Election Commission and bureaucrats misleading people, counters Bharat Basnet

ANUSHA GURUNG
GANGTOK, 08 October: Convenor, Sikkim Solidarity Forum [SSF], Bharat Basnet has condemned the suggestion of the Sikkim Election Commissioner, SK Gautam, that Mr. Basnet was misinforming people on the history of reservation pattern in the Panchayat system in Sikkim.
“I am not misguiding the people of the state but the election commission and the educated people [officers] are the ones who are misguiding the people of Sikkim. Being a citizen of Sikkim, I feel that we are losing our political security. The BL seat is a political heritage and it is our responsibility to secure it,” Mr Basnet said at a press conference held here at Press Club of Sikkim [PCS] today.
It may be recalled here that Mr Basnet had earlier accused the state government of doing away with the BL seats in the upcoming Panchayat elections. When contacted, the State Election Commissioner had clarified that there has never been any provision for reserved seats to be designated as BL as per the Panchayat Act and that reserved seats have always been designated as ‘Scheduled Tribe’ even when only the BL were in the ST list in Sikkim [read NOW! 05 Oct 2012].
Meanwhile, Mr. Basnet claimed today that the BL seats, whose significance has been upheld by the Supreme Court, were in danger now. “The government and the department are working according to their own self made rules and regulations ignoring the Supreme Court verdict which is actually a contempt of court. We cannot ignore the historical events”, alleged Mr Basnet.
“Today the government has created different categories, wherein Chhetri, Bahun, Newar come under OBC class, but they cannot avail facilities even in the Sikkim University. The other one is MBC which have no locus standi in the national constitution. This is how we are being deluded by the government”, Mr Basnet further alleged.
Now is the time to wake up and take a stand against the notification which the state government [Sikkim Legislative Assembly] has passed in bringing the tribal seat into existence in the state, he said.
On the ‘Parivartan’ that the opposition parties are talking about, Mr Basnet said that these parties should first begin by boycotting such an election process [panchayat] which goes against the people of the state in order to fight for true change.
Member of Sikkim Solidarity Forum, Gyurmi Bhutia criticized the BL ministers for their alleged inaction while another member Thom Tshering Bhutia questioned the lack of facilities for the Nepali community in Sikkim and accused the MLAs of not fulfilling their responsibilities. Also present were other members of the forum Anmol Rai  and Mohan Dahal [Ex-Panchayat President ].