Siliguri
Several Gorkha communities in Sikkim and West Bengal, who have been demanding scheduled tribe status, on Sunday formed a joint team to take ahead their demand.
The development comes at a time when the Registrar General of India (RGI) has not been considering the demand under one pretext or the other.
Representatives of the 11 left-out Gorkha communities from West Bengal and 12 communities from Sikkim on Sunday held a meeting in Siliguri in West Bengal, which was chaired by Sikkim’s chief minister Prem Singh Tamang Golay.
Among those attending the meeting were Darjeeling’s Lok Sabha MP Raju Bista, Lok Sabha MP from Sikkim Indra Hang Subba and Sikkim’s Rajya Sabha MP DT Lepcha.
Some ministers from Sikkim also attended the meeting, along with Darjeeling MLA Neeraj Tamang Zimba and Kalchini MLA Bishal Lama.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Golay said, “A team for tribal status – Sikkim and Darjeeling – has been formed with five members each from Sikkim and West Bengal. The joint team would now lead the movement and draw the future strategies.”
Though the BJP in its 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto had promised to grand schedule tribe status to 11 left out Gorkha communities, the same has not seen any progress.
In Sikkim the left-out communities demanding ST status are 12, including Majhis.
The RGI, time and again, has been refusing to consider the demand. Recently, Union tribal minister Jual Oram, in a written reply to Sikkim’s Rajya Sabha MP DT Lepcha’s question in parliament said, RGI hasn’t considered the Sikkim government’s proposal to grant tribal status to 12 communities in the Himalayan state.
The 12 Gorkha communities, including Majhis, are Kirat/Khambu/Rai, Gurung, Mangar, Thami, Sanyasi (Jogi), Bahun, Chhetri, Bhujel, Kirat/Dewan, Sunuwar and Newar.
Oram in his reply to Lepcha said “RGI has replied that the issue has already been examined by them and not considered for recommendation.”
The content of Oram’s letter dated September 10 aligns with the communication that residents and leaders of Darjeeling had received in the past
Oram has told the Rajya Sabha member that “according to the prescribed modalities, proposals recommended and justified by the state government/UT can be processed and the same has to be concurred with the RGI and the National Commission for Schedule Tribes (NCST) for consideration for amendment of legislation to grant the status”.
“RGI has replied that the issue has already been examined by them and not considered for recommendation,” read the letter.
In its reply to a query under the RTI, the RGI had said it couldn’t pursue the Bengal government’s recommendation to the Centre in 2014 to grant the ST status to the 11 Gorkha communities.
After Sikkim’s proposal also has met the same fate, a realization must have come that fighting for the demand separately has not been effective.
“We have taken a united move to pursue the matter,” said a leader who was present in Sunday’s meeting.
“Political will is needed to fulfill the demand,” Raju Bista said,
Asked what does he mean by political will when his own party, the BJP had already promised to accord schedule tribe status in 2019 election manifesto, Bista said “ The languages of political party and Government of India are different. We are exerting pressure both on the BJP and Government of India. If the government does not understand, we will start marching from Darjeeling to Sikkim.”
Three committees had been formed by the Centre since 2016 to look into the Bengal government’s proposal to grant tribal status to the 11 communities.
The final report compiled in 2019 by a team headed by M.R. Tshering, joint secretary, ministry of tribal affairs, put the ball in the court of the office of the RGI.
Since then there has not been any progress. EOM
