Press Release
It is unfortunate that our Chief Minister Shri Golay was verbally attacked by the people as they could not meet him to present their grievance or applications.
However, if we think beyond this simple incident, a realisation hits us hard. Why are people forced to meet the Chief Minister to present their grievances or applications? If same thing was true for bigger states, the entire system would break down because a Chief Minister cannot meet everybody.
Our politicians love playing God or messiah and want people to always surround them, and they have destroyed our system to work in such a manner that nothing moves without a minister’s or MLA’s or CM’s nod. Therefore, people have stopped depending on the system to work for them because system doesn’t move without the consent of ruling politicians.
Many people have shared their thoughts on the incident, and quite a large number of them have put the blame on the people. I find it wrong. People are not wrong to heckle the Chief Minister for not being able to meet him. They are letting vent to their frustration because they know that without CM’s personal intervention, their grievances and their applications will never be heard.
The Sikkimese people deserves an impartial system that works for everybody, a system that doesn’t force a self-respecting individual to hover around MLAs or Ministers or CM just the get their work done. Sikkim deserves a system that works for everybody, no matter what their political inclinations are. But we have politicians who so much want to play God or messiah and who have hijacked our system to work only for those who kowtow before the ruling politicians while outrageously discriminating against those self-respecting Sikkimese people who do not wish to go to meet politicians with their folded hands.
Ganesh Rai
Former Panchayat President & Chairman (SICUN).
Melli, South Sikkim.