OBITUARY
Bhandari gave us Sikkim’s ‘finest
hour’
Jigme N.Kazi
He had
been suffering from back pain – injuries incurred from police beating during
his anti-merger days in early 1970s – for a very long time and finally
hospitalized in Delhi. But he breathed his last in a New Delhi hospital on July
16, 2017, due to cardiac arrest. “Dad
was fine till the last moment. He did not reveal any signs that he was leaving
us,” said his daughter Primula who was beside him when he passed away.
Nar Bahadur Bhandari ruled Sikkim, the
former Himalayan kingdom – now the 22nd State of India, for more
than a decade and half (1979-1994). The teacher-turned-politician began his
political career in early 1973, when pro-India forces in Sikkim under the
leadership of Congress leader Kazi Lhendup Dorji Khangsarpa – a Sikkimese
Lepcha aristocrat – were gradually tilting towards India. Despite opposition
from the Sikkimese people Sikkim became a part of India in mid-1975. The
Sikkimese people led by the Chogyal (king), Palden Thondup Namgyal, Nar Bahadur
Bhandari and other Sikkimese nationalist leaders lost the fight to retain
Sikkim’s distinct and unique international status. Despite the odds heavily stacked
up against them pro-Sikkim forces
swam against the tide. Theirs was a losing battle but come what may they would
go down fighting. The Indira Gandhi-led Congress Government, Congress dominated
Parliament, Indian officials at the helm of affairs in Sikkim, Indian Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Indian Army – were no match to the people’s
movement opposing the ‘merger.’
However, four years after Sikkim’s
annexation the Bhandari-led Sikkim Parishad scored a decisive moral victory when it trounced Kazi’s
Congress-turned-Janata Party in the first Assembly elections in Sikkim as an
Indian State and formed the government on October 18, 1979 with Bhandari as the
Chief Minister. Kazi, the grand old man
of Sikkim politics, lost his own seat to a Parishad candidate, Athup Lepcha,
from the remote Dzongu constituency in North Sikkim. The Parishad won 16 seats
and with the help of an Independent (Sangha MLA, Lachen Gomchen Rinpoche, was
actually a Parishad candidate) formed the government. The Congress (R) party led by Kazi’s Cabinet
member Ram Chandra Poudyal, who revolted against Kazi and New Delhi for
unilaterally and illegally abolishing the 16 seats reserved for the Sikkimese
Nepalese in the 32-member House, won 11 seats, leaving Nar Bahadur Khatiwada’s
Sikkim Prajatantra Party with 4 seats. Khatiwada, the former Youth Congress
leader who spearheaded the merger movement, fell out with Kazi in 1977 alleging
that the ‘merger’ was ‘illegal’, ‘undemocratic’ and ‘against the wishes of the
Sikkimese people.’
The rest is history. Petty politics does not
deserve much attention. But what needs to be mentioned here is that Bhandari’s
downfall began when he, against the wishes of the people, merged the Sikkim
Janata Parishad with Indira’s Congress party in July 1981. Three years after
this unfortunate merger Bhandari was dethroned in May 1984 by dissidents within
the Congress party. He was accused of being corrupt and communal. However, he
fought back and formed the Sikkim Sangram Parishad (SSP) and returned to power
in March 1985, winning 30 of the 32 seats. The Congress party had to bite the
dust and had to be content with only 2 seats. Significantly, till date no
national parties have won Assembly polls in Sikkim.
For two terms beginning from 1985 Bhandari
ruled Sikkim singlehandedly like an autocrat. His critics accused him of acting
like a dictator until he was finally ousted from power by dissident SSP MLAs on
the income tax issue in May 1994. His protégé and SSP legislator, Pawan Kumar
Chamling, aroused the imagination of the people and using the OBC (Other
Backward Classes) card and leading a pro-democracy movement, challenged
Bhandari’s authority and came to power in the Assembly elections held in December
1994. Ever since Chamling’s Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) has been in power.
Bhandari tried his luck for a comeback but his efforts to do so when he joined
the Congress (I) in August 2003 and thereafter to revive his own SSP in 2009
failed.
“Despite his age we still cannot write off Bhandari politically,” observed Suresh Pramar, former editor of Sikkim Express and Eastern Express. A day later Bhandari breathed his last.
Significantly, Bhandari’s death came at a time when Sikkim has been in the headlines
in the national media for almost a month. China has not only threatened to
strike India at the strategic and highly sensitive border area in eastern
Sikkim, it has also – for the first time since 1974-75 – stated that Sikkim was
annexed and that China may back pro-independence movement in the former kingdom
after de-recognizing the ‘merger’.
When he was abruptly ousted from power in
1984 Bhandari claimed that he was thrown out because he refused to yield on his
demands on constitutional recognition of Nepali language, citizenship for
‘stateless persons’, and Assembly seat reservation for Sikkimese Nepalese.
Except for the Assembly seat issue the two other demands were met during his
tenure as Chief Minister. The third issue, yet to be resolved, is posing a big
headache to the Chamling Government.
When he was ousted from power in 1984, I
wrote: “Perhaps history will look back
to this era and recall this period as Sikkim’s “finest hour”. Bhandari then
will not be remembered for the wrongs he has done but for the things he hoped
to do and for the dreams that he set out to fulfill.”
His stand, “We have been merged, we shall
not be submerged” still echoes in the heart of many Sikkimese. Sikkim faces yet
another crossroad even as the man whom many looked up for political leadership
is no more. Between China’s latest bid to liberate Sikkim and India’s
‘democracy’ lies the Sikkimese people, who are uncertain and insecure of a
future in their own homeland.
