HIMALAYAN GUARDIAN Wednesday
July 16-23, 2013
Abide by SC verdict on IT issue:
Chamling
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Gangtok, July 16: While stating that the State Government would abide
by the Supreme Court’s decision on a petition filed by the Association of Old
Settlers of Sikkim (AOSS), Chief Minister Pawan Chamling said his government
would, however, contest the issue legally.
This
decision came during a meeting of the ruling party’s legislature party held
here on Sunday. During the celebrations of Bhanu Jayanti on Saturday, Chamling
said the matter regarding income tax exemption for old settlers of the State
was in the apex court and would be “dealt legally” and “we should now abide by
the court decision,” an IPR release said.
Chamling
pointed out that he was in favour of IT exemption for old settlers. However,
the Chief Minister’s failure to defend the Sikkimese Nepalese against the
AOSS’s allegation in its writ petition that they were ‘foreigners’ has not gone
down well with the people. In fact, Chamling said the Opposition had misguided
the people on the issue.
Chamling’s
remarks on Article 371F have also been sharply criticized by the Opposition. He
is supposed to have said that it was up to the Centre if it wants to scrap Art.
371F from the Constitution. This article provides special status to Sikkim.
Opposition
parties, including Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) and Sikkim Sangram Parishad
(SSP), said Art 371F is based on assurances given to Sikkim during the merger
in 1975. The SPCC said if the Chief Minister is not able to safeguard bonafide
Sikkimese he should step down.
Nepal hurdle: delimitation of
constituencies
Kathmandu, July 16: Nepal is facing a constitutional hurdle over delimitation
of electoral constituencies as it prepares for November 19 constituent assembly
(CA) elections.
According
to political leaders, if the problem is not addressed immediately, it will
affect the election plan. For delimitating the constituencies under the
first-past-the-post election system, the government has formed a constituency
delimitation commission (CDC) a month ago but it has not made any progress yet.
In 2008 CA elections, there were 240 electoral constituencies but they need to
be re-demarcated as per the 2011 national census.
On
the one hand constitution calls for increasing the constituencies in line with
the population increase, but on the other hand it prohibits increasing the
constituencies beyond 240. The CDC held discussion with top leaders of four
major parties yesterday for clearing the hurdle.
“The
CDC representatives told us about the constitutional difficulties and we are
working to remove it,” NC vice president Ram Chandra Poudel told reporters
after the meeting.
Parties
are also divided on the basis of constituency delimitation.
‘No political intention behind subsidy cut to Bhutan’
PM congratulates Bhutan PDP
leaders
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| Bhutan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Tshering Tobgay |
New Delhi, July 16: India said Monday it looks forward to “intensive consultations” as
soon as a new government is in place in Bhutan and denied there was any
political or other intention in the subsidy cut of kerosene and cooking gas to
the Himalayan nation.
External affairs ministry
spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said: “We expect intensive consultations as soon
as a new government is in place in Bhutan.”
To a query on subsidy cut, he
clarified that “the issue of subsidy relates to the delivery mechanisms of
India’s development partnership with Bhutan, it has no political or other
intentions,” IANS reported.
“We will certainly engage
with Bhutan on this,” he said.
He also clarified that it was
not “the intension of India to in any way adversely impact on the poor in Bhutan
or on people in Bhutan in any manner”.
India “looks forward to
engaging on this matter with Bhutan as soon as possible”, he said.
India had cut off the
kerosene and cooking gas subsidy to Bhutan last month as the 10th Plan, under
which India was providing such assistance, expired on June 30.
The spokesperson described
the election process in Bhutan, in which the opposition People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) emerged victorious, as the “consolidation of democracy” in the
Himalayan country.
The PDP won the elections,
capturing 32 seats, while the incumbent Druk Phuensum Tshogpa of former Prime Minister
Jigmi Y. Thinley could manage just 15 seats in the 47-member National Assembly.
The elections were Bhutan’s second parliamentary elections since the country
became a democracy in 2008.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
had on Sunday written to PDP leader Tshering Tobgay, congratulating him on his
party’s victory and promised India’s “steadfast and unflinching support”.
He also assured that New
Delhi will remain “sensitive to Bhutan and its interests” and said he has
instructed his officials to “prepare for the discussions on our plan assistance
to Bhutan”.
“I would like to avail of
this opportunity to assure you of the steadfast and unflinching support of
India and its citizens for the steady steps that Bhutan is taking to further
strengthen democratic processes and institutions. India is a privileged partner
of Bhutan and it’s people in their socio-economic progress and development,”
Singh said in a statement.
Citizenship certificates issued to ‘foreigners’:
Baidya
Baidya
Kathmandu, July 16: Despite haggling among political parties over the distribution of
citizenship certificates, Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) gave out over
600,000 national IDs in one month.
