Sikkim twist to Sixth Schedule Special status

Gangtok, Jan. 28: A regional outfit in Sikkim has added a twist to the Sixth Schedule row by claiming that the consent of the erstwhile Himalayan kingdom is required to grant special status to the Darjeeling hills.

The Sikkim Rashtriya Congress has based its argument on historical documents according to which the territories of Darjeeling and the Dooars belonged to Sikkim. Even the Bengal government had admitted this in its white paper issued on October 9, 1986 when the Gorkhaland agitation was at its height, claimed D.K. Bomzan, the president of the party.

“Now, the Bengal government is hell-bent on implementing the Sixth Schedule status in Darjeeling which will constitutionally make the hills a part of Bengal. Why don’t they first ask for the consent of Sikkim, which is the rightful owner of Darjeeling and the Dooars?” he asked.

According to official records from the pre-Independence era, though the two territories were handed over to the British, annual land lease was collected in the name of the chogyals of Sikkim. After Independence, the central government continued to follow the same arrangement till 1975, the year Sikkim merged with the Indian Union, said the president of Sikkim Rashtriya Congress.

In the absence of Sikkim’s consent, the Memorandum of Settlement for the Sixth Schedule status signed by Subash Ghisingh (the caretaker administrator of the DGHC), the Bengal government and the Center becomes undemocratic, said Bomzan.

During an all-party meeting on the special status held in New Delhi on December 20, the party had made its reservations clear to the parliamentary standing committee headed by Sushma Swaraj, which is currently scrutinizing the Sixth Schedule bill.

“The paradox is that after its merger with India, the Sikkim government should have reclaimed its lost territories, but that was not done,” says the memorandum submitted to Sushma Swaraj by the party.

Bomzan said Sikkim should demand its lost land, which is more than three fourth of the current territory of the state, and added that his party would file a PIL in Sikkim High Court if it is not done. “It is up to the Sikkim government to claim its lost land or issue a statement saying that the territories do not belong to them, but with proper explanation.”

The party president also warned that if in future Gorkhaland is carved out of the Darjeeling hills, the new state would definitely stake claims over Sikkim as well.