A massive rally was taken out in Gangtok today to demand an apology from the Sikkim chief minister

Sikkim/Gangtok, Aug. 24: A massive rally was taken out in Gangtok today to demand an apology from the Sikkim chief minister when he withdraws the Public Order Bill in the Assembly on Friday.

The procession was unprecedented in terms of the number of participants during the 18 years of Pawan Chamling rule. More than 4,000 people carried the Tricolours and placards condemning the bill and shouted slogans in support of Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal bill.

The Sikkim Prevention and Control of Public Order Bill, tabled in the Assembly on August 11, had triggered a political furore in the state with Opposition parties up in arms against the alleged suppression of fundamental rights of the citizens.

The outrage prompted the Sikkim Democratic Front government to announce on August 16 that the legislation, dubbed as “black bill” by the Opposition, would be withdrawn on August 26.

However, the recently floated Nagarik Adikhar Suraksha Sangathan Sikkim, which calls itself an apolitical forum, refused to take the government’s word at face value and organised the rally.

“The government must formally withdraw the bill according to the Assembly procedure and Chamling must apologise to the people for trying to curb their fundamental rights. Everyone had supported Chamling in 1993 when he first started his movement to bring democracy in Sikkim but after 18 years in government, he himself has proposed a bill aimed to cut the tongues of the people,” said NASSS chief co-ordinator M.N. Dahal.

The bill seeks to ban processions, hunger strikes, squatting, sloganeering and waving black flags or other forms of agitation that might “promote enmity or hatred between sections of the society” on the “grounds of religion, race or caste”.

Dahal also talked about alleged attempts by the SDF to scuttle the rally. “The SDF cadres have been running around for the past couple of days, threatening people of dire consequences if they join the rally… attempts were also made to disrupt our rally today and more than 300 vehicles carrying people for the procession were blocked on different routes.”

The NASSS said the rally had also been taken out to extend strong support to the anti-corruption campaign of Anna Hazare.

The rally, which started around 11.30am from Deorali, moved up to Hospital Dara along the footpath of NH31A and concluded at the parking lot near Paljor Stadium after covering a distance of 4km. The NASSS functionaries also burned a copy of the bill.

SDF rebel’s support

The SDF rebel legislator, Prem Singh Tamang, said the Sikkimese people had given a “strong response” to the call for the rally against the bill.

“The people of Sikkim are conscious about their rights and have given a strong response to the NASSS call against the bill. I congratulate and thank them. Those who participated in the rally had withstood torture and intimidation,” he told reporters. 

-TT