CM SHIELA DIKSHIT TO BE CHIEF GUEST AT BGP'S BALIDAAN DIWAS IN DELHI

By Hira Chhetri

New Delhi (BGP Media Cell): On August 19, a team from the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh's Central Programme Cell met Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit to inform her about the objectives and activities of the only national organization of Indian Gorkhas.

Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit with BGP members

(from left) Pappu Pradhan, Munish Tamang, Joel Rai, Commodore KS Rai and LB Rai

at her residence on August 19.

Meeting Dikshit at her residence, the BGP team, comprising L B Rai, Commodore K S Rai, Professor Munish Tamang, Joel Rai, and Pappu Pradhan, updated the Delhi Chief Minister on the Parisangh's various activities and informed her of its coming programmes. The Chief Minister was sympathetic to the cause of the Gorkhas in India. She also received a set of books and documents on the Gorkhas of India.

She consented to be the chief guest at the BGP-organised Balidaan Diwas on August 25 at the spot where Azad Hind Fauz Major Durga Malla was hanged by the British in 1944. She will plant a sapling there on the occasion. Interestingly, the Ashok tree sapling is currently growing on soil brought from all states of India by members of the BGP during its national convention in New Delhi in December last year. Dikshit will also meet war widows, war heroes and other Gorkhas who are expected to attend the ceremony in large numbers.

When told that BGP was also in correspondence with the Archaeological Survey of India to correct the name of Martyr Durga Malla on the memorial plaque at Shahid Sthal erected at the site where the gallows stood, Dikshit asked for the relevant documents to be submitted to her office. "I will see what my office can do to push the correction of the name," she assured the BGP team. The black marble plaque at the site has wrongly inscribed the Gorkha hero's name as "Daroga Mall" in both English and Hindi.

As part of the Balidaan Diwas programme, CPC-BGP is also organizing an evening of patriotic Gorkha music as a tribute to Gorkha martyrs on August 22 in New Delhi. Several bands and musicians, including members of Mantra band, will participate in the event. General Ashok K Mehta, formerly of the 5th Gorkha Rifles and General Officer Commanding the Indian Peacekeeping Forces in Sri Lanka, will be the chief guest at the function.