COME WHAT MAY, I'M READY!
The final hearing of my house demolition case which has entered the 19th year will come up in the Sikkim High Court on July 19, 2016. I have been fair, patient and law-abiding for nearly two decades. I am ready for talks but there will be no compromise on the basic issues of Sikkim and the Sikkimese. 
I am innocent and the gist of the case, placed below, has already been placed before the authorities, including the High Court and the Sikkim Chief Minister:
GIST OF JIGME N. KAZI’S OBSERVER BUILDING, NAM NANG SITE CASE
Jigme N. Kazi’s Observer Building site dispute at Nam Nang, Gangtok, which began in 1998, has been going on for 18 years. The case has been built on an allegation against Jigme N. Kazi levelled by Urban Development and Housing Department (UD&HD) and upheld by Buildings & Housing Department (B&HD) and various authorities, including courts. A section of the encroached portion of the building was demolished by the Sikkim Government on March 23, 24, 2015.
The gist of the case is as follows:
1. In 1996 a site measuring 1089 sq. ft. was allotted to Jigme N. Kazi’s Hill Media Publications, publishers of Sikkim Observer, an independent English weekly established in 1986.
2. Due to various reasons Kazi encroached some portion of the land/space on all four sides of his building. The space – and not land – encroached on first and second storeys of the building is around 1,400 to 1,600 sq. ft. On the ground floor the encroached area is less than 300 sq. ft.
3. On 20.12.2000 UD&HD alleged that Kazi had encroached 1,628 sq. ft. of land at the back side of the building which was to be used for Chintan Bhawan’s banquet-cum-conference hall. (Annexure – I)
4. In his letter to the East District Collector, dated 05.04.2001, Principal Chief Engineer-cum-Secretary, B&HD, alleged Kazi had encroached an area of land measuring 1,628 sq. ft. “at the back side his building which falls under the Assembly complex.” (Annexure – II)
5. In his show cause notice to Kazi, dated 07.06.2001, Principal Chief Engineer-cum-Secretary, B&HD, alleged: “...you have encroached upon an area measuring 1628 sft. of land beside the allotted site.” (Annexure – III)
6. While sketch map on site encroachment provided by UD&HD and accepted by B&HD show that area encroached is on all four sides of the building, the two departments alleged that the encroached area (1,628 sq. ft.) of land falls at the back side of the building. UD&HD map shows that the encroached area at the back side of the building and outside the retaining wall and boundary fencing of Chintan Bhawan is only 834.75 sq. ft. and not 1,628 sq. ft. as alleged. (Annexure – IV)
7. The contradictory and misleading information provided by UD&HD and B&HD and upheld by the courts is false, baseless and mischievous.
8. When the case came up in East DC court (Prescribed Authority) in 2005 Kazi asked for re-inspection of the site to show the encroached portion. The Commission formed by the DC undertook a joint inspection of the site. The report of the Commission pointed out that an area of 1,449 sq. ft. and not 1, 628 sq. ft., had been encroached on all four sides. However, DC’s order did not take note of the Commission’s report and ordered for demolition of the encroached area. Commission’s report and sketch map is annexed as Annexure – V.
9. In 2003 Kazi’s Review Petition in the Sikkim High Court pointed out that only 834.75 sq. ft. and not 1,628 sq. ft. had been encroached at the back side of the building. But the court failed to take note of this plea and upheld its order of 2003 that the area measuring 1,628 sq. ft. of land at the back side of the building should be vacated and handed over to government for construction of banquet hall. Such a huge area of land at the back side of Kazi’s building is non-existent.
10. Though the same facts of the actual area of encroachment was presented to the Law Department’s Appellate Authority it did not take note of them and upheld the earlier orders of the courts and dismissed the petition in June 2014. Kazi came to know of the order only on March 6, 2015.
11. When the encroached portion of the building was demolished on March 23, 24, 2015 the authorities failed to find 1,628 sq. ft. of encroached land at the back side of Kazi’s building. Sketch maps and photographs show areas demolished on all three sides of the building. (Annexure – VI)
12. The Sikkim High Court, while staying further demolition of the building, called for all records of the disputed site. The records show that Kazi had not encroached 1,628 sq. ft. of land at the back side of the building. The encroached area of a few feet wide which is on all sides of the building is of no use to the government. As per law the encroached portion may be regularised as done in similar cases.
13. There have been many judgements in the case but justice has been denied.

