HIMALAYAN GUARDIAN     Wednesday May 22-28, 2013  

SKM targets Café Live & Loud owner on SMIT student death

Gangtok, May 21: The death of an engineering student from Bihar after a brawl at a nightclub in the capital has caught the attention of the Opposition in the State.

The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) filed a complaint at the Sadar Thanar here urging the authorities to take action against the owner of Café Live & Loud at Tibet Road, where a third year student of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT), Rakshit Singh Meena, was beaten to death at a mid-night brawl at the pub premises on Saturday night. Seven persons allegedly involved in the incident have been arrested so far.

The Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad (SHRP), while condemning the incident, has demanded  appropriate action against the guilty.

The Sikkim United Students Association (SUSA) has said the incident could cause insecurity to Sikkimese students studying outside the State. SUSA alleged that the State Government was promoting immoral culture in the State.

SUSA has also demanded immediate action against STNM hospital authorities for failing to provide medical care to the victim when help was sought by SMIT students.

Bhutan-Sikkim lottery cases: CBI files closure report

“The accused had not violated the Lottery Regulation Act”

Kochi, May 21: The CBI probing the fake lottery cases filed another closure report on Thursday. The CBI submitted the report before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.

It submitted that the accused, including Shaji and Jayashankar of Kollam, who were operating Alpha Lucky Center, Medamukku, Kayamkulam, and John Kennedy, owner of Megha Distributors, could not be arraigned as accused, express news service reported.

The case is being investigated by Darwin, CBI officer, Thiruvananthapuram unit.

The closure report stated that two of the accused were simply vendors and had not violated the Lottery Regulation Act. “Business, tax payment, printing and sale, act of lottery draw, prize declaration and distribution, profit-sharing, invoice are based on the lottery draw process. No rules had been violated,” it stated. The lotteries were printed in a quality press and they had paid taxes to the state government for the sale of lotteries.

The lottery tickets being sold by the retailers (FIR accused) were neither forged nor fabricated and it was found that the retail-sellers had not committed any offence through the sales.

“They were small-time sellers and the numbers of such sellers would be to the tune of thousands across the state,” the CBI said. The case was first registered with Kayamkulam police on January 12, 2010. As many as 1,300 Bhutan and Sikkim lotteries were seized from the retailers. The case was later handed over to the CBI. There were 48 witnesses in the case. Last year, the CBI had submitted closure reports in 21 out of 32 cases. With this, 22 cases were closed by the CBI within five months.

According to the CBI, 13 cases investigated by the CBI Thiruvananthapuram unit and nine cases by the Kochi unit had been recommended to be closed.

Demarcate India-China boundary in Ladakh: Omar

Srinagar, May 21: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday asked China to sit with India and clearly demarcate the boundary in Ladakh region at the earliest to ensure that any incident like the recent incursion does no recur and peace prevails along the boundary.

The State shares a large boundary with China. “We are affected by what happens. It is no secret that tourism in Ladakh has been affected by the recent incursions,” Omar said during his interaction with members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in New Delhi, The Hindu reported.

He said the incursions were nowhere near the places where tourists visit but “suddenly you have a build up in the media about the tensions between the two countries.”

“There is no demarcated Line of Actual Control, we understand that but having said that, I don’t know in whose interest that you come across, set up camps and take so long to go back,” the Chief Minister said.

He was replying to a question as to what message he would wish to give to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang who is on an official visit to India.

“So I think my message to them would be to please allow us to live in our part of the region, as they chose to live in their part and please sit down with the Indian side and work out. Let us have the formal demarcation and then we can do away with these incursions,” he said.

He said the tourism sector became a victim of the recent incursion incident following media spotlight.

Editorial

BHANDARI’S COMEBACK

Focus On ‘Merger’ Promises

The wily politician who opposed Sikkim’s ‘merger’ and who ruled the former kingdom for nearly a decade and half refuses to fade away. Even before he was unceremoniously removed as President of the Sikkim unit of the Congress party recently Bhandari openly stated that he was on the verge of forming a regional party. It now appears that he has decided to revive his Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP), formed on May 24, 1984, after he was, again, unceremoniously removed from the post of chief minister. He was a Congress chief minister when he was asked to step down; when he refused to do so he was sacked. However, in the March 1985 Assembly polls Bhandari bounced back winning 30 of the 32 seats. He ruled till May 1994 and since then he has been in the opposition.

Things are different now. Chief Minister Chamling’s protégé PS Golay is presently the number one contender for the CM’s guddi. But with Bhandari in the poll fray the anti-Chamling forces in Sikkim may have to rethink about whom they wish to support to dethrone Chamling. If Bhandari is able to retain his vote-bank among the upper caste Nepalese and can influence a section of the minority Bhutia-Lepchas and OBCs he could make things difficult for both Golay and Chamling. The anti-merger hero’s rhetoric against New Delhi on its betrayal of ‘merger’ promises may unite a wide section of Sikkimese, who now faces an uncertain future in the land of their origin.

Bihar DIG's son beaten to death outside Gangtok nightclub

SMIT students were at a birthday party at Café Live & Loud

Gangtok, May 21: Rakshit Singh Meena, son of DIG Bacchu Singh Meena, a resident of Dausa presently posted in Bihar, was beaten to death after an altercation in a pub at Gangtok on Saturday. Five men, all belonging to influential families, including that of serving and retired IAS officers in Sikkim, have been arrested.

Rakshit’s body was brought to his native place in Dausa on Monday night, police said. A third year student of the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Rakshit was beaten up after being threatened with a dagger following an altercation between SMIT students and the youths at Cafe Loud and Live on Tibet Road, SP (East) Manoj Tiwari said. Rakshit died of his injuries on his way to the Central Referral Hospital, Manipal at Tadong, he said.

