Working Journalists’ Body Formed  

The first meeting of the SFWJ also nominated veteran Journalist Jigmee N Kazi as its president, Prabin Khaling as Vice-President and Khagendramani Pradhan as its General Secretary. Shekhar Khawas has been chosen as the treasurer and Chewan Krishna Dahal would be the publicity secretary of the Federation.Gangtok, December 31:   The working Journalists of Sikkim today formed the Sikkim Federation of Working Journalist (SFWJ) after a meeting at the Press Club of Sikkim here.  The body comprising of working journalist from both the print and electronic media has been formed to work for the welfare of working journalists and to improve their professional and ethical standards in the state.

Working journalists Bijoy Gurung, Bishal Gurung, Rupesh Sharma, Raju Bhandari, Rajendra Pradhan, Pradeep Mizar, Ratan Gurung and Vishnu Neopaney are executive members of the Federation.

Other working journalists willing to join the federation are welcomed. The SFWJ is likely to seek affiliation with Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ).
Nepalese Girl deported
PTI, 31 Dec, Pune: A Nepalese student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) here was deported back to Kathmandu on December 5 for alleged "anti-India activities", police said today.Confirming the deportation of Neetu Singh, a fourth year student undergoing editing course at FTII, DCP (Special Branch) Ravindra Sengaonkar said here the decision to deport was taken after she had been found involved in "anti-national activities". 

The DCP refused to divulge further details of the case which has been taken up by All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), alleging that Neetu's deportation was ordered by Pune police at the instance of her husband Amaresh Singh. 
Singh happens to be an influential person and a nominated Member of Parliament in Nepal. 
AIDWA's Kiran Moghe, who has written to Pune police on December 14 seeking details of her deportation, told PTI that authorities were not forthcoming with any information except that she was handed over to her parents after being found involved in "anti-national activities" in the city as a result of a "secret operation" by the police. 

Moghe, the head of Maharashtra unit of AIDWA, alleged that Neetu was picked up on the night of December 5 from her hostel room at FTII by women cops in plainclothes without being told that she was going to be deported. 
HOME MINISTRY seeks report
IANS, 1 Jan ,New Delhi: The Home Ministry on Friday sought a report from the Maharashtra government following reports that Neetu Singh, a Nepali citizen and a final-year student at Pune's Film and Television Institute was reportedly deported at the behest of her influential husband Amaresh Singh, a Nepali Congress politician. 

"Yes, we have sought a report from the home department. We will have to see it before deciding on anything," Home Secretary GK Pillai told a news agency.On the night of Dec 5, the Pune police allegedly deported Neetu to Kathmandu, saying that she was indulging in anti-national activities. 

The police reportedly picked her up from the hostel, packed her belongings, took her to Mumbai and deported her to Kathmandu the next day. 

However, Neetu's friends at the institute are not buying this argument. 

Following the incident, womens' groups and students of the institute were planning to take up the issue with Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the National Commission for Women and demand that Neetu be allowed to return to India and complete her studies. 
Students said the police refused to give details about Neetu's midnight deportation and were unable to specify the charges against her. 

Neetu married Amaresh two years ago in Kathmandu, in a major social event attended by Nepal's top political establishment, including former prime ministers Prachanda, G.P. Koirala and Baburam Bhattarai. 

But recent reports suggested the marriage had soured and Neetu wanted to break away.

Why Dooars and Siliguri are Included in Gorkhaland Map?

Santosh Kumar Agarwal for Global Village

Gorkhaland movement organizers have issued a map of Gorkhaland, which includes, -apart from three hills subdivisions (Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong),- the Siliguri subdivision (that means whole of Darjeeling district if Naxalbari zone is included) Dooars areas of Madarihat, Malbazar, Nagrakata, Kalchini, Birpara, Banarhat, Chalsa, Bhaktinagar, Jaigaon, Kumargaon.

If whole of Darjeeling is taken into account then Gorkhas are just about the half line mark in total population of 160000 (2001 census). The bulk population of Gorkhas are however concentrated in three Darjeeling subdivisions of Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling where they constitute 700000 out of the 800000 population (last census). 

The picture is quite different when it comes to Siliguri subdivision with a population of another 800000, a overwhelming 80% are Bengalis apart from Marwaris, Biharis, Adibasis and other small linguistic groups. Although no figure is at hand for the number of Gorkhas in the Siliguri subdivision, the interpolation does not give more than 10% for Gorkhas.

The Dooars areas claimed by Gorkha Janamukti Morcha may be around 3500 sqkm and has an estimated population of 1000000. But the fact is that the Gorkhas constitute less than 30% of this population. The great majority is the scheduled tribes and a large migrant population of Bengalis migrated from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

The above analysis clearly shows that the demand of inclusion of Dooars and Siliguri in Gorkhaland is quite unethical and nonsense. Why a majority population of Bengalis and Adibasis (mostly Bengali or its dialect speaking) shall agree to come under a minority population. What kind of democracy is it on the part of Gurung & Co? Add up their Map of Gorkhaland and population. It will be at best 1100000 Gorkhas against 1600000 non- Gorkhas! Do Gorkhas want to be minority in Gorkhaland?

The question of the Gorkha identity crisis is also false. Gorkhas are a respected lot in this country. We have the great Baichung Bhutia, Prasant Tamung and so on. Sikkim is already a state for Gorkhas (if ‘Gorkha’ means people of Nepali origin, Lepchas, Bhutias etc who are now citizens of India).

However a sixth schedule status should be good enough as a solution to this crisis. Even Darjeeling hills can be integrated into Sikkim.

But the perplexing thing is why Gurung & Co. are demanding Siliguri and Dooars in Gorkhaland knowing very well that it is impossible to include unwilling brute majority population in its Gorkha set up.

The answer probably lies somewhere else. As DGHC (Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council) has only tea gardens (and cinchona gardens), the sales tax (or VAT) revenues will be too small to sustain a state, tourism not withstanding. Also the new state will be short on foods and other essential supplies. So they need large tea gardens of Dooars and Terai plains to augment tax revenues and Siliguri area to get industry and industrial revenue. The plains would also provide them with plenty of agricultural produce.

Another design may be that after getting the plains under Gorkhaland, they would pack them with Nepalese in course of time in collusion with the Maoist of Nepal to turn the area into Nepali (or Gorkhali whatever you say) majority and demand greater Nepal in future. This would put the Maoist automatically in charge of affairs once the Dooars and Siliguri is included in Gorkhaland.