THE BIHARI FLAVOUR IN GANGTOK28 March, 2004; NOW! 1 DETAILS ON pg 6 Summer Collection Sunday, 28 March, 2004 Vol. 3 No. 01 Gangtok Rs. 3 Air-Conditioned Slippers, sandals & formal/ casual shoes Grocery Shop for Men for Provisional Goods, Dry Flora sandals, Fruits & All Hotel Requirements (for kitchen) flat slippers WHOLE-SALES for ladies RETAIL-SALES at at the most reasonable prices Rajdeep the shoe shoppe Spectrum Color Lab Building, Near Amar/ Chaman Garage, Sevoke Road, Siliguri MG Marg, Gangtok. ph: 228865 ph: 2640799, 2640599 GREEN SIGNAL FROM LAL KOTHI Sikkim GNLF seeks Cong alliance, wants border constituencies SIKKIM REQUISITIONS 5 GNLF (S) SAYS NO TO COMPANIES OF CRPF FOR POLL DARJ-SIKKIM MERGER DUTY round of talks with the SPCC [I] RANJIT SINGH president Nar Bahadur Bhandari TURN TO pg4 GANGTOK, 27 March: The in this regard. GNLF’s Sikkim unit is keen on When pressed further on what The President of the GNLF (S), Satish Rai, 2nd from left, at the press conference. contesting the Assembly elections seat-sharing arrangement the party IXth Regional in May and seeking to strike an al- has in mind, Mr. Rai said, “Though test from the border constituencies Rai said the GNLF [S] had re- liance with the Congress [I] to ideally we would like to contest since those are the areas where we ceived the green signal from Lal present a joint opposition to the from at least 18 constituencies, we have most of our supporters.” Kothi to broach negotiations Language Day ruling Sikkim Democratic Front’s could settle for 12-13 seats provided When asked whether the with the Congress. attempt at returning to power. Mr. Bhandari assures us of his sup- Sikkim unit was acting on its He further revealed that the observed Addressing a press conference port in the border constituencies.” own or in consultation with the SPCC [I] working-president Ashok here today, the GNLF [Sikkim] Replying to queries as to why party bosses in Darjeeling, Mr. continued on pg 4 president, Satish Rai, revealed he wanted the border constituencies, TURN TO pg5 that GNLF [S] has already held a Mr. Rai explained: “We want to con- HONG KONG CONGRESSMEN BAZAAR Any Item Rs. 90 to Rs. 150 FIRST IN THE FRAY Gift Items, Crockery & Other TIME IN evated to the post of Upadhakshya SIKKIM a NOW FEATURE Candidates for [North]. Attractive Goods! GANGTOK, 27 March: Cong [I] 10 constituencies Starting with the Lok Sabha has thus far publicly announced announced, aspirant – Mr. Adhikari’s concilia- HOTEL BAYUL, MG MARG, GANGTOK candidates for eight constituencies. tion with Mr. Bhandari had raised Add the name of Biraj Adhikari for Cong [I] opts for many eyebrows when it happened NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HOTEL MANAGEMENT the Lok Sabha and the almost defi- more than year ago. He had earlier AND CATERING TECHNOLOGY, PUSA COMPLEX, NEW DELHI -110012 fresher fare [UNDER MINISTRY OF TOURISM AND CULTURE, DEPTT. OF TOURISM, GOVT. OF INDIA] nite possibility of SPCC [I] presi- won a case of human rights abuse AND dent contesting from two constitu- thus far, six will be contesting elec- against the Bhandari regime and INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY encies and that’s eleven constitu- tions for the first time. Except, was one of the founder members ANNOUNCES JEE - 2004 FOR ADMISSION TO THE FIRST YEAR OF 3-YEAR BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (B.SC.) encies accounted for. Although a Phuchung Bhutia from Rakdong of the ruling Sikkim Democratic PROGRAMME IN HOSPITALITY AND HOTEL ADMINISTRATION formal announcement is still Tintek, who has been an SSP MLA Front. He had stayed away from Last date for sale of Information Brochure and Application Form for awaited, another nine candidates and also a minister in the Limboo elections in 1994 when SDF con- admission to the above course has been extended upto April 6, 2004 have reportedly been finalised. This cabinet, only Palden Bhutia, given tested the elections for the first time IMPORTANT DATES brings the party’s tally to twenty, the Congress ticket for Kabi- and parted ways shortly after. He Sale of Prospectus at Institute of Hotel Up to 5th April 2004 including the Lok Sabha seat. The Tingda, has any prior electioneer- returned to Sikkim politics wearing Management, Near Ayurvedic Hospital, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim 737102 twelve that remain undecided are ing experience. He had lost in the SSP colours and is reported to have Last Date for receipt of completed 7th April 2004 obviously in wait for either the right 1999 Assembly elections as an in- piped several other contenders to Application Form candidate or to adjust the spill-over dependent and later won the the LS ticket. Was instrumental in Date of JEE Written Test 18th April 