Pradip Singhania Jigme my heart breaks to see what you are going through. Wish you and family all the best during these trying times.

Like · Reply · 1 hr

Althea Cole All the best ...............keep at it

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Jigme N Kazi Let all the hypocrites in India see what is happening in Sikkim. India is a great country and the Indians are great people but they are ruled by petty politicians and corrupt bureaucrats. Let the national media see what is happening in Sikkim and suffer in silence. That is the real face of India and Sikkim. I'm a simple person and my greed is limited. So I can take the heat. Cheers!

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Jigme N Kazi “I am confident that I will fulfill my task as a writer under all circumstances…No one can bar the way to truth and to advance its cause I am ready to accept even death.”
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

HISTORY REVISITED

With Brexit a reality, a look back at six Indian referendums (and one that never happened)

India, unlike Europe, doesn’t take chances. Referendums were called only when the result was known.

Jun 24, 2016 · 06:35 pm  Updated Jun 24, 2016 · 07:11 pm

Shoaib Daniyal

Image credit:  Alice Kandell

Brexit – or the British exit from the European Union – has become a reality. In a referendum conducted on Thursday, 52% of voters opted to leave the EU. One of the the most significant referendum in Europe's history, it’s also one in a long line of such exercises. Since 1973, the continent has seen 54 instances where citizens have decided policy – mostly related to the European Union – via a vote.

The rest of the world, however, isn’t too keen on them. Most Indians, for example, wouldn’t even know what to make of it without maybe a quick peek at Wikipedia. But it isn't like they haven’t happened. The Indian subcontinent has actually seen six of them, with one pending referendum in Kashmir being the cause of great friction between India and Pakistan.

Three of the six – Sylhet, Junagadh and North Western Frontier Province – were held in 1947 as British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan. Referendums have also been held in Sikkim and Pondicherry to decide if they wanted to be a part of India. In 1967, Goa voted to not be included in Maharashtra, establishing their Konkani identity as distinct from Marathi. And if Arvind Kejriwal has his way, there might be another on its way: a referendum to decide if Delhi wants full statehood.

Unlike the Brexit, however, all but one – the Goa referendum – had what one could call managed outcomes: their results were mostly known even before the first vote was cast. Nevertheless, each referendum was a result of a fascinating series of historical events and bears recounting.

North-Western Frontier Province and Sylhet
Though Britain has just exited the European Union after an orderly referendum, Indians were not given such democratic options as the former colonial power exited its empire 1947. After plans for a United India fell through, a partition scheme was drawn up by a Malayali civil servant VP Menon who served as the Constitutional Adviser to the Viceroy and had Vallabhbhai Patel's confidence. This came to be known as the June 3 plan (which is when it was announced) or the Mountbatten Plan, after India’s last viceroy.

Ordinary Indians had little choice in the matter. Congressmen and Leaguers, themselves elected by a very narrow franchise at the time, simply decided the matter amongst themselves, electing to partition Bengal and Punjab. People like the Tamils and Sindhis weren’t even asked their opinion and were simply bundled wholesale from the Raj to either India or Pakistan.

However, there were two exceptions: Sylhet and the North-West Frontier Province, currently on the Pakistan-Afghan border, both of saw referendums. One of these, the one in the NWFP, was a farce, since the Congress boycotted it. If they had participated, the Congress would have had a good chance of winning ‒ it was the only Muslim province where they had a ministry in 1947. But the Congress did not want an East Pakistan-style situation where India had a distant satellite province. This led NWPF leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to dolefully declare, “You have thrown us to the dogs.”

