THE WAY WE
FOUGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS
A decade and seven years ago, six Sikkimese
representing the three ethnic communities of Sikkim – Lepchas, Bhutias and
Nepalese – held a 12-hour hunger strike in Gangtok on October 2, 1999, demanding
restoration of their political rights on seat reservation in the Sikkim
Legislative Assembly.
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| (Left to Right) Tenzing Namgyal, Jigme N. Kazi, Nima Lepcha, Pintso Bhutia, K.C. Pradhan and Gyamsay Bhutia. |
The participants were: the Late K.C. Pradhan, former Minister and Advisor
of the Sikkimese Nepalese Apex Committee (SNAC), Nima Lepcha and Pintso Bhutia,
Convenors of the Sikkim Bhutia-Lepcha Apex Committee (SIBLAC), Jigme N. Kazi,
Chairman of the Organisation of Sikkimese Unity (OSU), and Tenzing Namgyal and
Gyamsay Bhutia of the SIBLAC.
The protestors “sought the blessing of the ‘Father
of the Nation’ and the Guardian Deities of Sikkim in their struggle on
restoration of their political rights” as reflected in Article 371F of the
Constitution of India.
“We held the hunger strike on October 2 to
remind the world that we were determined to struggle on till our demand on
restoration of our political rights were met. While others fought the elections
we fought for our people. We are not concerned with who wins or loses in the
polls; our main concern was that if the Assembly seats were not restored to us
in the near future we would be the ultimate losers and the electoral process
would then become a meaningless ritual as the Sikkimese people would have no
future to look forward to.”
Ref: The Lone Warrior: Exiled In My Homeland,
by Jigme N. Kazi, published by Hill Media Publications, Gangtok, 2014.
Hi Jigs,
ReplyDeleteI did not know you had a Blog Came across while moving through. First I have found it very interesting because if brought back memories of the days my family and I spent in Sikkim and worked, and sometimes suffered together defending what was right. The photographs are very eye filling seeing and remembering old friends even those who had either deliberately or otherwise taken leave from us. Oh to be back in Sikkim to share the companionship, friendship, the joy and peace. Thank you for the beautiful mention in one of your posts. Your post of Balchand was very emotional and brought to mind the days we spent with him. He went too soon. Great work I will follow your blog more closely