The arrested include, Gurmey Wangchuk (35), Vidhan Pradhan (32), Loden Sherpa (32) of Darjeeling, Sonam Namgyal (31) and Ugen Namgyal (21), Tiwari said the father of Gurmey Wangchuk is the UD&HD Secretary, Topjor Dorjee while Sonam Namgyal is the son of former power secretary, Pema Wangchen.

Police have seized videos of the incident shot by eyewitnesses. A murder case has been registered against the accused. Rakshit had come to Live and Loud, a discotheque in the city along with four other students at around 8.30 pm on May 18 to celebrate the birthday of one of them.

Rakshit was the only son of Purnia range DIG of Bihar Police B.S.Meena, a native of Rajasthan.

On the fateful night, Rakshit and his friends had checked in at a local hotel at Arithang area here before leaving for the nightclub.

Inside the club, the accused boys alleged the engineering students of teasing their female friends, said to be the main reason behind the clash.

Rakshit was waiting for his friends outside the pub, where around six men allegedly started beating him and chased his other friends from the spot. They later returned, picked up Rakshit and rushed to the hotel at Arithang.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Manipal Referral Hospital early Sunday morning. All the six arrested youths have been booked under IPC Section 302, 201 and 34.

"Rakshit and his friends were among the 57 persons inside the overcrowded disco. There was a commotion with a group of local boys, which led to a fight that took place outside the disco at around 1.30 am. The boys from SMIT were beaten up by the other group, during which Rakshit sustained grievous injuries," Tiwari said.

At Khedawas, Rakshit's grandmother was crestfallen after seeing the body. Rakshit was Meena's only son. Meena's elder brother is a bank manager in Jaipur while his younger brother runs a shop at Nangal Rajawatan.

LEST WE FORGET

Madan Tamang lived and died for a cause

Remembering the slain Gorkha leader on his third anniversary

Darjeeling, May 21: The All India Gorkha League would observe the third death anniversary of its slain leader, Madan Tamang, in Darjeeling on 21 May. The party is set to observe the day by paying floral tributes at the deceased leader’s plaque that was installed on the spot near the Planters’ Club where he was hacked to death allegedly by GJMM activists in broad daylight in 2010, darjeelingtimes.com reported.

According to the AIGL leaders, they would observe the party’s foundation day t on May 15. The party came into being on 15 May 1943 in Dehradun in the present Uttarakhand at the initiative of Thakur Chandan Singh.

However, some years later, the party ceased to exist. It was revived in the 1950s in Darjeeling by Dambar Singh Gurung.

Madan Tamang was born on 1 June 1948 to Manbahadur Tamang and Lamu Tamang at Meghma village in Darjeeling district. He was the eldest of four brothers. He studied at St Robert’s School in Darjeeling and then completed his bachelors degree in humanities from St Joseph’s College at North Point in Darjeeling. He was married to Bharati Tamang. Madan Tamang entered the tea business by establishing a tea estate in his ancestral land around Meghma on the Indo-Nepal border.

Madan Tamang entered politics in 1969 while still in college when he became a close associate of the noted ABGL leader of the time, Deo Prakash Rai. Through the 1970s, he headed Tarun Gorkha, the youth wing of Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL), and became well known for his oratory skills.

 Eventually, he became the District Secretary of the Gorkha League in 1977, though he resigned in 1980 to join a new outfit, Pranta Parishad, where he worked closely with Subhash Ghisingh for some time till Ghisingh started Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in 1980 and demanded the state of Gorkhaland.

Meanwhile, the Pranta Parishad along with organizations like the Nepali Bhasa Manyata Samiti started a campaign to include the Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and also turned an important rival of Ghisingh. Between 1986 and 1988, he openly criticized Ghisingh for corruption and use of violence for which his ancestral house at Meghma near Sandakphu was torched.

After lying low for some time, in 1992, Tamang started the Gorkha Democratic Front (GDF) to counter GNLF's opposition of the inclusion of the Nepali language in the Constitution because it wanted Gorkhali instead. In 2001, the GDF merged with ABGL, and Madan Tamang became the president of ABGL.

After the downfall of Subhash Ghisingh and GNLF and the rise of a new party Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) headed by Bimal Gurung in the Darjeeling hills, Madan Tamang became a vocal opponent of the GJM and levelled corruption charges against Bimal Gurung and other GJM leaders. ABGL set up an alliance of eight parties called Democratic Front along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) to fight for democracy in the hills through peaceful means and to oppose the willingness of GJM to accept an interim setup in place of a full-fledged state, originally demanded by the Gorkhaland movement leaders

Arunachal shown in China in Maharashtra textbooks

Itanagar, May 21: After showing Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese territory in the Class 10 Maharashtra state board geography textbooks, a similar faux pas has surfaced in the new class 10 history textbooks with the north-eastern state included as part of China in the world map.

The world map published on the jackets of the textbooks, which will be used by more than 17 lakh students, contains an incorrect outline of India by showing the region above Assam as part of China, thus leaving out the border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

"We do not know how this happened. The Geological Survey of India has approved the map. The error could have crept in while considerably reducing the size of the world map to fit in the book," said Sarjerao Jadhav, state board chairperson.

On Sunday, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education sought an explanation from the board of studies for history comprising an expert committee that looks at the subject syllabus and checks the final prints of the maps, graphic and text of the book.

An embarrassed state education department has sacked its 11-member board of studies for geography, after it was revealed on Thursday that Arunachal Pradesh was nowhere to be found in the geography textbooks for Std X students.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan termed the mistake "unpardonable", and said orders have been issued to stop circulation of the textbooks, while efforts were on to retrieve the books already sold.