EOI, Editorial, 29 May 2024 : The call for collective effort between Sikkim and Darjeeling to secure tribal status for communities made by Chief Minister of Sikkim Prem Singh Tamang at a cultural event of the Kirat Khambu Rai community is pregnant with significance; all the more so because the Chief Minister has issued the call in the presence of Gorkhaland Territorial Ad-ministration Chief Executive Officer Anit Thapa, a senior leader from the hills of Darjeeling.
The immediate reason for the call of the Chief Minister is surely the clear signal from the outgoing BJP government at the Centre that after the formation of the new government the demand for tribal status for communities would be taken up after the elections.
With the BJP ahead in the race for the formation of the next government, there is the expectation in the hills that the long-standing demand would now be taken up. Here, Sikkim and the hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong have almost the same demand.
While the demand in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong is that 11 left-out Gorkha communities be included in the Scheduled Tribe list, in Sikkim the same demand has been made for 12 com-munities.
Eleven of the 12 communities are also the same; so there is a strong ground that Sikkim and Darjeeling should move in tandem with this demand and it is reasonable to expect that the demands of Sikkim and Darjeeling would be fulfilled simultaneously.
It is true that Sikkim and Darjeeling have justified their demands on different grounds but that may not make a significant difference.
Darjeeling wants scheduled tribe status for 11 left-out communities as the permanent solution for the political issues of the hills. If all the different strands of the larger Gorkha community are recognized as scheduled tribe, it would be easy to bring the autonomous hill council under the purview of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution; with more administrative and financial powers. Sikkim, on the other hand, has justified the demand on the ground that during the rule of the Chogyal all these communities used to be treated as tribes.
In Sikkim, of course, Delhi will have to take cognizance of the extra protections accorded to the Bhutia and Lepcha communities under Revenue Or-der no. 1; a legacy of British rule but protected under Article 371A of the Constitution.
From the historical point of view, it will be justified if the Centre treats the people of Sikkim and those of the Darjeeling hills at par while examining the issue of tribal status for communities. For, people belonging to the same communities inhabit the two adjoining hills of Darjeeling and Sikkim.
Darjeeling was once a part of Sikkim; to be separated and included in British territory in 1835. Now 75 years after Independence there is ground for justification if the wheel turns.
It is a different question, however, if the wheel will turn full circle as the solution for the political problems for these hills. In Darjeeling, there are political parties and groups which support this idea.
The view is different in Sikkim where the ethnic Sikkimese people enjoy several protections under the Sikkim Subject Certificate and the Certificate of Identification. If Sikkim and the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong are brought under the same political umbrella, these rights may get diluted.