I
have made mistakes and regret it: Kazini
Sikkim’s absorption into the Indian Union and its
integration with the mainstream has always been a touchy and a very
controversial subject. This chapter will not deal with every aspect of the
‘merger’, but will mainly focus on certain important issue of the ‘terms of the
merger’ under which the tiny Himalayan Kingdom became a part of the Indian
sub-continent almost two decades back. It will also reflect on the general mood
of the people in the post-merger era, and reactions of those who played a major
role in what many perceive as the annexation of Sikkim.
Nari
Rustomji, a noted author and authority on the eastern Himalayas and the
Northeastern region of India, in an article in the Literary Supplement of the Sunday
Statesman on July 22, 1984, wrote: “I had not met the Kazini of Chakung for
several years, and recently called in at her home in Kalimpong on my way from
Sikkim to Shillong. It had not been my intention to discuss with her or with
her husband, the former Chief Minister of Sikkim, the politics of the country,
but the options were not open to me. I barely stepped out from my car into her
brightly-spangled parlour before she burst out with her dramatic confession.”
And what was
Kazini’s dramatic confession? As reported in the article, Kazini told Rustomji,
“You and the Chogyal were absolutely right. It has all been a terrible
mistake.”
Surprisingly,
Kazini, in a letter to the editor of the Statesman,
denied having stated this to Rustomji. Unfortunately for Kazini, very few
people would be convinced that Rustomji was lying and that she was telling the
truth. Even her own husband, who after having lived for years under her shadow,
has been making startling statements over the outcome of the merger of which he
was its chief architect. If Kazini had confessed that merger was a mistake,
then Kazi has stated that the Sikkimese people have not benefited from it.
Five years
after her reported confession with Rustomji, Kazini made another startling
confession: “I have made mistakes and I regret many things I have done.” This
confession, even more dramatic than the previous one, made in April 1989, was
to be her last few words to the people before her death. Her candid admission
that she made mistakes and regretted them, was made in her residence in
Kalimpong in the presence of her husband, friends, relatives and two
journalists from Sikkim, who had come to see her after she survived a critical
liver complication.
Upon learning
that Kazini had survived another attack, Ranjit Devraj, UNI (United News of
India) representative in Sikkim, and I rushed to Kalimpong to see her and to
find out about her views on her long and chequered semi-political career. It
was to be a historic moment for us and we didn’t want to miss this chance.
After waiting in the parlour over a cup of tea for a while, we were finally
ushered into Kazini’s bedroom. There were already some guests present in the
room when we got in. More followed after we entered the room. Everyone was
aware of the significance of the moment.
The room was
quiet and I could feel that the atmosphere was quite tense even as the
85-year-old lady, who once led a vigorous life in the hills, lay sick and
helpless on her bed. I had never met personally, but Kazi, to my pleasant
surprise, later told me what she was quite fond of me. I think she got to know
me through my writings, which appeared in numerous local and national
publications. She took a careful look at us when we entered the room and then
asked us to come closer to her. And while everyone in the room waited with
bated breath for her to say something of historical significance, she finally
spoke up.
“Jigme, you
write well,” were her first words. She asked me to sit beside her. The
compliment was quite flattering and totally unexpected. I just stood there
quietly beside her without uttering a word. Although I must admit that I was
quite flattered by what she said, I had not come all the way from Sikkim to
hear a few kinds words from the old lady about myself. I expected more from
her.
When she saw
the notebook in my hand and realized that we had come to her for more than
that, she adjusted herself and finally spoke up, loud and clear for all to
hear. Besides being the wife of the former chief minister, Kazini was also a
journalist in her younger days. She actually took a live interest in the Himalayan Observer, an English week
published from Kalimpong, which virtually became the mouthpiece of the Sikkim
Congress led by Kazi. Having been a journalist and perhaps being aware of the
role of the media in her life, she must have instinctively realized why we had
come and the importance of what she spoke.
