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Dear Friends,
Greetings from Darjeeling! I hope you are all doing well. Please do accept my best wishes and deepest regards.
It has almost been a year since we have had the oppurtunity to blog at Beacon Online. Yes, Beacon Online’s maiden birthday in round the corner. On the 4th of December 2008, Beacon Online will reach one year. In fact, the first blog I wrote was hardly read by 5 people. Today, lakhs of readers reach out to Beacon Online to read news, discuss and share. Beacon Online has grown through leaps and bounds crossing national boundaries and bringing Gorkhas from all over the world together. Beacon Online has also been successful is disseminating issues involving Gorkhas in a Global platform. And we have discussed and deliberated on every issue. We have stood up together, echoed our unified voices even humbling the likes of National Geographic Channel. Through Save the Gorkha campaign we have all come that much closer to creating a research base of our own culture, people, literature and more. Gorkhapedia.org is today the result of that global Gorkha initiative. There have been so many fantastic tales of good things done, anecdotes that touch everyone of us… so many indeed that it would fill a good length book.
However, there is much much more to be done and achieved. I believe that together we can prevail and together through Beacon Online, we can all achieve a great deal of success in not just bringing Gorkhas from all over the world together but in creating a unified Gorkha conciousness. Beacon Online thus must survive. And also Gorkhapedia.org and in fact all that we have sought out to work for. Beacon Online has through partnership with different media been trying to increase her coverage and scope. Lots of young and jubiliant young individuals have come and started participating. Beacon Online in turn, giving these astounding individuals a global platform and in turn being enriched by them. The financial burden on Beacon Online and Gorkhapedia.org thus has been and continous to be tremendous. So far, the only source of financial support has been through donation. Beacon Online has recently been getting advertisements, which is a matter of great relief, however still, for Beacon Online to become a self sustaining enterprise, it would at least take another year. Until then, Beacon Online and Gorkhapedia.org must sustain through financial support from the benefactors. Read the rest of this entry »
DGHC Caretaker Chairman in an interview says – ‘Gorkhaland is my monkey’ heralding the downfall of Gorkha National Liberation Front.
28 January:
HIMALAYA DARPAN BANNED BY GJM
GJM bans the circulation of Himalaya Darpan however due to public outrage Bimal Gurung has to retrace his ban and blame it upon other overzealous leaders of GJM. ”No Ban on Himalaya Darpan says Bimal Gurung“
A GJM poster banning Himalaya Darpan. Photo by Barun Roy. Click on the image to enlarge
Morcha women in a relay hunger strike in front of Darjeeling police station. Picture by Suman Tamang
Darjeeling, Dec. 30: The festive spirit has touched the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. The party has decided to suspend its hunger strike for two days in the three hill subdivisions, except at four spots, to allow its supporters to take part in the fun linked with ushering in of the new year.
“Keeping in mind the New Year spirit, the hunger strike will be withdrawn for two days from 6pm today. The strike will resume again from January 2,” Binay Tamang, the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha had said earlier in the day.
Later, around 5.45pm, Tamang announced that those on fast in front of four police stations - Darjeeling Sadar, Ghoom, Takdah and Bijanbari – would continue with the agitation.
“Since the subdivision is the administrative hub for the entire district, we have decided not to withdraw the protest here,” Tamang said. Morcha supporters have been staging relay hunger strikes in front of police station across the hills demanding the transfer of K.L. Tamta, the inspector-general of police (north Bengal).
Earlier, the Morcha had suspended the hunger strike for Christmas only to resume it from December 27.
While the relaxation for Christmas was understandable as it was a religious occasion, the break for New Year’s, which is not even a government holiday, has surprised many. “Is relaxation for festivity justified when an agitation is in progress?” a resident of the hill town said. Read the rest of this entry »
Bhaichung at Jalpaiguri Town Club Stadium on Tuesday. Picture by Biplab Basak
Siliguri, Dec. 30: The Darjeeling Gold Cup was once a launch pad for several footballers and its sudden discontinuation more than seven years ago stifled the talent of many budding players from the hills and the north Bengal districts, feels Indian soccer skipper Bhaichung Bhutia.
