The retired Gurkhas have decided to go on with their fight for equal treatment of Gurkha soldiers at par with their British colleagues.

As part of their campaign, the Gurkhas would picket (gherao) the office of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street from March 30.

With the slogan of ‘equality for all Gurkhas’, they would organise sit in protests in front of the PM’s office from 9 am till 5 pm for 13 days continuously. Some 30 representatives of the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen Organisation (GAESO), British Gurkha Welfare Society (BGWS) and (United British Gurkha Ex-army Association, Nepal (UBGEAN) will take part in the programme.

The gherao programme was a part of the ‘week long international campaign for justice to Gurkhas’ initiated by Peter Carol, MP of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party. The weeklong campaign would formally be announced on March 26.

The following day, the Gurkhas would hand over appeal to individual members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. On the same day, the children of the Gurkha soldiers would hand over an appeal to the London mayor asking for special support for education of the children of Gurkha soldiers.

On March 28, a gathering would be organised in the parliament square with performances of Nepali cultural dances. Gurkha veterans and British political leaders would address the gathering.

Concurrent with this gathering, question and answer session will be organised in the parliament between 9 am and 2 pm where Prime Minister Blair will answer the queries of the lawmakers regarding British Gurkhas.

After that, the Gurkhas would march to Downing Street to hand over the appeal to prime minister and reach Gurkha memorial to pay homage to dead soldiers.

On March 29, the Gurkhas would attend the special show of Oscar 2007 nominee ‘Days of Glory’ which tells the story of discrimination faced by foreign soldiers in French army. Last year, after attending the show of this film, French president announced equal treatment to all foreign soldiers in the French army.

Carol expressed hope that the campaign would get international solidarity and might become the decisive movement from the justice to Gurkhas.

MPs from other parties have also expressed their support to the cause of British Gurkhas.