GANGTOK, 08 Jan: The Gorkha Rashtriya Congress [GRC] celebrated its 9th Foundation Day here at Chokasum situated at Nam Nang on Saturday. The party was represented at the function by its president Nima Lama, Amar Luksom [general secretary], Bharat Gurung [advisor], Subodh Pakhrin [national coordinator], TB Panth [central Committee member], Geeta Subba [GRC women’s wing president] and others.
Addressing the gathering, the GRC president explained that it is “necessary” to raise the issue of unification of Sikkim with its “lost territory”, Darjeeling, as the GRC has been doing because the state government here continues to ignore it.
“We need to question as to why this issue is not addressed by the government of Sikkim? It is also necessary for the citizens of Sikkim know about the Darjeeling-Sikkim issue,” he added. Furthermore, he mentioned that Darjeeling would be happy to be with Sikkim rather than West Bengal and if the said step was initiated, then both Darjeeling and Sikkim will avail benefits.
The decision to hold the 9th Foundation Day of the party in Sikkim was taken to pay special tribute to the former president, the late DK Bomzon [the founder of GRC], who held the first seminar on the Darj-Sikkim merger issue in Gangtok, Mr. Lama explained.
Mr. Pakhrin meanwhile contended that only physical development has taken place in Darjeeling in the past 50 years, but the mental development still needs to take place. “All the Gorkhas must unite to bring back the lost territory of Darjeeling into Sikkim at the earliest to gain maximum profit including the overall development of the community,” he said.
“The Sikkim Government should provide GRC with a ‘White Paper’ explaining whether Darjeeling belongs to Sikkim or not, just like the Government of West Bengal did in the year 1986 during the agitation, when they were questioned whether Darjeeling belonged to Bengal,” he added.
The meeting began with a minute’s silence observed in the memory of the founder-president of the GRC.
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