“Several clubs from Bengal and other states used to participate in the Darjeeling Gold Cup. It was a good platform for budding players to secure berths in different clubs and even in the national team,” Bhaichung said. “The cessation of the tournament has changed situations for players of the region who are finding it tough to get absorbed in reputed football clubs.”
Bhaichung was in Jalpaiguri today to attend the finals of the Police Friendship Cup Football Tournament.
The soccer meet was organised by the Jalpaiguri District Police at Town Club Stadium.
The Indian skipper, who hails from Sikkim, has revealed his plans to open a football academy in the state. “I am too busy with my schedules and hardly get time to think of the academy. Nevertheless, I am determined to open the academy in which special training will be given to players chosen from north Bengal and Sikkim. My plan is to develop the academy as a hub to nurture talents and make good football players for the country,” Bhaichung said.
In the finals, the Rajganj Welfare Organisation took on the Alipurduar Yubasangha. The Rajganj team emerged winners, beating their contenders by 3-0 goals after a tie-breaker. Read the rest of this entry »
Predictions are in. For once, we have done away with looking back. Most of what we are about to predict may probably not happen, but again there is an “X” factor: You never know.
Chances are – mind you it oscillates between 5 and 95 per cent – Mausam Noor may adopt a Red Panda. Last heard, the Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park in Darjeeling was hunting for some benefactors for its endangered species.
The Sujapur lady looked promising. One look at her and you know that even with the bypolls knocking at the door – Mausam is one of the contestants – she would never turn away a puppy from her house. But with adoption costs rising, she may enter into collaboration with Bimal Gurung to share the Red Panda expenses. The two may even call a joint press conference to announce the adoption. “It will look kind of cute,” said a young woman in Darjeeling. “You know they can even get the Panda for the press meet.”
Talking of another daju, Siliguri’s very own Asok babu, it is time that a universal law be made applicable to the “Bhattacharyas” of the world. Buddhababu insists on BHATTACHARJEE and Asokbabu on BHATTACHARYA.
The district magistrate of North Dinajpur, Sukumar Bhattacharyya, reminds The Telegraph with every quote that he gives that the “YYA” should be intact. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 30: A seven-member delegation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today met Union home minister P. Chidambaram who advised them to engage in further tripartite meetings to end the impasse over Gorkhaland.
“We met the Union home minister at his North Block office today and apprised him of the 101-year-old Gorkhaland demand and largely discussed the national security vis-a-vis Gorkhaland. The minister said the government was sympathetically and seriously involved in finding a solution and advised us to engage in more tripartite meetings,” said Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha and the leader of the delegation, over the phone from New Delhi.
The Morcha had yesterday claimed that it was no longer interested in secretary-level tripartite talks and had demanded that the next discussion be held on a political level.
“The minister told us about the present situation (in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks). We told him that Gorkhaland would not only stabilise the chicken’s neck area of north Bengal but also stabilise the internal security,” said Giri.
The delegation comprising Asha Gurung (wife of Morcha president Bimal Gurung’s wife), Nanita Gautam, Prabha Chhetri, R.B. Bhujel, Raju Pradhan, Swaraj Thapa and Giri, also raised the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration in north Bengal and its effect on demography of the region. “The minister noted our arguments and promised to look into the matter. We told him that in case of any emergency, the Morcha would deploy its people (Gorkhaland Personnel and the ex-servicemen) to guard the country’s frontiers,” said Giri.
About 40,000 former armymen from the region along with 10,000 odd GLPs are currently supporting the Morcha’s statehood movement.
