GJM’s poll carrot has BJP thinking on Gorkhaland

FROM ECONOMIC TIMES

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to gain a foothold in the Dooar region of West Bengal, comprising the districts of  Darjeeling and parts of Jalpaiguri,

the BJP leadership is willing to accommodate “in some manner” the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)’s Gorkhaland statehood demand.

Accompanied by his colleagues, GJM president Bimal Gurung had early this month met BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, party president Rajnath Singh and other senior leaders to lobby for their demand for the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state. The GJM has asked the saffron party to back their cause openly; in return, the BJP has been promised the Gorkha outfit’s full support in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Besides delivering the Lok Sabha constituency of Darjeeling  to the BJP, the GJM  also sought to convince the saffron leadership that their backing would be instrumental in determining the fate of the Jalpaiguri (SC) seat too.

Faced with the carrot dangled before it, the BJP is busy formulating its response to the GJM  demand. Mr Gurung and his friends were assured that the BJP would be able to finalise its position on the subject by the Nagpur national council, scheduled to held on February 7-8.

“Other than committing ourselves to the full statehood demand, we’re willing to consider all options. We’re prepared to go mid-way, and ponder on options such as granting functional autonomy to the region and forming a body to look into their grievances,” a senior BJP leader told ET.

The problem is: the GJM  may not accept anything other than full statehood. In their interactions with the BJP brass, the GJM  leaders are learnt to have made it clear that they would not agree to “half-way solutions.”

PHOTO FEATURE: The Gorkhas Soldiers

SHARED BY PRANAVESH J PRADHAN

SOURCE: Gurkha - The Illustrated History

Copy Rights: Peter Harclerode & David Reynolds

NEPAL: Bollywood urged to appreciate Nepalis

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET

KATHMANDU: When Hindi comedy film ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ ruffled Nepali sentiments by wrongly asserting that the Buddha was born in India, it was not an isolated mistake, say many Nepalis. They feel that Bollywood has been stereotyping and belittling the Himalayan nation over the years.

“India’s intellectuals have a tradition of looking down on Nepal,” says film director Yubaraj Lama, who is also a member of the  Nepal  Film Development Board.

“India is a super power rich in research and intellectuals. Then why does it repeatedly fail to research  Nepal properly and always project its own neighbour in such a negative light?” asks Lama.

Lama remembers the anger in Nepal in the 1990s when Bollywood director David Dhawan’s romantic comedy “Gharwali Baharwali” starring Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandon triggered outrage and public protests.

The plot takes Anil Kapoor, a businessman in the film, to  Nepal where he rescues a Nepali girl’s goat and has to marry her as, according to the film, it is the tradition in  Nepal that a man who saves a woman’s goat has to marry her.

But Kapoor is a married man already and the film ends with his Nepali “wife” bowing out of his life after handing over her love child to him and his Indian wife.

“It is an insulting message for  Nepal ,” says Lama. “The implication is that the Indian woman is the gharwali or legitimate wife while the Nepali woman is a mere mistress.”

Film journalist Bishnu Gautam recalls the protests the film triggered in  Nepal .

“It led to the cinemas showing the film to stop screening it,” Gautam says.

The uproar created by the 1998 film was recalled last year when violence erupted in eastern India over a radio jockey making disparaging statements about the winner of Indian Idol, Prashant Tamang, a policeman of Nepali origin.

In 1999 too, there were protests against Bollywood crime classic Vaastav, directed by Mahesh Manrekar and starring Sanjay Dutt, who portrayed a food vendor forced to join Mumbai’s dreaded underworld.

“Nepalis were projected as gangsters,” says Lama. “India regards us as stereotypes.”

Gautam remembers protests in the 80s as well over Bollywood director Subhash Ghai’s 1986 film “Karma”.

BHUTAN: BICMA & press freedom

FROM KUENSEL NEWSPAPER

By Kencho Wangdi

OUTLOOK 29 January,2009: The Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority (BICMA) has – not surprisingly- resented Kuensel’s recent opinion piece “The right to expression”.

Kuensel was summoned to BICMA’s office and accused of nursing a personal agenda against it, of willfully distorting the truth as BICMA saw it, of trying to pull it down. It then sent a letter to the media- defending its authority.

The events indicate that BICMA have come to view the issue of press freedom in Bhutan as a problem of ending dissent against BICMA than as an opportunity to promote the value of openness. At any rate, they were designed to intimidate the press.

The ability of media and journalists to work without fear of intimidation is a reliable indicator of a democracy’s health. That is why BICMA’s enforcement of fine on the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) was worrisome. BICMA infringed on the right to expression and free press. That is why Kuensel wrote about the issue.

