SIKKIM OBSERVER Dec 29-Jan 4, 2012

Chamling demands new Sikkim highway for development

New Delhi, Dec 28: Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling yesterday requested the Centre to sanction a new national highway from West Bengal to Sikkim to provide reliable physical connectivity to the State.

While speaking in the National Development Council meeting at Vigyan Bhawan, Chamling demanded 120 km long new national highway from Sevoke in West Bengal to State capital to strengthen transport network to ensure balanced regional development of the State.

Chamling said strengthening of transport network will attract investment from big corporate houses, promote tourism and economic activities in the State. The Chief Minister also demanded the widening and improvement of existing national highway and construction of two-lane from upcoming greenfield airport at Pakyong to Gangtok.

Chamling also asked for central funding for constructing intermediate lane connectivity to all marketing centres and strengthening of major district roads in the State.

He said that tourism and hospitality sector has emerged as fastest growing industry in the State and added that State aims to attract 50 lakh tourists annually by the year 2017 through well-executed tourism strategy, better planning, aggressive publicity and strengthening of tourism infrastructure in the State. He said that about seven lakh Indian and 21,000 foreign tourists visited the state in the year 2010.

Chamling also requested the Centre to release the remaining fund of Rs 720 crore out of Prime Ministers package of Rs 1000 crore sanctioned as one time relief package for reconstruction and rehabilitation for earth quake victims.

Opposition targets Chamling on repeal of old laws

COMPANIES BILL 2012 TO REPLACE REGISTRATION OF COMPANIES (SIKKIM) ACT 1961 & COMPANIES ACT 1965

Gangtok, Dec 28: The Opposition in the State which has been accusing the State Government of diluting the special status of Sikkim, protected under Article 371F of the Constitution, has lambasted the present dispensation for doing away with old laws of the State.

Reacting to the Lok Sabha’s approval of the Companies Bill 2012, former chief minister and State Congress President N B Bhandari said this was another instance of betrayal of the Sikkimese people by the Centre. He said the State Government would be held responsible if old laws are repealed.

The Bill, when it becomes an Act, will replace Registration of Companies (Sikkim) Act 1961 and the Companies Act 1965.

Sikkim National People’s Party (SNPP) President Biraj Adhikari said the enactment of the new Bill is “illegal” and would not be accepted by the Sikkimese people.

While BJP Sikkim unit President Padam Chettri has urged the Centre to withdraw the Bill, the Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad (SHRP) said attempts to do away with Sikkim’s old laws was an act of “conspiracy” and the party would oppose it.

Golay to form ‘pro-people’ party in January

   Golay (pix: Sikkim Now)

Gangtok, Dec 28: Before forming his much-awaited new political party next month PS Golay wants the people to give suggestions for the name of his ‘pro-people’ party.

According to sources, the new party is likely to be formed by mid-January. Others say the expected date is January 26. It is not only the name of the party, which is reportedly yet to be finalized, but also the one who will head the party.

Earlier, it was reported that the new party would be ‘led’ by Golay and ‘blessed’ by Congress President Nar Bahadur Bhandari, who has also reportedly indicated that he may form a regional party along with like-minded people.

Sikkim will ultimately go the Nepal way

WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR

Jigme N Kazi

The demand for ‘Gorkhaland’ and ‘Greater Sikkim’ may become a reality one day but the end result will frustrate the hopes and aspirations of hill people some day.

The re-election of President Barack Obama is an ample proof that new migrants are calling the shots in the US today. Obama won mainly because the African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Latinos and other minorities overwhelmingly sided with him along with the youths.

Despite the formation of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in Darjeeling the Gorkhas, including those who support the ruling Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), have not given up their yearning for a homeland of their own. The success or failure of the GTA will eventually lead to reiteration of the age-old demand for creation of Gorkhaland.

When asked about his future political plans after formation of GTA, GJM chief Bimal Gurung recently said, “Gorkhaland, of course. The GTA is only a preparation for the separate state of Gorkhaland. Nothing short of statehood is a complete solution to the problems of the Gorkhas, be it identity or development.”

