Recently, Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang was conferred the Honourable Gorkha Gaurav Samman Medal.In his acceptance speech, Tamang emphasized on resolving the issue of Limbu Tamang tribal status through collective efforts and said, “Despite our different political backgrounds, some issues remain common. The long-standing Limbu-Tamang tribal issue has been resolved through joint efforts.”
On 26 November 2023, Prem Singh Tamang led a delegation to the Central Government to seek Scheduled Tribe status for the unincorporated Gurkha community. However, both were rejected twice by the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI) on various grounds. Recently, the Ministry of State for Tribal Affairs of India once again rejected the proposal of Sikkim’s Union Parliamentarian Dorjezelin Rebucha to include 12 communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes, a disheartening outcome.
The Sikkim government has been fighting aggressively on the surface, but judging from the results, the issue of Limbu Tamang status, the issue of Scheduled Tribes does not seem to have been substantially changed, the minority tribal people are still the poorest of the poor, and even in the budget for Sikkim’s financial year 2023-2024, the benefits for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and minorities have been drastically curtailed from 2022-23 to Rs 4,870 crore to Rs 2,620 crore, a reduction of 46 per cent, making them the only group to be hurt.
On the contrary, with 70 per cent of all parliamentary candidates in Sikkim being millionaires according to the declaration of assets for electing MPs, and almost all MPs of the ruling party entering the millionaire bracket, no one seems to be genuinely concerned about the development of the Scheduled Tribes and minorities.
On 6 August, Chief Minister Singh Tamang addressed the first day of the budget session, reviewing the achievements of Sikkim in the past few years and the vision for future development, but unfortunately the development of scheduled tribes and minorities did not appear in the future vision of Sikkim, and not a word was mentioned about the welfare of scheduled tribes and minorities in Singh Tamang’s address, and it seems that scheduled tribes and minorities become the focus of politicians’ discussions only during election time.
It is only during elections that Scheduled Tribes and Minorities become the focus of politicians’ discourse and a tool to woo voters. When will we get our rightful place and enjoy our due benefits. Scheduled tribes and minorities are part of the earliest people to live in the land of Sikkim and we too need development and hope that the Sikkim government will honor its election promises with real action.
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