8th Anniversary of Demolition of my House 

PRICE OF FREEDOM: STAND UP, DON’T BOW! 

 The assault on me and my newspaper, Sikkim Observer, did not begin in March 2015, when the authorities began demolition of my residence-cum-press building in Gangtok. It started a long time ago in early 1983-84, when I chose to become an independent journalist. 

 And it was not only me who took the beating for writing the truth. Down the decades, many journalists in Sikkim faced threat to life and their properties. I have recorded this in my numerous books and publications. But here on the 8th anniversary of the demolition of my house I want to place on the public domain what I had to go through in the past four decades. 

 Three and half years after I launched Sikkim Observer in the summer of 1986, my printing press was ransacked and press materials stolen, leading to temporary closure of the paper. In 2001-2003, my press vehicle was twice set on fire in front of my residence. The second attempt was to eliminate me and family. It was not my time to go! 

 And finally on March 23, 2015, the authorities, escorted by police personnel, broke into my house and began demolition of my residence-cum-press building in Gangtok, located less than 150 meters from MG Marg. The entire place was surrounded by armed police personnel. I believe my third book, The Lone Warrior: Exiled In My Homeland, published in 2014 and unofficially banned in Sikkim, led to the demolition of my house. Since then the Observer has not seen the light of day.

 In 2022, I was forced to sell my printing press machinery as scraps. The entire set-up, which cost me Rs 16 lacs in 1998-99, was sold for only Rs 46,000.

 Financial suppression can be seen by how much printing work was given to my Hill Media Publications, a small-scale industrial unit which published all my publications, by the State Government and revenue generated through state government advertisements by my newspapers and magazines. The truth will come out if the facts are made public.

 And yet despite all these I look back with pride and satisfaction. I have served my people, brought honour to my profession and respect to my family, friends and well-wishers. Freedom has a price to be paid. There is nothing for nothing. We have lived up to the expectations of the people and paid the price for standing up and speaking out.