SIKKIM OBSERVER Jan 12-18, 2013
Lepchas demand employment under ‘primitive tribe’
status
Gangtok, Jan 11: The Sikkim Lepcha Youth Association (Renjyong Mutanchi Rong Ong
Shejum) has demanded reservation for members of the minority Lepcha community
in the State in the employment sector under the “Primitive Tribe Group”.
The State Government has
placed the Lepchas under the “Primitive Tribe” grouping. A press release of the
Association said the Chamling Government has given this status to the Lepchas
“after taking into consideration
the human development statistics of autochthonous Lepchas.”
The Association has urged the
government to fulfill their demand at the earliest, the release said.
Editorial
PRESS VS PRESS
A Needless Controversy
Those, including
mediapersons, who want reunification of Darjeeling with Sikkim, ought to adopt
a better method to meet their objective. Raking up this controversial issue
without a sound base will achieve nothing. People from Darjeeling, Kalimpong
and Kurseong, who have settled in Sikkim since the ‘merger’ in 1975, are at
home in the former kingdom and are living in peace and amity with local
Sikkimese. The present political leadership in Darjeeling has stated that it
will not interfere in Sikkim’s politics. The political leadership in Sikkim
while supporting the demand for creation of Gorkhaland state in Darjeeling has
made it clear that it is against Darjeeling’s merger with Sikkim. The Chamling
Government has also passed a resolution in the Assembly supporting the
statehood demand of Indian Gorkhas. Therefore, those who are hell-bent on
racking up the Sikkim-Darjeeling issue are needlessly causing unnecessary
social disharmony and tension. The good relationship that the people of
Darjeeling and Sikkim enjoy should be maintained at all cost.
When asked for his opinion by
Hamro Prajashakti, a Gangtok-based
Nepali daily, the editor of this newspaper, said he did not have any comment on
the issue but said that some of those in Sikkim who were vociferously opposing
the merger were not sincere in safeguarding Sikkim’s distinct identity within
the Union. If Sikkimese leaders are strong, consistent and committed to safeguarding
the rights and interests of bonafide Sikkimese hailing from the three ethnic
communites – Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalese – no one will dare to try to divide
us and dilute our identity. Despite a simple and strong rejection that the
editor had not supported the merger demand, Prajashakti,
unfortunately, said that he had made a ‘U-turn’ on the issue. It is hoped that
those such as the editor of this weekly, who are apolitical and want to remain
so, should not be dragged into a needless controversy just to help those who
are campaigning for something. Those who are with Prajashakti ought to know that if readers lose faith in the
credibility of a newspaper it has lost everything. Mediapersons ought to
protect its colleagues in times of trouble if it is justified and not do
anything which may cause harm to their colleagues.
Indigenous people: a new emerging political force in
Nepal
By JAMYANG DORJEE
After the subjugation of
Magrat empire, Kirat and Limbu kings and finally the establishment of the
Gorkhali state on 12 November 1769, with the final capture of Bhaktapur by
Prithvi Narayan Shah, Nepal became a Hindu state and it strictly forced a vedic
caste system which was later codified by Janga Bahadur Rana in his famous
(Muluki Ain) of 1853. For 182 years
until Nepalese became the citizens of the country for the first time in 1951
from being subjects of the king, people had no say in running of the country.
Dor Bahadur Bista, also known as the father of Nepalese anthropology, in his
book Fatalism and Development in Nepal, termed this voicelessness as
people's belief in ' fatalism' preached
by the Hindu Puranic texts.
Democracy in Nepal started
sixty years ago but unfortunately even today Nepal does not experience a stable
and lasting democracy because the exercise remained exclusive affairs of the
Pahari rulers centric to Kathmandu valley.
Himali people in the northern border and the bulk of the indigenous
people were excluded from mainstream politics and discriminated.
