and Chief Minister Pawan Chamling  jointly presented the awards to 29 prominent individuals here at a colourful function at Chintan Bhawan to mark the State’s 37^th anniversary of its merger with India.

Sikkim, once a Buddhist Kingdom ruled by the Chogyals since 1642, joined the Indian mainstream following an unstable political situation on May 16, 1975.

This is the first time that the State Government has instituted the Sikkim State Civilian Awards to reward those in various fields who have served the State. The awards have been categorized into three categories: Sikkim Ratna (Category – A), Sikkim Sewa Ratna (Category – B) and Sikkim Sewa Samman (Category – C).

Along with Gooroong and Limboo, ex-politician and bureaucrat-turned-journalist CD Rai and social worker Kipu Tshering Lepcha received the Sikkim Sewa Ratna awards.

Prominent among the business community who received the Sikkim Sewa Samman award were Motilall Lakhotia and Kundanmul Sarda. Former chief engineer LB Chettri and journalist Santosh Nirash also received the Sikkim Sewa Samman award.

Besides Bhachung, archery Tarundeep Rai and mountaineer Phul Maya Tamang received the Sikkim Khel Ratna awards.

The Chief Minister urged people to take interest in the past history of the State, particularly the democratic movement of the people. (also see page 4- HOW THE KINGDOM OF SIKKIM BECAME A STATE OF INDIA)

Sikkim Govt has no shares in Teesta project: report

Jagan Reddy, India’s richest politician, lied to EC on assets

Gangtok, May 16: According to his election affidavit, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh’s son and Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy is India’s richest Member of Parliament with declared assets valued at Rs 365 crore. His wife has properties, cash and jewellery worth Rs 47.25 crore.

What is going to earn him infamy is the fact that Jagan has misled the Commission about his assets. For example, he did not declare his palatial houses in Hyderabad and Bangalore worth over Rs 200 crore, First Post reported.

The key fact that emerges from his elections affidavits of 2009 and 2011 is this: his assets, combined with those of his wife Bharathi Reddy, have grown more than five-fold in just two years: from Rs 77-and-odd crore to over Rs 410 crore, NDTV reported.

A special CBI court on Monday summoned Reddy to appear before it on May 28 in connection with an illegal assets case. The court also asked 12 others facing charges in the case to appear before it on the same day, PTI reported.

The special CBI court had admitted the first chargesheet filed on March 31 by CBI in the disproportionate assets case and listed the case for trial.

Last October, the CBI began probing the benami funding of two hydel power projects in Sikkim allegedly owned by Jagan’s companies. This followed a PIL filed in the High Court of Sikkim by a Sikkimese, Anand Lama, who alleged that Jagan had invested around Rs 500 crore under benami companies in hydel projects in north Sikkim. Lama wanted CBI probe into this multi-crore racket. Jagan is said to have invested heavily into the 1,200 MW Teesta State III hydel project in Chungthang in North Sikkim.

In a major exposure of what goes in high places, where corrupt deals are made keeping the public in darkness,  currentnews.in  on Friday (May 11) reported the alleged involvement of Union Minister Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling and Jagan Reddy in what is believed to be a Rs 20,000 hydel project scam in the State.

The report says while the Teesta Stage III was supposed to be a joint venture between the Sikkim Government and Teesta Urja Ltd (TUL), a benami company allegedly floated by Jagan, the Sikkim Government does not have any shares in the 1,200 MW Teesta  Stage III hydel project in North Sikkim.

While stating that “The massive Rs 20,000 crore scandal in the hydropower sector in Sikkim that has been building up since 2004 is about to burst,” the report, quoting an order of a Gangtok District Judge, said though the project is supposed to be “under joint sector with the Government,” the Sikkim Government does not have a single share in Teesta Urja Limited, which is developing the Rs 6,000 crore MW Teesta State III power project.

“The fact that the GoS does not hold even a single share in what is supposed to be a joint venture company even though TUL and GoS had signed and executed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement on 18 July 2005 is beyond shocking. It is illegal,” the report said.

The report also alleged that TUL “was allotted the hydropower project not through competitive bidding but through an arbitrary process where it was favoured above other companies.”

“This scandal means that almost each and every official clearance and money that the project has received from the Government of India has been obtained under false pretences. TUL has illegally asked for and has received from the Government of India vital clearances like the Techno Economic Clearance from the Ministry of Power, Environment and Forest Clearance from the Ministry of Environment, land from the GoS and Rs 4, 560 crore from the Rural Electricity Corporation and 10 nationalised financial institutions,” the report said.

