Small state, big opportunities

If Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang can keep his flock together, Sikkim can become one of the most progressive states in India's Northeast

For the first time in history, Sikkim’s foundation day (the 47th) was celebrated in New Delhi last week. The location was downmarket — the amphitheatre at New Moti Bagh, a residential colony of IAS officers — but the function was fun. It featured a Snow Lion (Singhi Chham) and a Yak Chham dance, songs in Lepcha, Bhutia, and Nepali, the three dominant languages spoken in Sikkim, Sikkimese food that used ingredients flown specially from the state, and long, long speeches with many references to Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Respected Home Minister Amit Shah. The loyalties of Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang to the Bharatiya Janata Party are in no doubt at all, judging from his address on the occasion. He said Sikkim owed it all to the Central government. Not everyone in the state has always seen it that way.

But Mr Tamang knows he is a giant killer and can get away with almost anything. He came to power after the 2019 Assembly election, defeating Pawan Kumar Chamling, then India’s longest-serving chief minister, after 25 years in the service of the state along with his party, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF).

Mr Chamling became chief minister first in 1994 and stayed in office, ruling with an iron hand, with virtually no Opposition. The Opposition came in February 2013 in the form of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), led by Mr Tamang, otherwise known as P S Golay.

Mr Tamang has had a chequered past. He was a founding member of the SDF and minister in four of the five terms that Mr Chamling was CM. He then quit to form his own party on the grounds of rising corruption and nepotism in the SDF. In 2009, Mr Chamling won all 32 Assembly seats in Sikkim but in 2014, he lost 10 to the SKM, getting only 22 of the 32. He may have realised that he was approaching end game because soon after Mr Tamang formed his party, he got a visit from the state government’s vigilance department — presumably on instructions from Mr Chamling — regarding misappropriating government funds of Rs 9.5 lakh meant for distributing cows to beneficiaries under a state government scheme. This was an investigation dating back to 2010. A charge sheet led to a court case and conviction with a jail sentence and a fine. Despite a corruption conviction, it is a mystery how he was allowed to contest again — and when he came out of jail in 2018, he was given a hero’s welcome in the manner done for political prisoners. His party has a majority of just two seats with 17 in the 32-member Sikkim Assembly but 47 per cent of the vote. On the other hand, Mr Chamling’s party has 47.6 per cent of the vote but two seats fewer than that of the SKM.

Sikkim has a complicated history and it is sometimes hard to tell the villains from the heroes in India’s annexation of the state. The way the first dewan of Sikkim, John Lall, ICS, described it, instead of honouring Sikkim’s sovereignty and China’s feelings, India imported mobs of Nepali-speaking people from Darjeeling and Kalimpong, told the Chogyal (king) that his people had rebelled against him, and annexed Sikkim.

Mr Chamling, however, says (possibly because he’s a Nepali-speaking native of Sikkim) that the original Lepcha settlers of Sikkim, who were subjugated for three centuries by the Bhotia tribals from across Tibet, perpetuated feudal systems and denied other tribals like the Limbus and Tamangs equal rights. According to him, the rebellion against the Chogyal was actually a revolution that overthrew oppressive Qazi rule and radicalised scores of young men across Sikkim. Once he became chief minister, Mr Chamling realised he had to create his own constituency. He fought to extend reservations to castes like the Limbus and Tamangs among the Nepali-speaking population of the state. In Sikkim, 20 per cent of the population is Bhutia-Lepcha and 40 per cent comprises Other Backward Classes, including the Newars, a Nepali business caste. The Limbus, Rais, and Tamangs are around 20 per cent of the population. When they were included in the reservation net, they became Mr Chamling’s natural constituency. Mr Tamang challenged Mr Chamling on issues of nepotism and corruption, and administrative inefficiency. The very castes Mr Chamling thought he was empowering turned against him. Mr Tamang’s campaign got traction. Sikkim’s icon and famous footballer Bhaichung Bhutia also floated a party, Hamro Sikkim, ahead of the elections. India heard of corruption, drug addiction, and mental illness in Sikkim. The state has just over 600,000 people, but unemployment is high. It also has the highest suicide rate — 37.5 per 100,000 people, nearly triple the Indian average. Seven out of 10 teenagers in Sikkim abuse pharmaceutical drugs. One person in every family is involved in substance abuse. However, though the Hamro Sikkim did not win any seats, the problems it highlighted remain — and Mr Tamang’s headache now.

Mr Tamang (whose election affidavit, among other things, declares he has been married thrice. It mentions no divorces) will have to beat Mr Chamling’s record of growth and development. He says Sikkim is doing really well. Sikkim has said “no” to 13 hydel projects because they could have threatened the state’s ecosphere. The alternative model of development is “back to nature”. The state uses no chemical fertiliser whatsoever. Its orchids are world famous. And the state is inviting Bollywood to shoot films in the scenic mountains of the state instead of travelling to Switzerland — a state of the art film city is coming up in the state. If Mr Tamang can keep his flock together, Sikkim can become one of the most progressive states in India’s Northeast.