Seminar on Gorkhaland and the demand for smaller states on sept 22nd

A seminar on Gorkhaland and the demand for smaller states to be held on September 22nd 2013 at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Auditorium, Teen Murti House. The seminar will begin at 10 am till 4.30 pm.

This is the first seminar in Delhi that will have high profile national leaders speaking on the issue of Gorkhaland. Among those who will be speaking on the subject are Congress Rajya Sabha member Mani Shankar Aiyar, Darjeeling MP and former union minister Jaswant Singh, former minister of state and Lok Sabha member Ajay Maken, former union Home Secretary RK Singh, TRS politburo member and former Lok Sabha member Vinod Kumar and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha spokesperson and MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri. Senior journalist Swaraj Thapa will moderate the proceedings as well as give a presentation of his own.

Mani Shankar Aiyar, a votary of decentralisation of power through panchayati raj, has also supported the concept of smaller states. Ajay Maken, on the other hand, headed the tripartite talks at the political level as a minister of state handling the home portfolio, before he was promoted as union minister. Former home secretary RK Singh also has an understanding of the Gorkhaland issue as it was under his watch as home secretary that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was set up.
There will be a second session on the issue of Indian Gorkha identity where the speakers are eminent cinematographer Binod Pradhan who has directed the camera for hits including Bhag Milkha Bhag and Rang De Basanti, former Indian hockey team captain Bharat Chetri, promising author Prajwal Parajuly (who has penned “The Gurkha's daughter”), Sonam Sherpa, lead guitarist of Delhi's most famous band Parikrama and senior journalist Joel Rai.
The seminar is organised by the Darjeeling Foundation, a think tank initiated by Swaraj Thapa and a few other like minded individuals in Delhi. It is supported by intellectuals, academics, public figures and business leaders from Darjeeling as well as other parts of the country. It is conceived as a private, not for profit body to influence public opinion and mould views of the political class as well as executive on the issue of separate state of Gorkhaland comprising Darjeeling and surrounding areas. The idea is to help clear misperceptions relating to Gorkhaland issue through seminars, public discussion, debate, research and publications.