Greetings from Darjeeling! Our blogger friends Sachin and Arnav has now made it possible for Beacon Online to be availble on your mobile without even having to enable GPRS or having to surf internet on the moblie. All you will have to do is click on the link below and enter your mobile number. A verification code is immediately sent to your mobile number and once you enter your verification code you are set. Every time a post is updated you get a sms giving you the gest of the news. This is fantastic. Kudos goes to the guys at work. This is so simple, fantastic and free. God bless you guys. You are the best.
Click on the link below and then enter the verfication code:
Sikkim University has created a history by becoming the first ever University in the country to announce it’s undergradutate results in a record 20 days time. The first semester results were formally declared by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Mahendra P. Lama in Gangtok today.
Addressing a press conference, Prof. Lama said that the University has also become the first University in the country to provide a Smart card for students registration. With student’s photograph and other details on it, the card also be used as Identity card. Prof. Lama said the students will get a digitally printed and bar coded marksheets which are fully tamperproof and cannot be faked.
New Delhi, Dec 30: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) today urged the Centre to take urgent steps for creation of Gorkhaland to fulfil the aspirations of people of Darjeeling hills.
After meeting Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, leaders of GJM, which is spearheading an agitation for a separate Gorkhaland carved out of West Bengal, said they pressed for creation of a new state and hoped that the Centre would concede their demand.
” Time has come to create Gorkhaland. We have done so much for the country, we have sacrificed so much,”GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told reporters.
He said Chidambaram gave them a sympathetic hearing and assured them that the Centre would look into the matter.
The Home Minister impressed upon the GJM leaders that they should remain in the tripartite committee which is looking into the demand and participated in future meetings.
The tripartite committee comprises representatives from the Centre and the state government, besides the GJM.
To a question, Giri said the Centre should not ignore the threat posed by Bangladeshi infiltrators in Siliguri and Dooars region. Read the rest of this entry »
The Second Tripartite Meeting between Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and State and Central Government Home Secretaries was held at India International Centre. The meeting ended with a new date for the Third Tripartite Meeting to be held in February 2009. Photo by Himalaya Darpan
Kathmandu, Dec 30 (IANS) The new republic of Nepal today ushered in the new year ahead of the rest of the world – among the five new year days observed in the country in a year.The Gurungs, an ethnic community living in west Nepal who are known for their valour and form the backbone of the Gorkha regiments in the Indian and British armies, celebrate Dec 30 as the beginning of their new year.
Tamu Lhosar Tuesday was the beginning of the ethnic year 2065, marked as the year of the cow. Parties began in Nepal and abroad where the Gurung diaspora lives.
Nepal, which became a republic formally this year, declared Tamu Lhosar an official holiday out of deference to its indigenous culture, with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and President Ram Baran Yadav issuing messages of goodwill.
Nepal is probably the only country in the world that enjoys five new year days in a single calendar year, with three of them declared official holidays.
On Jan 1, the country will once again celebrate the start of 2009 with the rest of the world.
Around February-March, an extra innings will be added to new year celebrations when it is time for Lhosar, the start of the Tibetan new year.
In April, there will be yet another ethnic new year according to the old lunar calendar that Nepal shared with India.
The Bikram Sambat calendar will help Nepal once again zip ahead of the rest of the world as it heralds in the year 2066, going by the calendar that is still used for all official work in Nepal.
Four months later, it will be time for the Newar community, the first residents of Kathmandu valley, to celebrate their new year, which, according to the Nepal Sambat calendar they use, will be 1130.
Already boasting of the highest number of state holidays, this year Nepal saw still new ones added to the list with Christmas and Eid becoming official holidays. Read the rest of this entry »
New Delhi, Dec 30: Second tripartite meeting between the Indian Government, Government of West Bengal and the representatives of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the organisation which is demanding creation of the separate statehood ended inconclusively in New Delh. No decision on any issue involving Gorkhaland was considered.
The Third Tripartite meeting has been agreed to be held in the month of February 2009.
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Darjeeling, Dec. 29: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today made it clear in Delhi that it was no longer interested in secretary-level tripartite meetings and sought political dialogue and repeal of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act 1988.
The demand was made during the second round of tripartite meeting between the Morcha delegation and representatives of the Centre and the state government.