   While the GJM has categorically stated that the formation of GTA is a stepping stone for Gorkhaland, the Gorkhaland Task Force (GTF), a conglomeration of pro-Gorkhaland parties, is taking up the statehood issue with a new sense of zeal and direction.

In 2008, a group of Gorkha leaders seeking reunification of Darjeeling with Sikkim surprisingly sought my help on the issue. They were of the opinion that Sikkimese Nepalese were in favour of the merger while the minority Bhutia-Lepchas were against it. Their perception on the issue was based on the views of certain Nepali leaders in Sikkim.

I told them that I disagreed with their findings. The leaders of Sikkimese Nepalese would not accept Sikkim-Darjeeling merger demand not because they love Sikkim and the Sikkimese but because they stand to lose politically and financially if the merger deal comes through.  Sikkim’s population is just over six lacs and merger with largely-populated Darjeeling would unnecessarily not only tilt the balance of power but would put an abrupt end to financial clout that Sikkim’s political leadership enjoys today.

I told the Gorkha leaders that my views were based on factual analysis of Sikkim politics in the past few decades. They were convinced when after a few days of our discussion on the merger issue the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front spokesman Bhim Bahadur Gooroong in a press statement rejected the merger demand.

Gooroong, who was also an advisor to Chief Minister Pawan Chamling, said, “We have already merged with India in 1975 … we don’t want to be sub-merged.” He also said Darjeeling’s reunification with Sikkim would have been possible before the merger but it was now a closed chapter.

Simultaneously, former chief minister and Sikkim Congress chief Nar Bahadur Bhandari brought out a pamphlet in Nepali supporting the demand for Gorkhaland. When I met Bhandari on the issue, he said, “We must not support the merger demand. We should support creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland instead.”

Almost all major political parties in Sikkim also boycotted a meeting held in Gangtok in May 2008 on the Sikkim-Darjeeling merger issue. The leaders, while opposing the merger demand, said they would give moral support to formation of Gorkhaland state.

Significantly, when Chamling met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in New Delhi recently the demand for restoration of the political rights of Sikkimese Nepalese through seat reservation in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly was conspicuously missing.

During his meetings with Central leaders, Chamling instead raised the demand for Assembly seat reservation for Limbus and Tamangs who have been bracketed in Sikkim’s schedule tribes list along with the indigenous Bhutias and Lepchas.

Surprisingly, during a recent meeting in Gangtok called by former Lok Sabha MP Nakul Das Rai’s Concerned  Society of Sikkim for ‘leaders and intellectuals’ to discuss on vital issues that concern Sikkim, a resolution was passed favouring Assembly seat reservation for Sikkimese Nepalese which were there during the Chogyal era but were scrapped four years after the merger.

According to official records, less than half of the six lac population are bonafide Sikkimese who have genuine Sikkim Subject Certificate, a documentary proof that they were subjects of the former Chogyal of Sikkim.

Due to many reasons it will now become increasingly difficult for Sikkimese Nepalese leadership to get the backing of minority Bhutia-Lepchas on the Assembly seat issue and other related issues that concern their distinct identity. It may be noted that when the Organisation of Sikkimese Unity (OSU) urged the Sikkim Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution on the seat issue in the budget session of the Assembly in 2000 the political leadership – ruling and opposition – made a mess of things, leading to communalization of the issue. The Assembly failed to pass the resolution.

Duk Nath Nepal, a prominent Nepali writer, political activist and a former leader of CPI-M in Sikkim who is now Convenor of Sikkim Liberation Party, in an article published in a Gangtok-based English weekly in November 2000 when the seat issue was out in the public domain said, “It is also very interesting to observe how political leaders, who have been maintaining a double standard on the issue, are spending sleepless nights pondering over how the political situation develops over the issue in relation to their political and personal gains.”

In a few years time when the Nepali/Gorkha population of Sikkim and Darjeeling – as has been seen in the US – realize that they will not be able to rule this place due to increasing influx of plainspeople from outside the demand for reunification of Darjeeling with Sikkim will take a new turn and Sikkim, though reluctantly, will support it.