Worse still is the allegation that indicts the Chamling Government: “What makes the scandal even more painful is the knowledge that the GoS is not a victim of a scam but is an active and equal partner in crime with Teesta Urja Limited.”

Delay denies withdrawing CBI plea against Chamling

Gangtok, May 16: Delay Namgyal Barfungpa, who along with Pema Dadul Bhutia, sought the Supreme Court’s help to start a probe against Chief Minister Pawan Chamling and his cabinet colleagues for their alleged corrupt practices, said he has not withdrawn his petition.

“I have not withdrawn my petition from the Supreme Court,” Diley said after he returned from Delhi recently.

Reacting to media reports that he has withdrawn his petition, Diley said court papers circulated among the media and others over his reportedly withdrawal of the petition are “false and fabricated.” He said this was being done by vested interests to harm his image.

Reports indicated that Diley had applied to the Supreme Court on March 22, 2012 for withdrawal of his petition as another case of similar nature was pending before the High Court of Sikkim and it would be convenient “physically and monetarily” to pursue the matter in the High Court.

The writ petition challenges the refusal of the State Government to grant consent to the CBI to probe into corruption charges in the State on the basis of CBI report.

It may be pointed out that after the petition was filed in the Supreme Court in January this year the apex court sent notices to the Centre and State Government and the CBI for their reaction.

Unconfirmed sources say that the CBI has filed its reply before the apex court, which is yet to decide on the withdrawal of the case if ever it was sought.

Bhandari for opposition unity to oust Chamling

Gangtok, May 16: Veteran politician Nar Bahadur Bhandari has given enough hints that he is not comfortable with the Congress party, which he heads in the State.

But last week, the former chief minister, who ruled the State for nearly fifteen years (1979-1994), gave enough indications that he wants to float a regional party. He stated this during a press conference here at the party office.

While stating that he was not interested in becoming the next chief minister, Bhandari gave a call to all opposition parties to unite under a common platform to take on the Pawan Chamling-led ruling Sikkim Democratic Front, which has been in power for the fourth consecutive term since 1994.

Bhandari first came to power in 1979 on an anti-merger platform and ousted the pro-merger LD Kazi-led government in the Assembly polls in 1979. His Sikkim Janta Parishad merged with the Congress party in July 1981. Three years later Bhandari was ousted from power in May 1984 by dissidents in the Congress party, who made BB Gooroong the Chief Minister.

Bhandari’s new political outfit, Sikkim Sangram Parishad, came to power in the Assembly polls in March 1985. Once again dissidents within his party plotted against Bhandari leading to the toppling of his government in May 1994.

Bhandari finally merged his SSP with the Congress in August 2003 but without much success in the Assembly polls in 2004 and 2009.

China denies Dalai Lama’s allegation

Beijing, May 16: China on Monday accused the Dalai Lama of being deceitful after he reportedly alleged that Chinese agents trained Tibetan women to assassinate him by planting poison in their hair for him to touch during blessings.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the Tibetan spiritual leader's allegations, reported in the London-based Sunday Telegraph newspaper, were not worth refuting, but added that he generally spreads false information.

"The Dalai always wears religious clothes while carrying out anti-China separatist activities in the global community, spreading false information and deceiving the public," spokesman Hong Lei said at a routine daily news briefing, AFP reported.

The nationalistic tabloid the Global Times further scorned the allegations in a commentary, saying that if China had wanted to kill the Dalai Lama it could have done so any time without waiting until he was 76 years old.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader told the Telegraph he had been warned that the Chinese government was training female Tibetan agents to put poison in their hair or scarves and to seek his blessings or touch his hand.

Hundreds of thousands of people take pilgrimages each year to northern Indian town of Dharmsala, where the Dalai Lama lives under tight security. Huge crowds also surround him during his travels abroad. The Tibetan leader usually places his hand over the heads of devotees seeking his blessing.

He told the newspaper he may ending up being the last Dalai Lama because of Chinese interference in finding his reincarnation after his death.

Sikkim, Northeast still under big quake threat: scientists

 Kolkata, May 16:  Since September last year, when an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 rocked Sikkim, scientists have recorded nearly 300 aftershocks in the region and predicted the possibility of a quake up to magnitude 9. As such, they have recommended that parts of Sikkim be upgraded to Zone 5, the classification that carries the highest risk.

   The seven Northeast states are in Zone 5 — Assam and Meghalaya had a magnitude 5.4 earthquake last week. Sikkim is now in Zone 4. The prediction — by researchers of the department of geology and geophysics of IIT Kharagpur— is for a northeastern region that includes the Sikkim-Darjeeling region in particular, The Financial Express reported.