The case of Sylhet in 1947 was even curiouser. Then in Assam and now in Bangladesh, it was the only district which got its own vote, out of the blue, even as British India’s largest province Bengal was simply slashed with so much as a by your leave. How then did Sylhet get such special treatment?

Sylhet was a Muslim-majority district within a Hindu-majority Assam. Apart from the religious divide, there was also a linguistic one. Muslims in Sylhet either spoke the Sylheti language or were Bengalis from eastern Bengal. Given this, the Congress in Assam, controlled by upper caste Axomiya Hindus of Upper Assam, were in many ways keen to see Sylhet be shunted out of the province, helping make their political position stronger in a more homogenous province. In discussions with the British Cabinet Mission Plan in 1946, therefore, Assam’s Prime Minister Gopinath Bordoloi said that it was his desire to “hand over Sylhet to East Bengal”.

As a result, during the referendum, the Congress, which otherwise had an excellent network in Assam, didn’t really support the “in” side, which mostly consisted of local Sylheti Hindus. In the end, Sylhet voted to break away from Assam and join what was then East Pakistan.

However, the politics over language and religion didn’t die out with the exit of Sylhet. In fact, the recent Bharatiya Janata Party win in Assam announced on May 19, 2016, was driven by the exact same xenophobic fears of Muslim Bengalis as those that pushed the Congress to welcome the Sylhet plebiscite in 1947.

Junagadh and Kashmir
The British might have been the paramount power in the subcontinent since 1757 but come the Brexit of 1947, it dawned on everyone that they directly only controlled three-fifths of the subcontinent’s land area. Even as India and Pakistan achieved independence, so did a massive 562 princely states from British rule. Here, the last Viceroy of India, Louis Mountbatten, who had close links with the Congress and a personal friendship with Nehru, stepped in.

On July 25, 1947, he called a special session of the Chamber of the Princes and, in his capacity as the Crown’s representative, urged them to merge with India – a successful move, as most states, awed by an appeal from a man who was both Viceroy and cousin to the King of England, signed the instrument of accession with India. Travancore and Jodhpur caused some trouble but negotiations led by Mountbatten eventually won them over.

Three states, however, still held out: Hyderabad, Kashmir and the tiny principality of Junagadh. On November 1, 1947, Mountbatten offered to Jinnah, with Congress backing, an option of a plebiscite in all three states. Jinnah refused, arguing legally that the Independence of India Act gave the ruler and not the people the option to decide – a curious position given that Pakistan’s weak military strength meant that this was an offer Jinnah should have jumped on.

Mountbatten handled the negotiations with Hyderabad but failed to convince the Nizam, leading to the Indian Army invading and annexing the state to India in September 1948.

In Junagadh, the Muslim nawab, a man whose only love, it seems, were animals (he had hundreds of dogs and preserved the Asiatic lion at Gir) opted for Pakistan. In return, Pakistan till this day recognises his claim to Junagadh – a fairly hopeless campaign whose only mark now seems to be thiswebsite.

The nawab's accession might have been technically legal but given that Junagadh was in the middle of Gujarat, with no border with Pakistan, this went squarely against India’s interests. Supported by India, on October 24, 1947, volunteers rose up against the nawab and captured the tiny state. On February 20, 1948, India conducted a plebiscite in which a little more than 2 lakh people voted. India won the vote, with a grand total of 91 people opting for Pakistan.

It wasn’t over though. In many ways, this suited Pakistan. Junagadh was a tiny principality. The real prize was Kashmir. Would the referendum in Junagadh set a precedent for Kashmir – a mirror image of the Gujarati state, with a Hindu king and a Muslim-majority populace? On September 22, 1947, Pakistan’s prime minister asked a Mountbatten aide, “Why, if it was suggested that a referendum should be held in Junagadh one should not be held in Kashmir?”

