Indian PM hints positive signals, NDF, INSAF welcome Singh’s gesture
NEW DELHI, Aug 21 – Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh has said that India will work with Nepal and all concerned parties to resolve the festering Bhutanese refugee crisis.
"India will work with all parties, especially Nepal, in order to improve the state of refugees and find a solution that will ensure their dignity and well-being," Singh said in a response to a letter written by Indian lawmaker Ram Gopal Yadav.
India’s Socialist Party's leader Yadav is demanding the Indian government to lead a tripartite initiative to facilitate a dignified repatriation of more than 100,000 refugees languishing at seven UNHCR-administered camps in Jhapa and Morang districts in eastern Nepal since 1990.
Yadav is associated with the Bhutanese Refugees Solidarity Group that supported the “long march” campaign of the refugees to their homeland a few months back.
However, India did not give the passage to the refugees though they had come via India to Nepal.
Kantipur received a copy of the Indian Prime Minister’s letter dated two weeks on Tuesday.
This is the first time that any Indian prime minister has expressed serious concern over the issue in written form.
Stating that the government is trying to find a common consensus with all parties in regard to human values, Singh said that India is encouraging both countries- Nepal and Bhutan- to come up with suitable solutions through peaceful negotiations so that the diplomatic relations between the two neighbors are not affected.
Yadav had also sent the copies of the letter to Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil.
Mukherjee replied that "suitable solutions" would be found to the problem while Patil informed that they would think about the issue.
The refugees of Nepali-origin were systematically evicted from their ancestral homes in southern Bhutan by the Druk regime in the late eighties and early nineties.
NDF, INSAF welcome Singh’s gesture
Meanwhile, Bhutanese organizations in exile including the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Bhutan Solidarity and Indian National Social Action Forum (INSAF) welcomed Prime Minister Singh’s gesture organizing a joint-press conference here on Monday.
"This is a positive step from the Indian side," the Secretary of Advocacy and Foreign Department of NDF Narad Adhikari said. "If India implements what it said, it will create history," he added.
"The concerned parties mean refugee leaders, Bhutan, Nepal and Indian governments. All of them should sit for talks and find a solution to the crisis at the earliest," the Front's Vice-Secretary Rajman Gurung said. "The Nepal government should immediately initiate talks with India over this."
Dr Sunilama and INSAF President Anil Chaudhari were also present at the conference, which came up with the decision to form a five-member delegation of senior Indian social activists. The delegation will come to Nepal to lobby with government officials and major political parties on September 4 for talks with India.
The delegation comprises social activist Medha Patekar, senior Socialist leader Surendra Mohan and journalist Kuldip Nayer, Dewaprat Biswas of Forward Block and Dr Sunilam.
According to Adhikari, the delegation will meet Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, foreign minister Sahana Pradhan, UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman Prachanda and hand over Dr Singh's letter that would “form a basis for talks”.
Source: Ekantipur.com/Gopal Khanal