“We have demanded that the next round of meeting on Gorkhaland must take place at the political level. We also believe that the DGHC Act must be repealed immediately and all council employees must be suitably absorbed by the state government in their departments,” said Roshan Giri, the general secretary who headed the 17-member delegation of the Morcha, over the phone from Delhi.
The DGHC was formed under a state act and the council currently employs about 7,000 employees who have not yet been regularised but are under contract.
“We told them that the DGHC was a hindrance to achieving Gorkhaland and it had to be done away with as early as possible. We have categorically maintained that our party will neither accept the Sixth Schedule status nor the DGHC,” said Giri.
The Morcha leader said the officials present at the meeting – Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta, state chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb and state home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti – did not make any announcement with regard to repealing of the DGHC Act.
“The officials admitted that the council had failed but restrained from making a commitment. Deb, however, said repealing the DGHC Act was not a major problem but added that there were other complications like how to execute development projects till statehood was granted,” said Raju Pradhan, the assistant secretary of the Morcha. Read the rest of this entry »
NEW DELHI: The second round of the tripartite meeting over the Gorkhaland issue remained inconclusive with the Centre and the state government on Monday remaining non-committal on the separate statehood for Gorkhas.
Officials in the home ministry hinted that acceding to the demand might not be possible, adding the government would try to convince the Gorkhas at the next meeting about accepting “more powers for Darjeeling Hills under special status”.
All the parties, including Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) agreed to another round of talks over the issue soon. General secretary of the GJM Roshan Giri, however, told TOI after the meeting that “the Gorkhas would not accept anything less than statehood”.
Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta told reporters that the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere. “Whatever decision is taken, it will be in national interest, keeping in mind the aspirations of the people,” he said.
NEW DELHI: As expected, the second round of the tripartite meeting over the Gorkhaland issue remained inconclusive with the Centre and the West
Bengal government on Monday remaining non-commital on the separate statehood for Gorkhas.
Though all the parties – including the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) – agreed to have another round of talks over the contentious issue soon, officials in the home ministry hinted that acceding to the demand might not be possible.
They said that the government would try to convince the Gorkhas at the next meeting about accepting “more powers for Darjeeling Hills under special status” as a separate state was not practically possible.
General secretary of the GJM Roshan Giri, however, told TOI after the meeting that “the Gorkhas would not accept anything less than statehood”.
GJM, which has been on the warpath since February demanding creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland, during the meeting put its demand forcefully before the representatives of West Bengal and home ministry, saying that “it is not only legitimate but also the core concern of the Gorkhas”. Read the rest of this entry »
Organising a press conference in Kathmandu Monday, US Attorney Matthew K. Handley informed about the human trafficking case in Los Angeles on behalf of the families of the 12 Nepalis who were trafficked to Iraq and killed by insurgents in 2004, against US contractor Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) operating in Iraq. It is the first case against the US contractor in connection with the killing of Nepali workers in Iraq.
This article was originally published in Nepalnews.com
By Anand Gurung
A funny thing happened while I was meeting a friend over lunch at a restaurant in Kings’ Way last week. The day was clear and sunny. We sat in a table and after a brief chat started going through the menu which had names of French and Italian sounding dishes under Appetizers and A-la -carte, a break from restaurants which I regularly visit whose menus include chicken-in-the basket (roasted chicken pieces), chicken drumstick (it should have been chicken legs, but they look like meatballs in sticks) and finger chips (French fries).
We told the waiter to bring us Spaghettis, Rolls and of course Momos. He wrote down our order and then with a courteous smile asked if we would like a Mongolian Momo or an Aryan one? I was completely bowled over. What is this waiter saying? Since when did they bring the matter of race in, of all things, food? What kind of a tacky restaurant is this where they mean to shock its patrons? More importantly, being a “Mongolian”, am I expected to go for a Mongolian dish? What if I order the other one? Seeing me baffled, my friend asked the waiter what he exactly meant. The waiter explained that Momos made with Chinese spices are Mongolian and those made with Nepali (or Indian) spices are Aryan. Simple. We couldn’t decide which Momo to go for and quite confused, just looked at each other. After the waiter went with our order minus the Momo we finally broke into a laugh to drive away some awkwardness from the situation. A little while later our order arrived. The food was fine, and having the sated feeling one gets after having a heavy lunch, the little episode was just as good as forgotten.