2004 [2:30-5:30pm] that will divert Congress’ way af- panchayat elections and was el- engineering the SSP-Congress Centralized Counselling for allotment of Inst. 7th June to 16th June 2004 ter the ruling party announces its “merger.” Commencement of academic session 19th July 2004 list of candidates. Another former SDF leader bag- for details access www.nchmct.org or contact Institute of Hotel Of the eight names announced POLLPULSE turn to pg 6 Management, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim. Ph: 270735, 270557 CMYK 2; NOW!; 28 March, 2004 ED-SPACE NEPAL NOW! Will peace initiative prevail? FIRST WITH THE NEWS Particularly for the king’s camp it bring in the Indian army in Nepal. By MADAN REGMI will be shocking. They are being This speculation got more ground Tongue-Tied Taking advantage of the exacerbat- heard for giving priority to invit- on the very expression of the In- ing situation, King Gyanendra has ing the foreign troops to win the dian defense minister Singh who The observance of regional languages day in the capital might or installed himself far above the 1990 war on the rebels then to give proclaimed that India was pre- might not resuscitate the fate that awaits regional dialects, but Constitution. He is ruling through chance to the United Nations pared to provide any help to Ne- offers us the chance to ponder more seriously on where we are ordinance and decrees, thanks to pal. This statement was interpreted going wrong with our efforts at keeping these languages alive. the performances of the party rule. as a signal of the defense deal Languages are essentially about communication, then they take elsewhere The Royal regime is heading clinched by Kathmandu and Delhi: on aspects of culture and invariably underline the ethos of a peo- towards arranging a parliamentary to make peace. This was followed by an unusual ple. That said, a language obviously ceases to be one when there is no one left speaking it. This does not necessarily happen with election, which is going to be a The Royal government’s louder groundwork. the complete annihilation of a people and is most times caused by mere mockery. The show of rejection of the UN offer for play- The changing of the Royal army the language becoming redundant as a communication tool. The strength staged by the armed rebels ing the broker’s role has already uniform matching to that of Indian best examples of this are Sanskrit and Latin. Both are now pur- in Bhojpur in the east and Beni in been repelled by none other than army was alarming. The plan of sued for purely academic reasons, but the languages for all prac- the west of Nepal appears that the the Monarch appointee Prime Min- inviting the foreign troops however tical purposes are dead. But how does a language die? Past ex- international community is in no ister Thapa who has a long but in- could not be implemented. The rea- perience proves that the moment “outsiders” stop trying to learn a mood to entertain the claim of this discreet legacy. Some of the so- son is unknown. Moreover for language, it is already on death-row. And outsiders stop learning Royal regime that it can eliminate called Party leaders who are many watchers, the obvious reason a language when they feel no need for it as a tool for communica- the rebels by the use of force. groomed by Delhi also reject the was the pressure on India from tion. All old members of the plainsmen business community speak Looking at the worsening situ- idea of UN mediation. The United other powers. As per the official fluent Tibetan. They had to, if they wanted to trade with Tibet. Eve- ation, almost all the countries of the States whose hawkish role has been version of government of India re- ryone in Sikkim, including those who have been here barely a world are silently rejecting this criticized as one of the major stum- garding its military involvement in year, speaks Nepali. They have to because they need to get their plunk of the ruling class. The Eu- bling blocks on the way of peace- Nepal, it was denied afterwards by message across. Similarly, any Sikkimese going out for studies ropean Union since the very onset ful resolution of ongoing armed the new Indian Foreign Minister comes back equipped with Hindi-speaking skills. The Chinese are of armed conflict in Nepal has conflict, in its latest call has shown Yaswanta Sinha who during his introducing English in their schools because they want to now taken an unflinching stand for the some interest towards bringing the visit to Nepal was categorical in converse with the world. That more or less settles what is actually peaceful resolution of the conflict, government and the rebels in the saying that India will provide Ne- a redundant argument that language is about communication.