BY A STAFF REPORTER
Kathmandu, July 19:The Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation (GAESO) has come up with a detailed plan to internationalise the issue of the British Gurkha soldiers who have been demanding facilities at par with their British counterparts.
An international conference will be held here in September where the problems and plights of the Gurkhas will be brought to international attention, said Padam Bahadur Gurung, central president of GAESO, today.
In the international meet to be held for three consecutive days starting September 18, legal, political and diplomatic issues surrounding British Gurkhas will be raised. We hope this will help to create national as well as international pressure to find a solution of the problem, said Gurung.
Representatives from political parties, lawyers, diplomats, journalists and British Gurkhas will participate in the international conference. The meet will analyse the present legitimacy of the agreements of 1947 and try to find a way forward to resolve the pay, pension and welfare issues of the British Gurkhas, GAESO said. The conference will also examine the social and cultural effects of the Gurkha recruitment.
A rally of Gurkha veterans and the masses supporting them will take out a rally during the international meet. Debates and discussions during the meet will focus on the future of Gurkha recruitment and the pension and welfare benefits the Gurkhas are getting now. A workshop will be held to deliberate on possible diplomatic and legal outlet of the problem, said Gurung.
The 1947 tripartite agreement between Great Britain, India and Nepal carried the intention that the Gurkhas should be treated on the same footing as in other units in the parent army so that the stigma of ‘mercenary troops’ may for all times be wiped out, said Gurung at an interaction organised to inform about the conference. “However, a bilateral agreement between Britain and India restricted basic rates of pay for Gurkhas in the British Army to the India Pay Code. This resulted in less pay and smaller pensions than that of British counterparts,” he added.
Senior human rights activist and intellectual Rishikesh Shah, however, did not see any fault with the agreement of 1947. He rather stressed effective implementation of the agreement and said, “I feel the agreement is all right. This is not the time to change it.”
Shah strongly opined against the practice of Gurkha recruitment as it is in contravention with the sentiment of the peace loving Nepalese. “It is the issue of national dignity,” he said and prescribed that the settlement must be found at the national level.
Parliamentarian Raghuji Panta said it is the most appropriate time to internationalise the issue of British Gurkhas as it can give further pressure to resolve the problem. “International attention has already been drawn to the issue and the iron must be hit now when it is hot,” he added.
The second House of Representatives has presented its recommendation to resolve the issue and the government should seriously think to implement it, said Panta.
Former MP Hiranya Lal Shrestha who headed the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committee in the previous House of Representatives, said the agreement of 1947 should be reviewed so Gurkha soldiers are not deployed to fight in the SAARC and Non-aligned countries.
CPN-ML politburo member C. P. Mainali said the government should consider the parliamentary recommendations and take measures to resolve the issue of British Gurkhas.
Dr. Harka Gurung said the issue of British Gurkha soldiers is related with national sovereignty. Stating that it is poverty that compelled the Gurkhas to serve in foreign land, he said the 1947 agreement needs to be reviewed in the changed context.