Dr Ram Narayan Kandangwa ,
By the end of the decade 2000, GAESO had become pathetic owing to disintegration into many small organisations, the anomalies that had plagued it and had been doing pretty much no activism. Nonetheless, it would still gloat at times through releasing press statements as well as giving interviews to the media that as if it was an institution of unique status and soon going to accomplish something miracle. But the truth is it is nothing more than an organisation of retired British Gurkha soldiers run with the lavish donation of these bighearted people. During its heyday, it materialised some demands of Gurkhas essentially spending huge amount of money. Thus the crowing of some people is an absolute conceit and false impression.
What is further worse is former GAESO President, Padam Bahadur Gurung, stated in Pokhara in 2009 that Gurkha movement was over. It was a solemn lie and a betrayal to naive Gurkhas. The declaration was not in the interest of Gurkhas, for, major demands such as equal pension were yet to be addressed. The untenable assertion of the president badly confused and disappointed them. This confusion and dejection gave birth to Gurkha Satyagraha.
By the year 2010, it had become crystal clear that the British government would overlook all protest activities of Gurkhas, and won’t fulfill any demands any longer. Also, lawsuits didn’t work as the justices are also human beings. And, broadly speaking, human beings couldn’t be completely unprejudiced. This was felt when some cases were filed in the British courts for equal pensions and all. As far as diplomatic endeavour is concerned to get sorted out Gurkha plights, it didn’t happen due to indifference of Nepal government. Even if it had happened, they might have happened merely at negligible level.
Under such chaotic situation, a Gurkha veteran, Gyanraj Rai, proposed to me on 12 August 2012 that he would stage hunger-strike-unto-death in front of 10 Downing Street. This author immediately realised that Rai’s hunger-strike-unto-death might prove a ballistic missile with a nuclear war head onto it against British government. Having said that this scribbler raised an important question of money as we needed some money to successfully conclude such a big movement. Regarding money, Rai said that initially he would loan some money from bank in order to bear the expenses that the movement incurs. His pledge overwhelmed me and I (then general secretary of BGAESO) soon approached Santosh Thalang (then president of BGAESO) with respect to Rai’s undertaking. Thalang fully agreed with me. Meanwhile, Rai and I were unceasingly having discourse as to launching a new movement named Gurkha Satyagraha (GS) with a mission to stage hunger-strike-unto-death as last resort. As far as bearing expenses of the organisation is concerned, Chief Coordinator, Krishna Bahadur Rai, has also borne its brunt. Further, he has been working his fingers to the bone to manage funds for the on-going movement and to succeed it one way or another.
That followed BGAESO’s central committee meeting with Gyanraj Rai and his team held in its office in Ashford, Kent. That meeting unanimously passed the agenda of launching the GS
movement on a historical date of 24 April 2013. The GS movement commenced on the above mentioned date by holding a rally at King George V’s statue, London. On the same day, we handed over a memorandum to the British prime minister with our demands in it along with 6 month’s ultimatum. If they wouldn’t fulfill the set out demands before the deadline expires, then Gurkhas would stage the said huger-strike-unto-death as planned. GS carried out various pressurizing activities in tandem during the period of six-month.
To our dismay, British government wrote a couple of letters to us for talks saying that it wished to resolve the problem through talks; regrettably, it didn’t hold any talks. The hunger-strike-unto-death was compared with the ill-fated hunger-strike-unto-death of the IRA staged in the late 1970s. We were terrorised from high level that the said hunger strike might invite apocalypse. Despite that we stood firm on our stand as we were conscious of such protest and the beauty of one millennium-old British democracy. Thus, the letters for dialogue were also aimed just to back down us from the above mentioned protest. Such betrayal of British government forced Rai to hold hunger-strike-unto-death in the wake of the ultimatum.
On the fifteenth consecutive day of the hunger-strike, a dialogue was held between the representatives of GS and British government. The conclusion of the dialogue caused to constitute an all-party-commission led by Jacky Doyle-Price, a Tory MP, to look into Gurkha plights and submit a report to Downing Street. This commission making alibi of the lawsuit filed then in the European Human Right Court didn’t even touch upon the matter of equal pension. It made recommendation only for trivial matters. Ironically, the Cameron government added salt to the injury by not executing even the recommendations made only for petty matters. Hence, the second ultimatum of hunger-strike-unto-death issued to the British government was the outcome of British callousness towards Gurkhas.