However, nothing will stop the ever-increasing influx and the fulfilment of a homeland for Gorkhas in this part of the Himalaya will become meaningless and the hill people will be forced to accept the fact of history. We only need to look to Nepal’s political dilemma to know where we are heading. (Talk Sikkim)

Editorial

RAGE OVER RAPE

Sexual Assault For Power

Protests continue in the Indian capital following the horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old student. Protests erupted into violence over the weekend before Christmas, prompting Prime Minister Monmohan Singh to make a public address appealing for calm. The protests have been the biggest in the capital since 2011 anti-corruption demonstrations that rocked the government. Rape, sometimes also called sexual assault, can happen to both men and women of any age. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines rape as: "The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

Rape is forced and unwanted. It's about power, not sex. A rapist uses actual force or violence — or the threat of it — to take control over another human being. Some rapists use drugs to take away a person's ability to fight back. Rape is a crime, whether the person committing it is a stranger, a date, an acquaintance, or a family member.

No matter how it happened, rape is frightening and traumatizing. People who have been raped need care, comfort, and a way to heal.

What's the right thing to do if you've been raped? Take care of yourself in the best way for you. For some people, that means reporting the crime immediately and fighting to see the rapist brought to justice. For others it means seeking medical or emotional care without reporting the rape as a crime. Every person is different. There are three things that everyone who has been raped should do, though: Know that the rape wasn't your fault, seek medical care and deal with your feelings.

56 US Congressmen pressure Obama to act on Tibet

Dalai Lama with Barack Obama in Washington in July 2011

Washington, Dec 28: A letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to exercise greater international leadership in improving the human rights situation in Tibet has received a large bi-partisan support from the US Congress.

As of Wednesday [19 December 2012], 56 members of Congress have signed the Wolf-McGovern letter “strongly urging” President Obama “to make Tibet one of your top priorities for U.S. advocacy” and nominate a Secretary of State who will “champion” the Tibet issue.

“It is critical that the U.S. take a leading role and engage actively with partner nations on measures that could bring near-term improvements in the human rights situation in Tibet,” the letter first initiated by senior congressmen James P. McGovern and Frank R. Wolf said.

“We urge you, Mr. President, to take a leading role in support of (UN Human Rights) Commissioner Navi Pillay’s statement and actively engage partner nations on measures that could bring near-term improvements in the human rights situation in Tibet and serve to de-escalate rising tensions brought about by hard-line and destructive Chinese policies and actions.”

Last month [November 2012], Commissioner Pillay issued a statement urging Chinese authorities to “promptly address the longstanding grievances” of the Tibetan people and to release detainees, allow independent human rights monitors to visit Tibet, and to lift restrictions on media access to the region, phayul.com reported.

The Congress letter blamed Chinese government policies of having “increased” the level of repression “leading to the self-immolations and protests by Tibetans,” and warned that “continued crackdowns by Beijing threaten to escalate the situation.”

Members of Congress, while welcoming the recent statements by Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero and by Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner expressing U.S. concern over the increasing frequency of self-immolations by Tibetans, noted that “much more must be done.”

“We have the moral obligation to speak out for the Tibetan people and confront China about these abuses, to convey the aspirations for change that are being expressed so desperately by the Tibetan people directly to those who have the responsibility to heed Tibetans’ demands for change, respect and basic dignity,” the signed letter reads. “We ask that you make this a top priority and lead the way.”

Over the last two weeks, Tibet activists in the U.S. carried out a robust lobbying campaign, calling on their representatives to sign the Wolf-McGovern letter. Last week, over 60 activists led by the Students for a Free Tibet, visited over 425 congressional offices at the Capitol Hill urging representatives to sign-on. Other groups lobbied at their district offices, wrote letters, and called their representatives to sign the Tibet letter to President Obama.

Support over the formation of a Contact Group on Tibet, which would serve as an international mechanism to put coordinated pressure on the Chinese government on Tibet, has grown over the last few months.