BICMA writes: “The penalty on the BBS was imposed as the form and manner of the panel discussion in question breached the Code of Ethics for Journalists.”

An institution established on the old ethos of bureaucracy, staffed by bureaucrats, cannot prescribe bounds for press, leave alone instruct journalists how a panel discussion ought to be held. That decision should be left to the media professionals, and them alone.

Whether BICMA puts it this way or that way, it is clear for the public see that the reason it penalised BBS was because of its panel discussion TV programme in which the information and communications minister, Lyonpo Nandalal Rai, was criticised. That the fine has taken away a step vital for the media’s ability to report, so the public can exercise its right to know what government is doing and to make informed judgments.

As for BICMA’s idea of the role of the press in a democracy, it is as strange as its concepts of censorship. It writes: “Freedom of the press to publish is the freedom of the people to be informed.”

How can citizens be adequately informed if press is not free? In a democracy, the people are free only as long as the press is free. If the right of the press to speak freely ends, so will every person’s right to speak, for freedom of the press is essentially freedom of speech in print. And if these freedoms are lost, the people will have no way to learn what their government is doing- except from its self-serving reports to them through an official press- and no way to object to its doing as it pleases.

BICMA writes: “Until the media remain guided by the public interest and an understanding of what is interesting, useful and acceptable to the public, BICMA will continue to regulate.”

We request BICMA to leave that to the readers to judge and for the media professionals to decide. We are content to trust that the citizen’s common sense will prescribe bounds to the effects of the media. And because it will be impossible for BICMA to assert what is fair and good and what is unfair and bad without asserting a dictatorial power over the media.

DARJEELING HILLS: BJP ruffles feather – Poll pick angers others

FROM THE STATESMAN

Kurseong, Jan. 30: The BJP has named former IPS officer Mr Dawa Sherpa as its candidate from  Darjeeling constituency for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Mr Sherpa is a resident of Rimbick in  Darjeeling  sub-division.

The decision has caused consternation in the BJP camp here. When asked about the development, the BJP  Darjeeling unit president, Mr GS Yonjon, said that the decision is not appreciable as Mr Sherpa is a new face in the  Darjeeling Hills political circle. “He joined the BJP about a month back,” Mr Yonjon added.

He further claimed that he inquired of the development with the party leadership in Kolkata and learnt that the party’s central committee had directly selected Mr Sherpa. “We shall hold a party meeting on 1 February on the matter. I am trying to get in touch with the central leadership as well,” he said.

Mr Dawa Sherpa on his part said that his selection was a decision of the party leadership. When asked if his party would support the Gorkhaland demand as raised by the  Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), Mr Sherpa said: “The BJP is in favour of smaller states. I don’t have to say anything else. Moreover, I cannot speak on the subject as per my party’s directive but I shall definitely look into the demand.”

DOOARS TERAI: Watchful eye on GJM hunger strike

FROM THE STATESMAN

JALPAIGURI, Jan. 30: The administration is keeping a watchful eye on the  Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)’s hunger strike programme launched yesterday at Gorubathan.

“The district administration has kept a medical team ready and it is regularly checking the agitators’ health. Five out of the 17 agitators are women,” the Darjeeling district magistrate, Mr Surendra Gupta, said today.

He further added that the administration has not requested the GJM to withdraw its programme so far. “They are agitating peacefully, not disrupting administrative work. The police department is also in preparedness to handle unwanted situations,” the DM said.

Meanwhile, the GJM secretary, Mr Roshan Giri, today said that the state government was practising double standards to restrain the GJM’s campaign in the Dooars. “The state government is trying to convince both the GJM and the Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad to control the overall situation. But we know for sure that whatever the CM assured the ABAVP in terms of development for the Adivasis is lip service. Neither does the state government have the intention to reopen the 13 locked tea plantations in the Dooars,” he added.

SIKKIM: Say it with flowers in Sikkim

FROM THE STATESMAN

Gangtok, Jan. 30: Floriculture is picking up in Sikkim both in the rural and the urban areas. Many Sikkim residents are now taking to floriculture in the urban areas, growing orchids on terraces, while some are developing nurseries on a commercial scale. Cut orchids are proving to be an alternative source of income. A spike of cymbidium orchid can fetch as much as Rs 1,000 locally.

The government Model Floriculture Centre at Namli is also flourishing. Four greenhouses have been added to it to cultivate flowers like gerbera, rose and phalaenopsis, which, when sold as cut flowers, should fetch decent prices for the growers.

In addition, three large low-cost bamboo poly greenhouses have been set up at Namli to rear rose and lilium. A number of plots have been covered with several varieties of flowers like the bird of paradise, wax ginges and heliconia.