“The entire northeastern zone is at present facing the threat of an earthquake from the Himalayan regions, one that has the potential of being of magnitude 9,” says Professor Shankar Nath of IIT Kharagpur.

Scientists studying aftershocks recorded 292 tremors since the Sikkim earthquake (Sept 18, 2012), all in the range 1.5 to 5 and including 63 in the range 3.5-5, with 17 of these of magnitude 4.5 or higher. “We have completed part of our Sikkim-Darjeeling project. We have recommended that parts of Sikkim including Gangtok, Mangan and Singtam be updated to Zone 5 from Zone 4,” Professor Nath says.

Scientists have also sought an upgrade for parts of the Doors and Terai regions of West Bengal.

Months of study have resolved another contentious issue over which the scientists had been divided. Geo-scientists have come to agree that the earthquakes frequently hitting Sikkim and neighbouring areas of Bengal have not been induced by water reservoirs. “After the September 18 earthquake, there was a brainstorming session... we reached a conclusion that the earthquake is not reservoir-induced; therefore hydel projects are not a threat to the area.” Geo-scientists are of the opinion that the earthquakes have originated rather from tectonic shifts.

Sikkim government officials say the State has 27 hydel power projects, of which four are operational. According to professor Nath, “The projects can be affected due to earthquakes, but the projects cannot cause earthquakes.”

Professor Sugata Hazra, a senior professor of geology and head of the school of oceanographic studies of Jadavpur University said, “The seismicity in these regions has increased and these are not reservoir-induced earthquakes. So we think that the Sikkim and Bengal governments have to revise disaster management plans. If a strain is building up then the region can potentially have an earthquake of magnitude 8.5 in the near future.”

Editorial

SIKKIM ISSUE

Swallowed Up In Silence

The Sikkimese people view the ‘State Day’ function on May 16 each year with mixed feelings. Over the years the people have come to know the real truth of the ‘merger’. How India, Sikkim’s protecting power, took over Sikkim in the guise of ushering democracy is known to most people. However, the establishment in Sikkim, in their eagerness to please New Delhi, always pretend not to know this fact and act in a most hypocritical manner. The Sikkimese people, over the years, have certainly perfected the art of sycophancy. The political leadership in Sikkim never fails to praise LD Kazi, Sikkim’s first chief minister and the chief architect of the ‘merger’, for having brought democracy to the former kingdom. If Sikkim had retained its independent status we would have a Prime Minister and not a Chief Minister in a democratic set-up. This was actually the demand of the people during the chaotic ‘merger’ era in the early 1970s. In fact, Ram Chandra Poudyal, a prominent Nepali politician, had demanded a Prime Minister and not a Chief Minister in 1975 just before Sikkim was swallowed up in silence.

Gorkha League to observe Madan Tamang death anniversary on May 21

Darjeeling, May 16: The All India Gorkha League (AIGL) is all set to observe the second anniversary of its slain leader Madan Tamang here on May 21.

Hill Opposition leaders opposed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha have been invited for the memorial meeting.

Subash Ghising, Chhatrey Subba, RB Rai and Enos Das Pradhan are among those who have been invited for the occasion, it is learnt.

Tamang, a prominent Gorkha leader, was killed in broad daylight in Darjeeling town on May 21. The League has been urging the authorities to ensure speedy probe into the murder of their leader.

Youth body for Press freedom, condemns threat to scribe

Gangtok, May 16: The All Sikkim Educated Self Employed & Unemployed Association has condemned the reported threat to a journalist in the State.

In a statement, the Association’s President Nawin Kiran Pradhan said there is no place for suppression of the voice of a free Press in a democracy.

Pradhan said those who are not satisfied with media reports are free to take legal action but  “threatening” the media is not “justified.”

While assuring that his Association would protect the rights of the Press, Pradhan urged the law enforcing agencies to ensure that “anti-social elements” don’t get an upper hand.

‘It is very unfortunate that in Sikkim the numbers of assault physical/verbal

    History bares witness to the fact that after the British left India and Sikkim signed the 1950 Indo-Sikkim Treaty, the Chogyal of Sikkim restored democratic rights to the people of his kingdom. He did this by giving political rights to bonafide Sikkimese who possessed the Sikkim Subject Certificate. Despite them being in the majority the Chogyal ensured that seats in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly were also reserved for the Sikkimese Nepalese. Even after the main demand of ‘one-man, one-vote’ was conceded the anti-Sikkim forces were not satisfied as their main objective was to erase Sikkim’s international entity. Which country would have given up its sovereignty for democracy? Democracy cannot be imported; it has to evolve from within.

