Jigme N Kazi's blog:jigmenkazisikkim.blogspot.com

SIKKIM OBSERVER Saturday   Sept 21-27,  2013    

PS GOLAY: READY TO LEAD FROM THE FRONT

Gangtok, Sept 20: There is every possibility of Sikkim Krantikari Morhca (SKM)’s de facto leader, PS Golay, finally joining the party formally and leading it from the front next week when he returns from his long trip to Delhi.

Sources say party workers from all over the State are all prepared to accord a grand welcome for Golay on Sunday or any time next week. However, there are reports that Golay will return only next month, possibly in mid-October.

After forming his party on February 4 this year, the rebel leader quit the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front on September 6. In his resignation letter, Golay has accused Chief Minister and SDF chief Pawan Kumar Chamling of betraying the Sikkimese people and making Sikkim his ‘private property’.

Reacting to allegations that the SDF did not receive his resignation letter, Golay disclosed to the media proofs, including Gangtok’s  postal AD receipt papers, that he had sent the letter to Chamling on September 6.

Incidentally, Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP), led by former Chief Minister NB Bhandari, will hold a public meeting in Mangan, headquarters of North Sikkim, on Sunday (Sept).

September 22 is also Chamling’s birthday. He was born on this day in 1950.

Aung San Suu Kyi meets Dalai Lama in Prague

The Dalai Lama and Aung San Suu Kyi during their meeting in Prague, Czech Republic on September 15, 2013. (right)

London, Sept 20: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has risked prompting Chinese anger after it was confirmed she had a private meeting with the Dalai Lama on the sidelines of a Prague rights conference, its spokesman said on Monday.

Beijing has for decades opposed foreign dignitaries meeting Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, who fled his homeland for India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

"They met on Sunday at the Dalai Lama's lecture," Filip Sebek, spokesman for the Forum 2000 foundation that organises the conference, told AFP, specifying that the two Nobel Peace laureates met in private.

Beijing, a powerful Myanmar ally and major investor in the resource-rich nation, has branded the Dalai Lama an anti-China "separatist" who encourages violence.

But the 78-year-old Buddhist leader insists he is peacefully seeking rights and autonomy for Tibetans. He signalled on Friday in Vilnius that he thought China was being "more realistic" about Tibet after decades of hardline policy.

Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama, who met previously in London last year, both spoke at this year's three-day forum, which began on Sunday.

Each paid homage to the late Vaclav Havel, a hero of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that toppled totalitarian Communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.

Himself an ardent advocate for human rights during the communist era, Havel spearheaded the conference in 1997.

Suu Kyi, who never met Havel in person, recalled the former dissident playwright-turned-president -- who had spent five years in Communist prisons -- as a man who gave her hope while she was held.

"When I was under house arrest for many years in Burma, I knew that somewhere in the world there was a man who was speaking out for me and because of whom my freedom remained intact in spite of physical detention," she said.

The 68-year-old herself spent 15 years under house arrest under military rule in Myanmar, before she was freed after controversial elections in 2010.

The Dalai Lama, one of the last people to speak to Havel before his death in 2011, said that during his current visit to Prague, he "had an opportunity to visit his small office, quite untidy."

"I put my head on his chair and (it) reflected his spirit. Perhaps from his chair I may carry some of his blessing out here," he said, adding that it was "our responsibility to carry his wish, his dream, his vision, and his spirit".

Be prepared to shed blood for Gorkhaland from Oct 20: Gurung

Darjeeling, Sept 20: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supremo Bimal Gurung threatened to launch a “bloody agitation” after October 20. He hinted at a prolonged bandh including closing down government and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) offices for more than three months.

Gurung’s threat comes on the heels of the Supreme Court lauding the Calcutta High Court for taking the “very courageous” decision to ban any form of agitation by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha including bandhs.

 “The land of the Gorkhas is asking for blood and we have to be prepared to shed blood for Gorkhaland,” said Gurung, IANS reported.

He said, “Bengal has put her hands in the Darjeeling fire and till the hands turn into ashes the fire will continue burning. We are ready to do or die. Bimal Gurung might die but there will be many other Bimal Gurungs. The Gorkhaland demand will not be compromised. The government will not spare me but has to be careful before taking any action against me.”

Gurung said he has had enough of politics of “namaste” (salutations) and dharnas.

“The government does not understand our democratic form of agitation. Now the public, including the youth and women, has to remain prepared for another form of prolonged agitation. This time the bandh will have no relaxation,” said Gurung.

He said there was no need to free the arrested GJM leaders and supporters.

“Let them remain in jail. You can arrest all of us but the demand for Gorkhaland cannot be crushed by force,” said Gurung.

To his supporters, Gurung said, “We have to be prepared to sacrifice everything for Gorkhaland. We have to be prepared to face the ‘No Work, No Pay’ for more than three months for Gorkhaland.”