But of course it was not that easy to put the incident out of my mind. All my life the question about caste and race, and with it the stereotyping – behavioral and otherwise – had been the unpalatable dish that was served to me without having to order for it.
I first heard about the Maoists and the war they were waging against the state deep in the remote, treacherous hills and mountains of western Nepal while in college in the late 90s. They were said to be fighting to end feudalism in the country once and for all and liberate the oppressed from age-old discrimination and bondage. However, the Maoist insurgency also gave the intellectuals something to talk about. Fed up with King Prithvi Narayan Shah’s concept of Nepal as “a garden of 4 castes and 36 varnas”, they now openly started to acknowledge that discrimination indeed exists in our heterogeneous society on the basis of gender, caste, race and religion, and that something needs to be done to end it. Coming from an average family of the city, young, not well versed with politics, not well read even, of course I couldn’t understand all this.
How could I possibly understand discrimination? I had never experienced it. Just that I often saw, more clearly in rural areas and more subtly in the urban, girl child being less preferred to boys; girls occupied with household chores while their brothers went to better schools; young women not being asked for her consent by her parents while making major decisions on her life like marriage, not being entitled to ancestral property. Worst of all, in the case of single mothers, not being able to give her own children citizenship status in her name.
I also saw people refusing to touch or let a Dalit inside their houses considering them as “outcastes” and “polluted”, but proudly donning the clothes made by them or taking their services. The situation of Madhesis in Kathmandu and other towns was worse. They were ridiculed for their dark skin, costume they wore and were bullied. Though they were legitimate Nepalese citizens and had come to Kathmandu, their country’s capital, from Terai districts to eke out a living, mostly, by doing menial works, they were always considered aliens. But I used to think discriminations exist everywhere. Just that in some society it is more apparent. Read the rest of this entry »
GANGTOK, December 29: Yet another political party has debuted in Sikkim as countdown for the State Assembly elections begins.
The new party, Jan Yuva Shakti Sikkim, is set for a public debut on January 5 at Ranipool where it will be organizing a public meeting. The party has members mostly from the youth age group between 20 and 35 years of age and most of them are educated unemployed youths.
As per reports, the main plank of this new party is ‘restoration of people centric democracy’ where the people are empowered to speak freely on their issues and do away with government centric democracy.
Party sources claim that the party has been formed by around 150 youths from all the four districts which include students, educated unemployed youths and retired government employees. The party has decided to come formally before the public on January 5 where its leaders and party policies will be unveiled at Ranipool. Read the rest of this entry »
Gangtok, December 29: Despite a dip in the mercury level, Gangtok is all set to welcome the New Year with equal zeal and fanfare.
Most of the hotels, pubs and the lounge bars have already begun preparations and lucrative offers are in the anvil to attract more people.
For instance, Hotel Royal Plaza has plans to organise ‘Dark Red Bollyhood Nite’ with a scintillating dance troupe from Mumbai and Kolkata.
“With an entry fee of Rs 2500, people can relish themselves with a series of drinks,” said Pankaj Saxena, the general manager of the hotel.
Meanwhile, local residents are trying to find a suitable substitute for chicken in the wake of the ban on poultry products in the State. “We had a plan to prepare chicken momos for the New Year celebrations but due to its unavailability, we have changed to something else,” says Rita Thapa, a house wife.
There were others who expressed their views of going to Siliguri to spend their New Year at least to relieve themselves from the biting cold. But people like Prakash Chettri are interested to stay back home and watch TV programmes. Read the rest of this entry »
