(RESTRICTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY)
January-March 2004
Indo-Bhutan Friendship Society’s Birth on 17th
December,1999 i.e Bhutanese National Day
The Indo-Bhutan Friendship Association
(Bhutan India Friendship Association) formed at the Government level in 1970s was totally
inactive until the recent past. The Indo-Bhutan Friendship Association was not there to
help the Bhutanese people to redress their grievances .The people were faced with acute
problems and difficulties and it finally boils over to present political and refugee
crisis.
In view of prevailing crisis of Bhutanese
polity, Indo-Bhutan Friendship Society was formed on the 17th of December 1999 at New Delhi with
the intention to strengthen friendly relations between India and Bhutan through wider
interaction at the people to people level. We also sought the solidarity for Bhutanese
movement for the establishment of democracy and human rights in Bhutan from the people of
India. It was registered under Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, registration No.
S.38499.It may be recalled here that the day 17th December is national day of
Bhutan and this is significant.
Ever
since its inception conferences, meetings and symposiums are being organized on regular
and time bound basis and the Society has done a yeomen service towards the just resolution
of problems of Bhutanese people, refugee and
political crisis in Bhutan. It has also helped the Royal Government of Bhutan by
advocating the non-violence doctrine to exile Bhutanese leaders. The society has done
campaigning by writing letters to the members of parliament and meeting many of them. It
has held meetings and press conferences at Siliguri, India and Nepal where the refugee
camps are located. Letters have been written and representations made to the government of
Bhutan, Nepal and India on several occasions.
Bhutan’s Ambassador to India
Mr. Dago Tshering, called on Shri Rabi Ray, former speaker of Lok Sabha and patron of the
society . He also made courtesy call on Shri Satya
Prakash Malaviya, President of the Society and had a discussion.
Counsellor at the Bhutanese Embassy New
Delhi Mr. Thinley Penjore met Professor Anand Kumar the Vice-president of the Society
twice at the JNU Campus.
Mr.
Penjore came to the residence of Dr. B.S. N. Reddy former Governor U.P. and Orissa, where
Shri Satya Prakash Malaviya had also come to hold discussion on the situation in Bhutan.
Although, Mr. Penjore argued that everything was okay in Bhutan and people were satisfied
he found it embarrassing to answer some of the questions relating to the basic rights of
the people and the mechanisms available to protect them. At the end it was by and large
agreed that in a multi-ethnic, lingual and religious country it was not possible to
guarantee and protect the rights of the people without having them enshrined in the
Constitution. Consequently, on the 30th
of September 2001 barely a month after the discussion the King of Bhutan announced the
formation of a 39 member Constitution Drafting Committee headed by the Chief Justice of
Bhutan Mr. Sonam Tobgay. It is now gathered that draft of the constitution is ready but
unfortunately it continues to be a secret document and has not been made public.
The IBFS wrote several letters of concern to the King of Bhutan
and none of them were responded. In the mean time, the President and Vice-president of the
Society were invited to the Bhutanese Embassy at Delhi on 22 July 2003. They had a long
discussion with Mr. Dago Tshering, Ambassador in the presence of Mr. Thinley Penjore,
Counselor. Consensus was arrived at that a team of IBFS members should visit Bhutan to
obtain a first hand knowledge there.
The IBFS called an emergency
Executive Committee Meeting on the 24th of August,2003 and decided to send
five of its senior members to Bhutan. The meeting also agreed that the society would bear
the tour expenses. The resolution of Executive Committee meeting called upon the
Government of Bhutan to send the Invitation in writing, which was not replied.
Meanwhile
the President Shri Satya Prakash Malaviya, sent a condolence letter to the King on the sad
demise of his Grand Mother Phuntsho Chhodon
on behalf of the society and was responded
personally by the King.
However a sudden initiative came from
the Crown Prince, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wang chuck to setup a Working Group to re-organize
and strengthen the BIFA (Bhutan India Friendship Society) institution and assumed himself
as a president of Association. He also under took the visit to different parts of India in
September,2003. The interest and commitments belatedly shown by the Royal Government of
Bhutan and Royal Family to promote the understanding between the people of two countries
shows the political agenda to garner the support for the Monarchy from the people of
India. The four branches of the Bhutan-India Friendship Association were also inaugurated
in Samdrup Jongkhar, Geliphu, Samtse and Phuentsholing towns in Bhutan on 27th January,2004 bordering Assam and
west Bengal state..
RGOB didn’t bring the BIFA to
people’s level for past three decades because it feared that the Bhutanese people
could soon demand their democratic rights. Why this U-turn after 35 years?
Actually it is only to counter the
friendly moves of Indo-Bhutan Friendship
Society. The IBFS is committed to work devotedly for resolution of the problems of
suffering Bhutanese people.
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