SKM seeks central rule

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 24 Feb 2019, Gangtok: The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha on Saturday demanded the imposition of President's Rule in Sikkim in view of the alleged plans of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) to engineer violence during the party's proposed bandh on February 28.

Addressing a press conference here, Jacob Khaling, the SKM spokesman, alleged that the SDF government was planning a violence on the day with the help of Maoists from Nepal.

"The governor must look at the possibility (of there being violence) on February 28 and immediately recommend President's Rule. We will be out on the streets in a peaceful manner, but if the Pawan Chamling government creates disturbance, the bandh could be an indefinite one, not just for 24 hours," he said.

The SKM has threatened to call a 24-hour bandh from 6am on February 28 if the state government fails to meet its 35point demands by Monday evening.

Given that the government is unlikely to oblige the SKM by then, the possibility of the bandh taking place is more or less a certainty.

The SKM's long list of demands includes reservation of seats in the Assembly for the Limbu and Tamang communities and regularisation of temporary jobs among others.

Khaling said the SDF had planned to hold a motor rally from February 27 to March 1 in order to disrupt the bandh.

"They (SDF) have taken permission to hold motor rally… This permission is not to hold a motor rally, but to kill the Sikkimese people by putting Maoists in the forefront," he said, adding that two alleged Maoists from Nepal, Kishan Chamling Rai and Tej Bantawa Rai, had been allowed entry into Sikkim in order to create disturbance.

The SKM also rubbished the government's contention that bandhs had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court.

"In a verdict in 2017, the Supreme Court had in principle deemed resorting to bandh to be a fundamental right of the public right to protest is a valuable constitutional right," he said, quoting from the verdict.

The SKM spokesman termed Chamling's reported claim that the opposition party had prepared a hit-list of 79 persons, including him, for assassination should the SDF come back to power again as the "biggest lie".

"If the Sikkim administration is not capable of arresting the masterminds (of the alleged plot), then the SKM will do the job, let them give us the names," he dared.

The chief minister is reported to have made the claim at a party function in Singtam, about 30 kilometres from here, on Thursday.

"In a meeting of SKM, they had talked about murdering me if the SDF again comes to power …they have prepared a hit-list of 79 persons. My name is number one in the list. This is the report I have got. I, too, have people in that party," he is quoted as having said.