Kashmir, meanwhile, saw large-scale insurrections against its maharaja in August 1947. Taking advantage of this, Pathan tribesmen, supported and armed by Pakistan, streamed into Kashmir. The Maharaja panicked and acceded to India, which accepted his decision provisionally, subject to the caveat that a plebiscite would take place later, after the invaders had been drive out. The invaders were never driven out – the western half of Jammu and Kashmir is still under Pakistani control.

While Jawaharlal Nehru did make promises of a plebiscite, given that most commentators assumed India would lose, he didn’t pursue it with any real heart. In 1953, all hopes for a referendum were snuffed out as Nehru ousted Sheikh Abdullah, Kashmir’s tallest leaders, from the post of prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir and proceeded to imprisonhim for 11 years.

Sikkim and Pondicherry
The most contentious referendum in the subcontinent took place not, paradoxically, during the bitter 1947 partition but in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim in 1975. In 1947, a popular vote in Sikkim actually rejected merger with India and relations continued with Delhi much as they had under the British Raj. Sikkim was a protectorate of India, with Delhi handling Gangtok’s defence and foreign affairs – an arrangement quite similar to Bhutan today.

After the 1962 Indo-China war, though, things changed – made worse in the 1970s by the Sikkimese king, the Chogyal making moves to free his country from Indian control. Indira Gandhi, though, was having none of that. In April, 1975, with intrigue lashing the tiny kingdom, the Indian Army took control of the Chogyal’s palace. A highly controversial referendum was then held on the question of the abolishment of the monarchy and, practically, merger with India. A whopping 98% opted for India. So clouded was this move that no less than an Indian Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, admitted that India’s annexation of Sikkim was “not a desirable step”.

In contrast, Pondicherry, a tiny French colony on India’s south-east coast was the least contentious and most democratic of India’s referendums. The will of the people to merge with India was clear. On October 18, 1954, of 178 legislators, 170 voted to accede with India

Goa
In 1967, six years after the Indian Army had expelled the Portuguese from their Indian colonies, Goa voted to decide whether it would remain a Union territory or be merged with Maharashtra.

Much of the Goan question centered around the the linguistic issue of whether Konkani should be considered a dialect of Marathi. Given the consensus around linguistic states in India, classifying it as a dialect meant merger. Of course, like all issues of socio-lingusitics, the language question also hid a social schism – in Goa this divide was between Hindus and Christians. The former were seen to be more keen on a merger.

In the end, Goans stuck to their Konkani identity and decided by a majority of 54% to not merge their homeland with Maharashtra.

We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.

In Praise of Salmons

Tashi Wangdi

Sometimes I am grateful to the many benefits and opportunities I take for granted. Nobody wants to know or investigate how and when we were fortunate to be beneficiaries. It is always owed to a few people, unsung and yet unmindful, who had the moral uprightness to stand up for what they believed as unjust, unwarranted such that it changed the course of our lives for better. These people lead their lives without the pomp and ceremony only to speak when the equilibrium of their scales get upset.

   I like to refer to this tribe of people as salmons, the fish that swims upstream to spawn after travelling across oceans. What feat of nature or madness of flesh that salmons must endure thousands of miles of journey and predators along the way only to swim against the current and give birth where its own life once began. Thus continuing a natural heritage and imprinting the future generations with the same genes.

   Most of us are happy in a herd and go where others go. Our direction is bereft of independent action and limited to that of the herd. We take the softer option, pluck the low hanging fruit and walk the much-traversed path. Our souls are anemic, irreverence is not our creed, stubbornness of heart not an ideal and perseverance not cheered upon.

   Unbeknownst to most of us it is this very irreverence, stubbornness and perseverance of these salmons so adept in swimming up current that ironically ensures that people like you and I continue to live in our cushioned world without exertion or need to invoke our rights. To have a meaningful progressive society it is therefore imperative to have the naysayers, to ponder on an alternative view and champion an incorruptible voice of courage.