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| The proposed 14 Federal States of Nepal. |
Nepal Government during the
245 years of monarchy ignored the cultural plurality and tried to contain the
country's remarkable ethnic diversity through national caste system. This
extreme ethnocentric model of achieving national integration automatically
established the cultural dominance of the upper caste and degraded all who
conformed least to Hindu norms. According to R.P.Yadav, former member of
National Planning Commission, while stating the status of the Nepali government
from 1951 to January 2005, said "all ministers and the secretary level
officers and all the members of the cabinet, which was formed sixty four times
during that period, has remained mainly in the hands of Hindu high castes of
Chhetris/Thakurs, Brahmins and Newars." For centuries the state strongly
believed that unification can be achieved by suppressing the difference.
The Madhesis: The
Madeshi in the Terai region bordering India and the Bhotiyas of the northern
region have always been treated as foreigners or Indians and Tibetans
respectively by the Kathmandu rulers.
L.R. Baral in one of his books observed that “The Terarians are
vociferous critics of the overall policies followed by what they call the
'Pahade (Hill) dominated power structure' aimed at intensifying the process of
'Nepalisation' i.e. dissemination of the Brahmin-Chettri political and social
cultures of the hills.”
Madeshis have marriage relations across the
border with India and the two people are emotionally, culturally, religiously,
economically and geographically so interlinked that it is difficult for any
political move to separate them. Naturally, India trusts them and with their
support today, Madeshi rise to power is very apparent.
Nepal is home to 59
officially recognized groups of indigenous peoples (known as
Adivasi-Janajatis), with distinct cultures, languages and belief systems.
Collectively they comprise about 37.8 % of the population according to official
census. Indigenous leaders claim that the figure should be much more.
Indigenous peoples are found all across the country, in the mountains, hills
and plains areas; the largest concentration being found in the east.
Indigenous people: The bulk of the non-resident Nepalese, which remained the main source
of foreign remittance, the backbone of Nepali economics, spread over in Hongkong, Malaysia, Korea, Middle-east, USA
and Europe are all indigenous people. Almost the entire army in the Gorkha
regiment, be it in India or British army, consisting of Gurung, Tamangs,
Thapas, Limbus and Lamas are indigenous people.
Two million of Himali
indigenous people, who call themselves as
'Bhotya and Sherpas' and look
towards Tibet as a source of their civilization, are spread over 19 districts
of the entire northern borderland from
Humla to Tablejung and share a common ethnicity, culture, language, marriage
relation and religion. The fact remains that Buddhist/Bonpo culture dominant among
highlanders is very different from the dominant culture of the Nepalese state.
Also the later never made a secret of its contempt for Bhotiyas.
Krishna B. Bhattachan, an
indigenous leader writes, “The main socio-cultural-political fault line in the
past and the present, irrespective of political systems, is the ideology, policy
and practice of Bahunbad (Brahmanism)." He further writes, "In the
past the main challenges faced by indigenous peoples were monarchy and the
Hindu kingdom. Now monarchy has been abolished for good and Nepal has been
declared as a secular state. Therefore, the main challenges to indigenous
peoples comes from Bahunbadis, patriarchy, continuation of unitary state in the
name of federal democratic republic, and undemocratic and exclusive political
parties."
The 27th May, 2012
Constituent Assembly of Nepal was supposed to declare the new constitution of
the Federal Democratic Secular Republic of Nepal. Instead, the Assembly itself
was dissolved due to disagreement amongst the major political parties, mainly
on the state restructuring issue. Different political parties have, over the
years, debated over different ideologies on hard issues such as the political
system but never serious to deal with the socio-cultural and religious
inequalities, which, as a matter of fact, remain the core issues for the suppressed
and marginalized section of the society.
Ruling elite: Today's
ruling class does not want to see the unification of Madeshis and formation of
federal states based on identity or ethnicity. They support federal states
where Madeshis are divided into parts and other states based on mixed identity,
geography and capability. They refused to even name the states based on
identity. They advocate that federating the country based on ethnicity will
break the country; in other words they want to maintain the status quo.
On the other hand the
Madeshis and indigenous people advocate that the fruit of many years of
struggle or revolution must be implemented.
