Sikkim Minority Reports
The annexation of Sikkim was arranged during the first decade of Indira Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister of India. Nehru's daughter ruled ruthlessly and amassed an unprecedented range of power especially during the Indian Emergency 1975 - 1977, perhaps the darkest period India went through after independence. She established India's supremacy over South Asia and her own over India. Eager to please Madam Ji and fearing her wrath, the Indian press, at large, did not challenge the official version. Or, in the words of a jest reported by Verghese: The press in India was so busy defending its freedom that it did not find the time to exercise it.¹
There were, however, a handful of straight journalists of the kind most appropriately characterized as "Typewriter Guerrillas" by the Sanghvis in 1985, insisting upon the responsibilities of the Fourth Estate. This Circle of Integrity - without claim to completeness - includes the revolutionaries Narasimhan Ram - see Sikkim Story: Protection to Absorption - and Dipankar Chakrabarti, founder-editor of Aneek, as well as Sunanda K. Datta-Ray writing for The Statesman and B. G. Verghese, editor of The Hindustan Times - see Verghese Plainspeak. Datta-Ray's comprehensive report was to end up on a blacklist of banned books, Verghese lost his job and Chakrabarti, paying most dearly for his veracity, went to jail for almost two years along with associate Sukanta Raha. No better evidence could be provided to confirm they were right.
As much as they are mentioned and referred to, the editorials concerned were altogether non-existent in the whole of the worldwide web, so far. This be the repository for the words of disagreement of these fearless writers.
India swallows Sikkim ²
by Dipankar Chakrabarti
The expected happened. The ruling Indian expansionist establishment broke through facades like 'protectorate' or 'friendly state' to put up a signboard that Sikkim is an 'inseparable part' of India. So for the moment, the act of swallowing up of Sikkim by India is complete.
Sikkim is a small piece of territory nestled in the Himalayas. It was an independent country in the early 19th century. Towards the middle of the 19th century, the British in pursuit of their commercial and imperial interests tried to bring the territory under control and in 1890, Sikkim, after the signing of an unequal treaty, was made a 'protectorate'. After the British quit India in 1947 a newly independent India did not give independence to Sikkim. Rather, to fructify Nehru's dream to establish a great Indian empire a status quo was maintained and Sikkim continued to be a 'protectorate' of India. In 1950, a treaty more unequal than the one signed with the British in 1890 was made to keep Sikkim well under control. The treaty was to come to an end in 1975 and the feudal Chogyal and patriot students, youth and citizens were showing a desire to wriggle out of the clutches of Indian expansionists. This set alarm bells ringing and the expansionists started weaving a new web of conspiracy. Like Diem and Thieu in Vietnam, Lon Nol and Sirik Matak in Cambodia, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Bangladesh, a 'representative of the people' had sprung up in the form of Kazi Lhendup Dorji - an unashamed front of the Indian expansionist establishment. A 'great democrat' with New Delhi stamped all over, Dorji used completely 'democratic' methods to sell the sovereignty and independence of his country to his Indian masters and thereby exhibiting his misplaced sense of patriotism. The government of India, in spite of its 'unwillingness', had to give in to the request of a 'representative of the people' and proceeded to make Sikkim a federal state of India. Where the British had failed, her father Jawaharlal Nehru had failed, Indira Gandhi succeeded. India completely swallowed up Sikkim. Kudos to her! Kudos to the 'rising sun of Asia's freedom'! It is being claimed that Sikkim was always a 'part' of India and was never independent. Probably, a worse evidence of a rape of historical facts is not there in the doings of Hitler-Dulles-Brezhnev. And if we go by the logic of buccaneers that Sikkim was a 'protectorate' of India then Burma-Sri Lanka-Afghanistan (and also Pakistan and Bangladesh) may also be claimed to be 'inseparable part of India'. If Indian expansionists attempt to make these countries 'inseparable part of India' then there will be nothing to be surprised about.
Claims are being made that the people of Sikkim have through a 'democratic process' expressed 'massive support' for a merger with India. Have we not seen enough examples of this 'democratic process' in some of the recent elections in India? Have we not seen how this 'democratic process' works in Thieu's Vietnam, in Lon Nol's Cambodia, in Sheikh Mujibur's Bangladesh? In Sikkim, three and a half battalions of CRPF were kept ready, all administrative powers were concentrated in the hands of the Indian chief executive officer, the voice of patriotic youth and students protesting against Indian expansionism was throttled, foreign journalists were barred entry three days prior to the so called referendum and only Goebbelsian propaganda from India was allowed. Will any person with a conscience acquiesce to this act?
One may ask, what will India gain by grabbing the tiny kingdom of Sikkim? The answer will be evident if we keep in mind the counter revolutionary plot of the neo czars of Russia who have aided and been the biggest supporters of India's foray into Sikkim. There has always been a yet to be successful American plot to encircle China, the great fortress of socialism. The neo czars of Russia are the closest rivals of the Americans in this sinister plot and they are trying to bring all the countries under the influence of the Russian social imperialists through the good offices of India, their strongest ally. Influence over Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Sikkim is part of this grand strategy to encircle China. Emboldened by this grand but sinister strategy, Indian expansionists are carrying forward the game plan, step by step.
But history is cruel in charting its course. At the moment the bright flag of freedom flies in Cambodian skies, the fortified garrisons of Saigon are being pounded by the guns of the freedom fighters. Lon Nol-Thieus have not been spared, Kazis and Dorjis will not be spared either. Like American imperialism, Soviet social imperialism and Indian expansionism will see right in front of their eyes that with the active support of freedom loving people of India and the world, Sikkim's patriots with their revolutionary struggle for freedom will advance to strike and destroy the aggression dreams of the imperialists and expansionists. That day is not far off, it cannot be far off. It is the duty of every progressive Indian to stand up and consolidate against India's aggression in Sikkim. They must stand shoulder to shoulder with the freedom loving citizens of Sikkim and take practical and effective steps to exterminate the enemy of the people in both the countries.
¹ Boobli George Verhese, First Draft, Chennai, 2010, p. 161
² Original Text in: Aneek, Vol. XI, No. 10/11 (April/May), Murshidabad, 1975; translated from Bengali by Soumya Guhathakurta