Forces within and outside Sikkim trying to vitiate our communal harmony: CM

BIJOY GURUNG

GANGTOK,: Chief Minister PS Golay on Saturday said that some groups – from within and outside Sikkim - are trying to disrupt communal harmony in Sikkim by working against the ST status demand of 12 left-out communities and funding hate speech against the Khas community.

“After coming to power in 2019 with blessings of the people of Sikkim, the SKM government worked sincerely to unite and uplift the Sikkimese communities and bring communal harmony. However, there are certain people within and outside Sikkim who do not want to see communal harmony and progress of Sikkimese communities. Our government will stand like a mountain to protect our harmony and we will not allow the Sikkimese communities to be divided again on caste and community basis,” said the Chief Minister.

Golay was addressing the valedictory session of the one-day session of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly. He responded to the observations made by the members over Sikkim Police’s arrest of Samson Tamang, who is facing FIRs for his alleged offensive remarks against Khas (Chettri-Bahun) community of Sikkim and Darjeeling region.

The Chief Minister mentioned that the Sikkim government acted on Samson’s hate speech in a serious manner even though the opposition here and outsiders were fully politicizing the matter. The nine-member police team deputed to trace and apprehend Samson was directed not to return to Sikkim without nabbing that person, he said.

After 13 days of extensive searches, Samson was finally apprehended at Bodhgaya by the Sikkim police team with support of Bihar government.

“There is no need for the government to inform the opposition and outsiders about our every step. Our police team launched the search for Samson in various States and in Nepal also but those forces behind Samson did not want him to be arrested because their politics would end. They funded him, provoked him and at the same time were issuing ultimatums to the government. They do not have any issues left and are desperate to defame the government and fragment the Sikkimese again on caste-community basis,” said Golay.

The Chief Minister maintained that these same forces from within and outside Sikkim had spread lies regarding the SSHLC meeting at New Delhi regarding the tribal status demand of the left-out communities. The so-called opposition made negative comments on that meeting as they do not want our left-out communities get the ST status, he said.

The Chief Minister said those trying to disrupt communal harmony in Sikkim would not be be forgiven by the State government and the Sikkimese populace. These groups also wanted to disrupt the 30^th Khas Diwas happening on February 26 at Geyzing. They used Samson Tamang to prevent the Khas community from uniting, he said.

Golay shared that certain social media pages from outside Sikkim deliberately broadcasted old videos of Samson Tamang as new videos to create further provocation among the communities. We will take action against such channels as per law and prohibit them as they repeatedly posted the old videos to create further communal anger, he said.