The Nepalese leadership in Sikkim is now helplessly realizing that without seats being reserved in the Assembly for their community as one of the ‘ethnic’ communities of the State their democratic rights and distinct identity would soon become meaningless. And yet the powers-that-be never fail to cling on to its short-term goals while making eloquent speeches on its ‘vision’ for Sikkim’s future. This farce must end now or else Sikkim will inevitably head towards total self-destruction in the near future. There is no future for Sikkim if its distinct identity is erased and political and economic rights taken away. The massive influx from outside will ensure that the Sikkimese people become refugees in their own homeland. This is the ultimate design of our adversaries and those in power are merely agents of disunity and division.

HOW THE KINGDOM OF SIKKIM BECAME A STATE OF INDIA

The demand for democracy led Sikkim to becoming the 22^nd State of India in 1975.

Early History

The earliest historical mention of Sikkim is a record of the passage of the Buddhist saint Guru Rinpoche through the land in the 9th century. The Guru is reported to have blessed the land, introduced Buddhism, and foretold the era of monarchy that would arrive in Sikkim centuries later. In the 14th century, according to legend, Khye Bumsa, a prince from the Minyak House in Kham in eastern Tibet, received a divine revelation instructing him to travel south to seek his fortunes. A fifth-generation descendant of Khye Bumsa, Phuntsog Namgyal, became the founder of Sikkim's monarchy in 1642, when he was consecrated as the first Chogyal, or priest-king, of Sikkim by the three venerated lamas at Yuksom.

Phuntsog Namgyal was succeeded in 1670 by his son, Tensung Namgyal, who moved the capital from Yuksom to Rabdentse. In 1700, Sikkim was invaded by the Bhutanese with the help of the half-sister of the Chogyal, who had been denied the throne. The Bhutanese were driven away with the help of the Tibetans, who restored the throne to the Chogyal ten years later. Between 1717 and 1733, the kingdom faced many raids by the Nepalese in the west and Bhutanese in the east, culminating with the destruction of the capital Rabdentse by the Nepalese. In 1791, China sent troops to support Sikkim and Tibet to defend against the Gurkhas.

During the British Raj

Following the beginning of British rule in neighboring India, Sikkim allied with Britain against their common enemy, Nepal. The Nepalese attacked Sikkim, overrunning most of the region, including the Terai. This prompted the British East India Company to attack Nepal, resulting in the Gurkha War of 1814. Treaties signed between Sikkim and Nepal resulted in the return of the territory annexed by the Nepalese in 1817. However, ties between Sikkim and the British weakened when the latter began taxation of the Morang region. In 1849, two British physicians, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Dr. Archibald Campbell, the latter being in charge of relations between the British and Sikkim governments, ventured into the mountains of Sikkim unannounced and unauthorised. The doctors were detained by the Sikkim government, leading to a punitive British expedition against the kingdom, after which the Darjeeling district and Morang were annexed to British India in 1853. The invasion led to the Chogyal of Sikkim becoming a titular ruler under the directive of the British governor. In 1890, Sikkim became a British protectorate, and was gradually granted more sovereignty over the next three decades.

After Indian Independence

In 1947, when India became independent, a popular vote rejected Sikkim's joining the Indian Union, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to a special protectorate status for Sikkim. Sikkim came under the suzerainty of India, which controlled its external affairs, defence, diplomacy and communications, but Sikkim otherwise retained administrative autonomy. A State Council was established in 1955 to allow for constitutional government under the Chogyal. Meanwhile, the Sikkim State Congress demanded fresh elections and greater representation for Nepalese in Sikkim.

22^nd State of India

In 1973, riots in front of the Chogyal's palace in Gangtok led to increasing political instability in the kingdom. This led to signing of a historic tripartite agreement between the Government of Sikkim, the Chogyal and three major political parties in Sikkim on May 8, 1973.

In an Assembly election that followed the agreement the Lhendup Dorji Kazi-led Sikkim Congress won the polls and formed the government with Kazi as its first Chief Minister.

Amidst pro and anti-merger political battle between the people, Sikkim was made an Associate State of Indian in the latter part of 1974 on the insistence of the Kazi Government.

When anti-merger forces led by supporters of the Chogyal and a Nepali leader Nar Bahadur Bhandari refused to give into to the Sikkim Congress’s demand for merger with India a special poll was called in April 1975. Most Sikkimese alleged that the polls were unfair but the official results showed that the people had voted unanimously for the ‘merger’ of the kingdom with the Indian Union.

Thereafter, the Indian Parliament hurriedly passed the 36^th Amendment Bill making Sikkim the 22^nd State of India on April 26, 1975. Sikkim formally became a full-fledged State of India on May 16, 1975 and this day is observed as ‘State Day.’