“On the request of Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde we lifted the indefinite bandh. It is now his responsibility to arrange for tripartite talks,” said Gurung. (also see page 3)

Roundtable conversation on ‘Modern Sikkim’ on Sept 28

Gangtok, Sept 20: Orangutan Swing is collaborating with Gangtok-based design consultancy Echostream to host the first-ever conversation roundtable of its sort in Sikkim on the topic of modernity.

As the former kingdom was annexed by India less than forty years ago, rapid development since has pushed the decision-makers here to think critically about how to evolve sustainability, while preserving a unique cultural heritage, too. Sikkim is a mixture of cultural identities. People are changing as more money comes into communities, and young people are clamoring for brand name shopping experiences. But how will the town posit itself, as it works to finding an intentional vision?

A roundtable set for Saturday, Sept. 28 called “Modern Sikkim” aims to call out this question and similar ones in a free-flowing conversation that is open to the public.

It’s called “Modern Sikkim,” and will be the culmination of a series of informal gatherings with architects, writers, journalists, and officials from tourism and local government, too. People are ready to talk, but in a new way, which is why they welcomed a husband-and-wife team that came to them with an unusual proposition. What if we got a lot of voices in one room to share perspectives, and not try to rush to solutions? What if the theme of that was, “What does it mean to be a modern Sikkimese?”

Dipika asked Gangtok native Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen, a designer who trained in Ahmedabad, about what he thought of the idea to host a roundtable on the topic of modernity and change here in Sikkim, which is an ecology of heritages and traditions that some may fear are getting lost. “What does it really mean to be from a place? What does it mean, for example, to those who live here, to be Sikkimese?” That started the dialogue. Now Orangutan Swing is collaborating with Gyaltsen and his friends’ collaborative Gangtok-based design consultancy Echostream. He’s quickly looped more than forty people, via a facebook group, into a wider conversation on this theme.

Rapid change in development, and the arrival of new technology to link people who live here very quickly and easily to the rest of the world begs the question, “Who are the Sikkimese people, in a global context? What does it mean, to be a modern Sikkim?”

Arriving at the end of August to Gangtok, Orangutan Swing’s Akira and Dipika Morita were delighted to find a place that felt as easy for their mixed-identity status as a couple to be in as Vancouver, British Columbia. That’s where they would go when they were living in Seattle, looking for a place to go and see faces that resembled their own. Identity is a big topic for Tokyo-born Akira and his Indian-American wife. It’s also a question they’ve been dancing with for five years while raising a son, too. They’ve traveled together to Ghana, many parts of Europe, Japan, Thailand, Laos, and all over America.

But when it comes to hyphenated identities, there’s probably no better place they’ve found such a comfortably co-existing multitude of genetic lines than they have in Gangtok. Whether people have roots from Bhutan, Nepal, or another state of India, the thing they will tell you if you ask what makes this place unique is that they care about each other as part of a community that functions as one. But calling out what it is that describes the traits of the people from this part of India, that’s the question that they hope to explore.

Editorial

PARTY FUNDS

Source Cannot Be Traced

An analysis by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) of income tax returns and statements filed by Congress, BJP, CPI-M, CPI, NCP and BSP with the Election Commission shows that between 2004 to 2012, these political parties received funding worth Rs 3,675 crore through unknown sources. It says that sources for over 75% of the funding received by political parties cannot be traced.  This becomes very relevant in the light of recent events when the political parties were brought under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act by a ruling of Central Information Commission (CIC). Unfortunately, full transparency is not possible under the current laws, and it is only the RTI that can keep citizens informed.

Political parties are required to submit a statement of election expenditure to the EC containing details like total amount received by them as funds in the form of cash, cheques and demand drafts (DDs) among other things. The ADR report says:  “Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI Act. Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In none of these countries is it possible for 75% of the source of funds to be unknown, but at present it is so in India.” In order to strengthen political parties, elections and democracy

The Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama with Prime Minister Nehru and Burmese Prime Minister U Nu and Maharaja Sir Tashi Namgyal of Sikkim in 1956 in India.

Bimal Gurung wants students to play active role in statehood stir

Darjeeling, Sept 20: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha plans to draft students into an active role in its movement for a separate state, its president Bimal Gurung on Thursday said.

He said all students in the Darjeeling hills and Dooars would go to Delhi to press for formation of a separate state. "Mission Gorkhaland will be the name and task for all the students in the hills and Dooars. The students must play an active role in the formation for Gorkhaland. The students will create awareness for Gorkhaland," Gurung said on Facebook.

Gurung earlier held a meeting with students of the hills. He said, "A team comprising 21 students" would go to Delhi and meet various ministers to press for the demand. Share