The six-point agreement of SPA-Maoist on November 7, 2006 stated: “to
end discriminations based on class, ethnicity, lingual, gender, cultural,
religion and region and to deconstruct the centralized and unitary structure of
the state and to reconstruct it into an inclusive, democratic and forward
looking state… A high level commission will be formed to suggest on the
restructuring of the state. Final decision regarding the restructuring of the
state will be made by the constituent assembly.”
The high-level state
restructuring committee of the constituent assembly was indeed formed and in
its final report it suggested formation of 14 states, which include two states
for Madhes and two Himali states. The indigenous people demand that this
proposal should follow the next natural course of parliamentary procedure,
meaning debating in the parliament and voting. They know full well that they
will get 2/3 majority and, therefore, the upper-caste party of NC and UML
refused to allow discussion in the parliament. Instead they began to discuss the
issue outside the parliament for so many months for consensus, which bore no fruit.
The high-level committee's report was again subjected to a refinery process by
an expert committee of non-parliamentarians. They further delayed and finally
submitted the report to the PM two days after China's Prime Minister Wen Jia
Bao's visit to Nepal by deleting the two Himali ethnic states.
Sixty years of democratic
struggle in Nepal is virtually the history of struggle for empowering the
marginalized people. 27th May
parliamentary dissolution is simply a repetition of history.
Knowing full well the
political bullying tactics of the ruling elite, the indigenous people have
gathered themselves across party lines and developed a strategy. 219 members of
the Constituent Assembly belonging to indigenous people have
formed what is known as 'Indigenous People's Caucus', whose sole aims
and objectives is to ensure the rights of ethnicity, culture, religion and federalism
are included in the new constitution. All the members of the caucus have signed
an undertaken that they will not respect their respective party whip in the
parliament when it comes to the common interest of religion, culture and
ethnicity.
Federalism: The
three big parties in Nepal, which normally sit to decide Nepal's future, still
consider Madeshi party as party of second class citizens. The Congress and the
UML have decided to fight to the tooth against ethnic federalism because they
believe that such democracy will finish their traditional political base
forever. The Maoists leaders, who are basically Bahuns, are not able to decide
whether they should be with their party folks or their caste brothers.
Prachanda says one thing when the three party leaders sit together and another
thing when he meets his party workers.
Therefore, Sushil Koirala,
President of the Congress party, recently said, “The problem could be solved if
Prachanda was honest.” The indigenous people and the Madeshis knew the kind of
decision that could emerge out of the meeting of the Bahun leaders and hence
have openly declared in advance that the three-party decision is not binding on
them. Realizing this, the indigenous leaders have decided to form a separate
political party. Dissatisfied over party's stand on federalism, Passang Sherpa
spearheaded the movement with the support of Ashok Rai, Prithvi Subbha Gurung
and Chaintanya Subbha and 517 party workers from 61 districts. Disgruntled
Janajati-Madhesi leaders of the CPN-UML declared their breakaway from the
mother party in October 2012.
Besides, vice-chairman Ashok
Rai, other leaders including Rajendra Shrestha, Rizwan Ansari, Mangal Siddhi
Manandhar, Ajambar Rai, Hemraj Rai Majhilal Tharu, Bijay Subba, Bir Bahadur
Lama announced their ultimate decision to desert the party. The formation of
the new party was not easy because some of the veteran communists like Ashok
Rai want to include Maxism in the party ideology but Passang Sherpa was adamant
that party's ideology should be only social democrat with no communist baggage
attached.
People’s movement: Ashok Rai announced his party as socialist democrat two months back
and Subbha and Passang announced the new party 'Social Democrats' on 30th
December, 2012. Passang Sherpa said on the opening day: “For 60 years we
followed the Congress and Communists with the hope that finally the indigenous,
Madeshis, Dalits, women and suppressed people of Nepal will see the light of
the day but they failed us. When it comes to inclusive democracy, they all
follow the same path therefore; we are launching this new political force of the
suppressed people of Nepal.”
