Central Programme Cell, BGP's meeting held in New Delhi

shared by Hira Chettri

Media Cell, BGP

On 5th April a meeting of Central Programme Cell (CPC) of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP) was organized in New Delhi which was chaired by its chairman Dr. Enos Das Pradhan. The meeting was attended by Sukhman Moktan, Secretary General as the chief guest and Prof. Munish Tamang, Secretary among others. While addressing the gathering Moktan highlighted activities of state committees of zone I (North-East) and zone IV/V (North India) as he came to understand during his recent visits to these sectors. In the meeting Moktan welcomed all the political outfits and their candidates who are contesting the ensuing Lok Sabha elections on the issue of Gorkhaland and expressed the organization’s best wishes. He stated that the demand of a Gorkha state in India is a subject of national debate which requires attention of ruling as well as opposition members in the parliament during the discussion. It is, therefore, necessary to make all the MPs of India aware about the identity crisis facing the Gorkha community in India, he added. According to Moktan, as disclosed in the meeting, the BGP being a national level apolitical organization is not in a position to issue guidelines to its followers across the coutry to favour any particular candidate in the forthcoming parliamentary and assembly elections in some states of the country. The BGP members spread throughout the country are engaged in different political parties, he said. He, however, requested all the BGP members and Gorkhas of India to make efforts to pressurize their respective political outfits to understand the demand of Gorkha state as and when they got opportunity. He also emphasized that the demand of creation of a separate Gorkha state in India is not related to the physical development of any particular region of India but it is a demand to sort out national identity crisis of the Indian Gorkhas. He requested all the political parties and their candidates not to make the demand of Gorkhaland an election centric subject and continue to work for this cause after their victory in the elections whether they occupy the throne in Delhi or remain in the opposition bench.

In the meeting Prof. Munish Tamang, Secretary, delivered welcome address and highlighted the activities of the CPC in Delhi. He claimed that the Gorkhas of India have now started to show their political influence in India in national level which is an achievement of this community. He also urged the Gorkhas of India to work for the betterment of their community. D.K. Pradhan, Organizing Secretary presented the list of ordinary and life members of Delhi committee and assured to enroll more Gorkhas in the organization in near future.

The meeting also discussed about holding national executive meeting of the BGP (31 May), Seminars in Shillong and Darjeeling (June) and in Dehradun (July) to be followed by a leadership training in Delhi for the BGP workers (July). The meeting followed an interactive session which was participated by Joel Rai, Commodore K.S. Rai, Amrit Singh, Pappu Pradhan and others.