The state government has also set up a cymbidium orchid centre at Rumtek and a model floriculture centre is under way in South District. Gladiolus is the most sought after flower by the small farmers. Peruvian lily is becoming the most popular flower in the higher altitudes. Daramdin in West Sikkim has been developed into a rose village. The rose growers sell their produce in Kolkata and New Delhi, each farmer earning anything between Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000 per month.

DOOARS TERAI: Anti-Morcha stand to stay

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Siliguri, Jan. 30: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad said today it would continue the campaigns against the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in the Terai and the Dooars despite an assurance by the chief minister that the government would not sit idle if violence recurred in the region.

Some leaders of the Parishad, which is at loggerheads with the Morcha following the hill outfit’s Dooars Chalo movement early this month to consolidate its support base in the plains, had met Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings yesterday.

The Morcha had launched the campaign to include the Dooars in Gorkhaland, a separate state the party is demanding.

“We have made it clear to the government that we will not watch silently if the Morcha makes attempts to organise any programmes to amass support for the separate state,” said Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad.

“Our members have been instructed to renew their anti-Morcha campaign in the form of rallies, meetings and door-to-door visits to make people aware of the consequences of the division of state. We will respect law while holding such programmes,” he added.

SILIGURI: Indians shy about neuro diseases

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

The seminar in progress in Siliguri on Friday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Jan. 30: People with neurological disorders in India often feel embarrassed to come for treatment. But with the advancement of medication in the field, discomforts can be reduced considerably, a professor of a Canada university today said.

“In India, people with movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and cerebral palsy are hesitant to come for treatment because of embarrassment. But medication in this field has advanced and the diseases, if not curable, can definitely be reduced considerably. Doctors should take the initiative of educating people on these treatments,” said Zelma Kiss, an associate professor on neurosurgery in the University of Calgary in Canada.

Kiss was speaking at an Indo-Canadian Neuro Update, a medical programme that aims to make the neurologists and neurosurgeons of Siliguri aware of progress in the field. Six neurologists from her country also participated in the day-long event organised by Siliguri Neuro Club.

The Canadian experts delivered lectures on three main neurological diseases: stroke, epilepsy and movement disorders. This was the first international medical programme on neurology held here.

“Siliguri  is a fast growing cosmopolitan which caters for the medical requirements of not only north Bengal and Darjeeling hills but the north-eastern states and Bhutan, eastern Nepal and parts of Bangladesh as well. We are trying to implement the methods of surgery introduced abroad so that patients will not have to go for farther neurological treatment,” said Malay Chakraborty, a local neurosurgeon.

N.R. Halder, the organising secretary of the programme, echoed him. “Innovations in neurological medicines and methods of neurosurgery are available in books. But we are not sure how to practically apply them. Certain medicines have been introduced abroad but the we don’t know the doses to administer them on Indian patients,” he said. “Canadian neurologists briefed the doctors on these issues today.”

DARJEELING HILLS: Victory only symbolic for hill Gurkhas – Most ex-soldiers too old to rejoice

FROM THE TELEGRAPH

Limbu in Darjeeling

Darjeeling, Jan. 30: The British government’s reported decision to grant settlement rights to thousands of Gurkha ex-servicemen who retired before 1997 has brought cheer to the former soldiers here.

But without pension equal to what the British soldiers get, the settlement right seems to be a symbolic victory for the Indian Gurkhas unlike their counterparts from  Nepal .  

The Times, London had yesterday reported that Britain’s new policy on Gurkha settlement rights would be announced by the home office soon.

The Brigade of Gurkhas has been serving the British Armed Forces for more than a century but not all soldiers are entitled to pension equal to that enjoyed by the British nationals.

Malla in Siliguri. Pictures by Suman Tamang and Kundan Yolmo

The Gurkhas have been fighting for pension rights for almost a decade but a judicial review in 2003 upheld the UK government’s decision to pay nearly one-third of what was given to a British national. The British government had compared the economy of the two countries – the UK and  Nepal - to argue for a reduced pension for the Gurkhas.

Currently, only those Gurkha soldiers who retired after 2006 enjoy equal pay and pension like their British counterparts. These Gurkhas are mostly from Nepal.

Maj (retd) D.M. Limbu, president of Brigade of Gurkhas Ex-Servicemen’s Association, Darjeeling, said: “We have been fighting for settlements rights for long. We are about to achieve our goal and this has to be appreciated as it is bound to be beneficial to many of our people who want to settle down in England.”

The settlement issue came to the fore in the 1990s when many of the Gurkhas who had gone to Britain from Nepal were denied settlement rights. Later, the British government allowed only those soldiers who had retired after July 1, 1997 to settle down in the country. The new policy is expected to allow all the former Gurkhas to settle down in England.