“I would like
all the people in Sikkim to be sustained, to live together, and to have a
common destiny,” was Kazini’s first statement. The fact that the Government of
India had, in the past, used her and her husband to cause divisions among the
three ethnic groups in Sikkim, with the sole objective of weaning Sikkim closer
towards India, was an open secret in Sikkim. Kazini knew full well that the
people were suspicious of her own role and her party’s activities in Sikkim,
particularly between April 1973 to April 1975, when the political upheaval,
which began in early April 1973, finally led to Sikkim’s merger two years
later. The division between the minority Buddhist Bhutia-Lepchas and the
majority Hindu Nepalese reached its peak during this period, enabling Kazi’s
Sikkim Congress to grab the seat of power with the tangible backing of the
Indian Government.
It was Kazi’s
Sikkim State Congress (SSC) in 1953, which demanded ‘accession’ of Sikkim to
India, and eventually it was his Sikkim Congress which put an end to the
Chogyals’ 333-year rule, and made Sikkim a constituent unit of India in April
1975. Instead of maintaining its international status and framing its own
Constitution for a more democratic set-up, Sikkim was made to accept the
Constitution of another country. No wonder Karma Topden, till recently Sikkim’s
Rajya Sabha MP and formerly the Chogyal’s ADC, reportedly commented during the
merger period: “Everything comes to us ready-made from India these days, even
constitutions.”
After
painfully witnessing what was taking place in Sikkim in the one and a half
dacades since the kingdom’s entry into the Indian Union, and having been a
party to the total disintegration, destruction and division amongst the
Sikkimese, Kazini finally yielded to her long-suppressed emotions and accepted
defeat. She actually acknowledged her devious role in Sikkim politics, admitted
her mistakes, and expressed regret. And then, perhaps seeing a ray of hope,
advised the people of Sikkim to “live together and have a common destiny”. She,
however, did not specify what she really meant by a “common destiny”, and left
it for posterity to interpret. Realising the state she was in, we refrained
from asking further questions. That Kazini attained political maturity at this
late stage after so much of damage and so many bitter experiences is
regrettable. The only guidelines she left for the people was to ask them to
learn from her past mistakes.
The next
solemn confession made by Kazini to all of us in the room concerned her past
activities in Sikkim. “I have made mistakes and regret many things I have
done,” she declared. I realized that while she was speaking to us, she was not
just making a quiet confession about herself and her work, but her words came
out quite spontaneously and there was an air of confidence and conviction in
how she delivered her statement. She was not just talking to us, but seemed to
be declaring something important to all in the room in her rather commanding
and authoritative voice, so that posterity could take note of it and remember
how she lived and died.
Kazi, Kazini and Prime Minister Morarji Desai in Gangtok, 1979. |
If Kazini had acted mischievously in the past and let down the Sikkimese people, she at least had the courage and the decency to actually come to terms with herself and the people, and admit her mistakes. It certainly takes a rare courage for anyone to admit, in the last hour of one’s life, that whatever was done in the past, was a mistake and, therefore, regrettable.
And finally,
her last few words concerned her beloved husband, who was beside her when she
made the statements. “Anything I have done which has upset my husband, I
regret,” is how she put it.
In the final
days prior to the merger, Kazini made a last-minute bid to save the separate
political entity of the kingdom. But she was unsuccessful, and the events of
the day overtook those who tried to outmaneuver New Delhi’s men in Sikkim.
According to some Sikkimese, what Kazi really wanted in Sikkim was a more
democratic set-up and closer ties with Indian, while maintaining Sikkim’s
distinct personality as separate from India. The merger was, therefore,
unnecessary and a mistake. It was, to borrow Jawaharlal Nehru’s phrase, like
“killing the fly with a bullet”.
In just forty
two words, Kazini summed up how she felt about her life, her husband and the
people of Sikkim. “I Regret” should have been her epitaph.
(Ref: Inside Sikkim: Against The Tide, Jigme N Kazi, 1993)