Now that the people's
revolution, some say 'social evolution' launched by Maoist party, already have
woken the suppressed masses and brought the ethnic gin out of the bottle, it is
not easy to put it back. At the same time, the NC and UML leaders continue to
believe that they enjoy full support from both the neighboring countries on
rejecting federalism based on ethnicity and that they can outwit the indigenous
leaders by their oratory skills outside the parliament.
Democracy is a numbers game and as of today
Madheshi-indigenous combine (Madheshis 40% and indigenous people 37.8 %) is a
majority force that cannot be easily ignored. While the elite parties are
fighting for the post of Prime Minister, believing that power in hand will
change the fortune of the party, the indigenous people are on the ground
managing the grassroots movement believing that ultimately it is the numbers
game in a democracy and grassroots campaign that will blow the wind in their
favour. (Jamyang Dorjee is the Regional Coordinator, CTAC, Kathmandu.”
Chungthang Teesta hydel project to produce power by
June 2013
Gangtok, Jan 11: With the ending of the long standing dispute between the Sikkim
Government and Teesta Urja Limited (TUL) over the State Government’s share
holding in one of the largest hydel projects, Teesta-III located in Chungthang
in North Sikkimis all set to on stream from June this year.
Men and machines are racing
against time to ensure that project work is completed as per current schedule
and provide virtually free power to Sikkim and supply to four northern States –
Delhi, UP, Haryana and Rajasthan - which reel under chronic power shortages,
according to sources.
The Sikkim Government,
through Sikkim Power Investment Corporation Limited, obtained 26% share holding
in the SPV that is executing the 1200 MW Teesta-III hydro power project – the
largest in the six cascade projects on the Teesta river.
Teesta Urja’s Board of
Directors has already approved the transfer of 29,64,00,000 partly paid shares
held by Athena Projects Private Limited in favour of SPICL.
The State Government has
reportedly withdrawn its case against TUL following the amicable settlement
paving the way for taking the project back on track.
The first unit will begin to
produce power by June. As much as 99.2% of tunneling works was already completed
(around 34.4 km out of total 34.6 Km). The excavation of 13.824 km of head race
tunnel is also complete, sources said.
REC and PTC are among the big
lenders to the project while a consortium of six PE players led by Morgan
Stanley have pumped in Rs 750 crores signaling the FDI into country’s hydro
power projects.
This was considered to be the
largest PE transaction in the country’s power sector. Besides Morgan Stanley,
the group of investors includes Everstone Capital, General Atlantic, Goldman
Sachs Investment Management and Norwest Venture Partners.
Experts say Sikkim sets the
new trend for developing hydro-power projects as the country is blessed with
bounty of rivers flowing from Himalayan glaciers during summer when the power
consumption is at its peak. Development of hydro power projects along the
Himalayan river course, thus, could be a win-win situation for the people and
the governments.
New Act to benefit private employees
Gangtok, Jan 11: The
Employees’ State Insurance Act 1948, which provides certain benefits to
employees, has been enforced in Sikkim with effect from December 1 last year.
The Act provides certain benefits to employees in case of
sickness, maternity and employment injuries, an IPR release said.
Under the Act, shops,
factories, industries, hotels, restaurants, private educational institutions,
road motor transport establishments, cinemas, news paper establishments,
private medical institutions, nursing homes, diagnostics centres and others are
to be registered under the scheme.
A team of officials from Employees State Insurance Corporation
(ESIC) regional office of Kolkata is here to meet State Government officials on
the implementation of the Act. The meeting is scheduled for January 10. The Act
is applicable to private enterprises which have a minimum of 10 working staff
members. As per the Act, all employees in those private enterprises coming
under its purview, are to be insured with contributions made to the ESIC by the
employer. The rates are prescribed by the Central Government. The employees can
claim benefits to him and his dependants for sickness, maternity and injuries
while working.
An awareness programme on
Employees State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) was organized by the Labour Department,
Government of Sikkim, at a local hotelyesterday. It was mentioned that the ESI
scheme is a comprehensive social security scheme designed to accomplish the
task of socially protecting the employees in the organized sector against the
events of sickness, maternity, disablement and death due to employment injury
and to provide medical care to the insured employees and their families.
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