This time round, fortunately, the chief of British Army Secretariat, Damian Paterson, wrote a positive letter to us for talks but only in the third time. His first two attempts were rebuffed by GS as, yet again, they had endeavoured to deceive us by setting out only insignificant issues in the letter and overlooking the major ones with intent. Thus talks began between the representatives of Gurkhas, British government and the Nepalese Embassy based in London. That followed constitution of a technical committee having representatives of the above mentioned three sides. This technical mechanism held several meetings. And it entrusted a task of writing a comprehensive report of Gurkha plights to the Gurkha technical mechanism and to submit that report to both the governments.
The Gurkha technical mechanism submitted its report to British government through British defence minister, Mark Lancaster and to Nepal government through Nepalese Ambassador to the UK, Dr Durga Bahadur Subedi on 22 March 2018. Upon receiving the report, Minister Lancaster in jovial mood commented that he learnt many new facts and figures in relation to Gurkha grievances and pledged that Downing Street won’t take years, might take months to
take decision in this regard. Other members of the government side present in that august meeting also took the report with excitement.
In the aftermath of the submission of the report, Minister Lancaster rushed to make a trip to Nepal. He met KP Sharma Oli (then would be prime minister), Prachanda (then Chairman of the then Maoist Centre) and some other government officials. Interestingly, Prime Minister Oli and Prachanda, this time round breaking with tradition, raised the issue of Gurkhas while exchanging views with Minister Lancaster. These two leaders stressed that Gurkhas shouldn’t be discriminated against. And their plights should be addressed. This ain’t that the two Nepali leaders’ traditional mentality had changed. But they touched upon because they were conscious that this time round the British government was positive regarding Gurkhas longstanding plights. According to the norms and values of the international diplomacy, if a party is unwilling to discuss a certain issue, then they don’t include it on agenda. But they had included it as the UK government was positive and hence the Nepalese leaders raised it unhesitatingly. On the other hand, Minister Lancaster also made history by not reiterating the cliche response. We have held many responses made by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), Downing Street and all. In all these responses, their attitude is cliche. They have never accepted that they have discriminated against the Gurkhas. Realistically, they have adopted Goebbels policy and have always been telling lies. Nonetheless, the minister putting aside the cliche statement assertively said that his government would fix the problems and won’t allow to exist any discrimination against Gurkhas.
Prime Minister Oli also assertively said that he would resolve the issue within one to three months. Immediately after that another group of seven led by a British minister visited Nepal. Actually, concerned government takes every responsibility of such visitors and even arranges their visit schedule. Despite that the GS was allowed not only to welcome them but also to hold a gathering in a five star hotel, Annapurna, while the former told in detail as to their plights to the latter.
More than three months elapsed, British government has not announced anything yet. It seems that they let down and dejected the Gurkhas. Notwithstanding, this is a little bit early to feel being distraught. If they were so unwilling, they wouldn’t have taken the initiative of the talks. Minister Lancaster and his team were obsessed with the dialogue for months. He was excited while receiving the report and had strongly assured that he would do everything he could in realising the demands and expediting the solution. Then he rushed to Nepal to have a view of Nepal government. That followed another visit of a minister and 6 MPs. Most importantly, both sides have made history by breaking with tradition. Therefore, it seems that Britain being a permanent member of Security Council, a major player of international politics and undeniably being entangled in the complicated procedures of Brexit, perhaps not having enough time to resolve it yet. It feels that it does it sooner rather than later. Gurkhas need to stay patient, optimistic and in high spirits.
Dillydallying regarding our plights went on for 3-decade due to some of our own flaws, British government’s malevolence and Nepal government’s indifference. In such pessimistic situation, the panacea to bring about such an optimistic environment ain’t other than Rai’s hunger-strike-unto-death. Again, GS is the sole movement in the history of marathon Gurkha movement in which non-Gurkha intellectuals have no contribution at all. It is an outcome of purely Gurkha intellectuality, rationale, acumen and wisdom. Other people can also talk the talk but can they really walk the walk?