With a view to ensuring
participation of citizens in the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for
November 19, the government had launched two campaigns-one involving mobile
teams and the integrated citizenship distribution campaign-across the country
in the third week of April.
A Home Ministry source said
181,713 citizenship cards - 107,966 for women and 73,747 for men-were
distributed at the local level under the mobile distribution campaign, The Kathmandu Post reported.
A citizenship certificate is
mandatory for anyone to be listed in the new voter roll with photo and finger
prints. According to Ministry officials, 421,381 citizenship cards-205,744 for
females and 16,937 for males-were distributed under the integrated campaign.
Records at the Ministry show that the number of certificates acquired by women
in both the campaigns was higher than that acquired by men.
However, Madhes-based parties
claim that their voters are still deprived of citizenship cards, while other
parties like the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist and Rastriya Janamorcha have been
demanding formation of a high-level panel to look into the distribution
campaigns. They claim that the ID cards were being distributed
"haphazardly."
Baidya has been publicly
saying that the campaigns were aimed at distributing citizenship certificates
to "foreigners".
"In the name of
Citizenship Ordinance, the government has misused the citizenship certificates
by distributing them to foreigners. Our party has officially decided to launch
a nationwide awareness campaign against the rampant misuse of the national
IDs," CPN-Maoist spokesperson Pampha Bhusal said.
Many
Madhes-based parties are saying that the special campaigns have failed to
incorporate a significant portion of the population in the Tarai who are
without the certificates.
Himalayan Guardian July 17-23, 2013
Editorial
RISKY VENTURE
Bhutan Polls: From 2 to 31
Despite its prompt denial
India will find it very difficult to erase the widely-held notion that its
last-minute withdrawal of subsidy on kerosene and cooking gas during the
election process has not affected the poll results to Bhutan’s National
Assembly. The very fact that the ruling Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (PDP) won only 14
of the 47 seats in the Assembly while its rival People’s Democratic Party
(PDP)’s poll fortune rose to 31 from the previous 2 makes one doubt about the
poll process, particularly when the outgoing Prime Minister Jigme Thinley was
doing a good job.
An editorial in Kuensel, Bhutan's English-language daily
- in which the government holds 51 per cent shares - wrote: "Many
Bhutanese are hurt and angered by the timing (of the subsidy cuts), and feel it
is a deliberate move to rock the elections."
New Delhi will have a lot of
explaining to do in future and by – knowingly and unknowingly – influencing the
outcome of the polls India will find itself in an uncomfortable position in the
high Himalayas where China is increasingly becoming militarily and economically
more aggressive.
Even powerful western
countries are unable to ignore China these days and New Delhi’s discomfort on
Thinley’s meeting with the former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines
of
a multilateral meeting in Rio
in 2012 was unnecessary. Indo-Bhutan’s relations are strong and cannot be
easily disturbed. However, China’s dominance in the region cannot also be easily
ignored. If Bhutanese leaders wish to learn how New Delhi plays its game in this
strategic region they could learn a lot from the two former Himalayan kingdoms
– Sikkim and Nepal.
Article 371F is based on 1973 Tripartite Agreement:
Upreti
Gangtok, July 16: Former minister KN Upreti while criticizing Chief Minister Pawan
Chamling’s remarks on Article 371F said this special provision in the
Constitution is a product of India’s promises made during the merger as
reflected in the historic Tripartite Agreement of May 8, 1973.
In a press statement, Upreti
said it is “absolutely wrong” for the Chief Minister to say that “Article 371F
stands at the pleasure or whim and wishes of the Central Government and so long
as the Center desires and the Center may take away these privileges at any time
if they desire.”
“Chamling should know that
Article 371F is the product of pre-merger 8th May tri-partite agreement between
the Chogyal, the Government of India and the political parties of Sikkim, which
ensured full Constitutional safeguard to the three ethnic sections of the
people of Sikkim namely – Sikkimese of Bhutia origins, Sikkimese of Lepcha
origins and the Sikkimese of Nepali origins, who enjoyed full local protection
right as Sikkim subjects during the pre-merger Chogyal’s Government,” Upreti
said.
“Taking advantage of such weak stand of our
leaders and successive Governments a lot of encroachment and dilution has taken
place from time to time. The Government with full majority of peoples’
representative in the house is fully responsible for taking strong stand on the
matter and at no cost they should surrender or wholly be dependent on the
court’s verdict,” Upreti added.
He went on to say, “High
Courts or the Supreme Court are not the authority to make laws but their job is
only to examine legally whether the laws made by the Parliament or the Assembly
are right and is implemented properly.”
“The Government instead of keeping mum and
watching the situation should spell out their clear stand as to what steps they
are going to take in the event of any aggression on encroachment on 371F of the
Constitution,” the former minister said.
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