   One such salmon I know swims everyday upstream in the streets of Gangtok and our well being as Sikkimese people, however immediate or remote is somehow somewhere connected to his very existence and his name is Jigme N. Kazi. He is the holder of our conscience and keeper of our stories. There could not have been a more apt tribute than Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, the author of “Smash and Grab – Annexation of Sikkim”, a Bible for Sikkimese students in those days, when he anointed  him as a true and loyal son of Sikkim.

(Courtesy: TALK SIKKIM, The People’s Magazine, Vol. 6. No. 5, September 2013)

LET US RENEW OUR BONDING: 
Over the years and since its formal formation in 1984 the Sikkim Hermonites Association has been a nucleus for the fulfilment of our motto: 'closeness for life' for all Hermonites. 
Those of us who are aware Sikkim Hermonites played a crucial and leading role in the successful celebrations of the school's 100th anniversary in November 1995.

Even as we continue our cherished tradition of preserving our closeness, friendship and camaraderie we meet again on March 14, 2014, just three days after our beloved alma mater's 121st Birthday, to welcome Lucinda Gibbs (Cindy is St. Paul's former Rector Mr. Gibbs' daughter), Pradip Verma (SC 1971) and Mr. Mapley's daughter, Margaret Mapley. They now live in Ireland and UK. The venue is our favourite haunt - Hotel Tashi Delek, located in the heart of the town.

During the reunion we would like to nominate Uttam Pradhan as the next President of Sikkim Hermonites. Uttam has been ably assisting our President Karma Bhutia for a long time and many of us feel that Karma needs a break and Uttam needs a 'promotion'! Both have recently retired from government service.

Karma has done a lot for the Hermonites in general and Sikkim Hermonites in particular. He has provided us sound and effective leadership over the years and we are thankful to him and his family.
Hopefully, the younger Hermonites will combine their strength with the older lot and take us to greater heights. We would like to urge all of them to join us at the reunion dinner on March 14.
You may brings your own booze and there will be some singing session as well!
Cheers!!

Birthday message for MH: ‘RIDE THROUGH THE STORM’

In his last message to me and my situation, Rev. David G. Stewart, our beloved Principal who passed away in December 2014, advised me:  “Ride Through The Storm.”

I believe that his advice is not only applicable to me but also to our beloved alma mater, which is passing through perhaps the worst period ever since its birth on March 11, 1895.

So, my fellow Hermonites, and to our beloved MH:  no matter what you are facing and the situation you are in just remember what Mr. Stewart said, “Ride through the storm.”

Mrs. Welthy Honsinger Fisher, wife of one of our Founders, Bishop Frederick Bohn Fisher, during her Speech Day address in MH in mid-’60s reminded us: “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

MH’s history right from the very beginning was a tough one. Just a few years after it began in a cottage near Chowrasta in Darjeeling on March 11, 1895 a number of its students died when the school building collapsed in the 1898’s disastrous earthquake. The school was then called ‘Arcadia’.

But our Founder Miss Emma Knowles did not give up. With God on her side and with a firm determination to continue her mission she began the Queen’s Hill School just above the railway station in Darjeeling.

By 1920s the school was growing and expanding and needed a bigger place. Miss Knowles, assisted by Miss CJ Stahl, shifted the school to the present location. In 1929 the school was renamed Mount Hermon School.

Mt. Hermon went through a difficult phase after the 1935 earthquake and during the IInd World War. But somehow MH pulled through and it was Rev. Stewart (Principal 1953-1963), who made MH one of the top boarding schools in India.

Mr. GA Murray, Rev. JA Johnston and later Mr. Jeff Gardner, assisted by loyal, able and dedicated staff, kept MH’s flag flying high.

Hermonites all over the world know that our school is passing through a tough time. When the going gets tough the tough gets going. MH was born tough. On its 121^st birthday let us all wish her the very best and remind her to “Ride through the storm.”

Hail Mt. Hermon!

March 11, 2016

"ULTIMATELY TRUTH WILL PREVAIL," said Union Minister Harsh Vardhan while speaking at a function of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) in New Delhi recently. 
I took the opportunity to present my book, "The Lone Warrior: Exiled In My Homeland", to the Minister and Union Minister Dr. Mahesh Sharma. 
The Federation has sought Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's "personal intervention" on the issue regarding demolition of my press-cum-residential building in Gangtok.
In a letter to the Home Minister, the Federation said,"We..appeal to the Union Government to give justice" and ensure "speedy resolution" on the matter.
"Mr. Kazi is well known for his fight for Press Freedom" and "independent stand" in "his career spanning 33 years in the Press," the letter said.
In my appeal to the Sikkim Government, I had said, "There have been many judgements in the case but justice has been denied."

2015: A TOUGH & CHALLENGING YEAR

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

                                                                                                 —Martin Luther King, Jr.

After a decade of living in quietness and solitude (well almost), 2015 was packed with events – making it one of the most memorable and eventful years of my life. The situation at the home front was most fluid throughout the year. I now realize that my family members and I in particular have been living away from our home in Gangtok most of the time ever since the partial demolition of our house in the third week of March 2015  by the powers-that-be.

2014 ended on a sad note with the passing away of my mother-in-law Ama Yangchen, who was living with us, in November 2014, followed by the death of our beloved former Principal, Rev. DH Stewart (of Mt.  Hermon School, Darjeeling), in New Zealand in the month of December. In April 2015, another former Principal of our alma mater, Mr. GA Murray, also passed away.

Their passing away and the deaths of our family friend and former Gangtok MLA, Mr. Balchand Sarda, and my brother-in-law, Sonam Gyatso Chingapa (Yap Saila of Ben, South Sikkim), and Khenzong Anyola during the year, were very personal losses to me and my family. We will continue to miss them but will cherish their loving memories.

However, despite these sad and trying moments we were able to lift up our spirits mainly due to our own inner strength, the blessing of the Almighty, and the tremendous love, affection, support and sympathy shown to us by our family members, relatives, friends and well-wishers.

As the year passes by I want to particularly thank Sikkim’s Ponpola and his wife Kesangla, Princess Hope Leezum and her husband and my cousin Wangyal Topden for graciously allowing me and my family members to stay in their home when it became virtually impossible for us to live at our place after the demolition. Thank you for being there for us when we needed the most.

As summer gave way to autumn our twin daughters, Sonam and Kunga, gradually moved away from home after 21 years. They are now graduates and learning to live and work on their own. This is another phase in our life which is hard to face but accept we must. It is both a joyful and painful process.

Resuming old ties with people like Suresh Pramar, my mentor and journalist who introduced me to journalism in 1983, and Mani Kumar Subba, former Assam MP, is a good thing that I was able to do this year.

Now a word about my extended family: the Hermonites. Surprisingly, even as we were in the midst of ‘turmoil’ the Hermonites, once again, made concerted efforts to make me Principal of Mt. Hermon in order to save the school. However, the authorities kept mum and because of this I have decided to close the chapter from January 1, 2016.

To all Hermonites, thank you for your concern for MH and the support to my candidature. We know that our dreams are buried in our wounded heart and we must gradually learn to accept the reality of the situation. Now no one, including God, can accuse us of complacency on MH affairs. We must move on.

Despite these developments Hermonites continue to join hands to have a good time by themselves. The small reunions at dinners, weddings etc. and the big splash at the North East Hermonites Alumni (NEHA) meet in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur in the first week of December this year all go to show the tenacity, camaraderie and the spirit of MH and Hermonites. We are indeed unique and rare – the salt of the earth! Hail Mt.  Hermon!

Special thanks to Hermonites Krishna Goenka and Mahesh Singh for being there and for their help and cooperation while my family was in the process of finding a home away from home towards the end of the year.

2016 is bound to offer more surprises and I’m ready to face anything. But I hope it will be a less eventful and quieter year.  I want to spend more time with myself, my family, and my close friends.

Cheers and Happy New Year!