SIKKIM
OBSERVER Saturday Dec 30-31, 2014
Blog:
sikkimobserver.blogspot.com
Private universities in Sikkim set up
illegally: former Chief Secy
Gangtok, Dec 29: Reacting to a report on
establishment of educational institutions in Sikkim, former Chief Secretary
Sonam Wangdi says the Sikkim Manipal University Bill did not have the mandatory
assent of the President of India.
“Since 'education' is in Concurrent List, the
President's assent is compulsory which is corroborated by the fact that Sikkim
Education Act [No 11 of 2002] Sikkim Government Gazette No 310 of 2002 was
assented to by President K R Narayanan on July 5, 2002,” the former Chief
Secretary said in Facebook.
“Unconfirmed reports state that the
President refused to assent to the so-called unprecedented "Sikkim-Manipal
University" Bill. The Bill was made into law without President' assent.
The 2002 Sikkim Act is about education in Sikkim up to the college level,”
Wangdi said.
“Now
the question arises why did the President assent to the SKM Edn Act? Obviously
the assent was required. Since education up to college level required the
assent, it is a common sense - and not a legal sense necessitating a legal
luminary - to hold that State Bills for establishing universities shall be
compulsorily assented to by the President. In other States, Private University
Bills are invariably concurred by the President.
I would be delighted to be informed of any
State Bill, setting up private universities, which did not require President's
assent. Hence, all private universities in Sikkim are 'illegal' as pointed out
in my three papers on Private Universities in Sikkim and seven on The Sikkim
Manipal Saga which appeared in Sikkim
Express and Himalayan Mirror
during 8 May 2012-2013. Since there was no rebuttal, I am confirmed in my view.
Nevertheless I welcome contrary opinion to arrive at the ultimate truth
notwithstanding my deep conviction.”
Wangdi
further states that the EIILM University - like all other universities except
the Central - is illegal since there is no President's assent which is
absolutely mandatory. The Bill for the EILLM was passed in the Assembly
[proceedings 20-25 February, 2006].
Sino-India ties set to soar after roller
coaster 2014
Modi
to inaugurate Kailash Manasarovar Yatra route through Nathula in Sikkim
Beijing, Dec 29: Sino-India relations
experienced both highs and lows in 2014 which saw President Xi Jinping's visit
to India amid concerns over Chinese border incursions but bilateral ties are
set to soar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slated trip to Beijing in the
coming months.
Modi
is expected to make a high-profile visit here in the next few months following
up on September trip of President Xi to India during which the two countries
signed several agreements including setting up of two industrial parks in India
with USD 20 billion Chinese investment besides cooperation to modernise Indian
railways.
He
is expected to formally inaugurate a new route for the Kailash Manasarovar
Yatra through Nathu La in Sikkim which would for the first time enable Indian
pilgrims to travel to highly popular religious places by buses without
undertaking an arduous journey by trekking or on mules.
Indian
Ambassador to China Ashok K Kantha accompanied by top Chinese officials has
already made a tour of Tibet to finalise the arrangements before Prime
Minister's visit here.
This
year has ended on a positive note with an Indian railways team holding
comprehensive talks with Chinese counterparts on conducting a feasibility study
of the high speed rail line between Delhi and Chennai besides track
up-gradation.
India
currently is considering two corridors for high speed trains. While Japan is
conducting a feasibility study for the bullet train project on the
Mumbai-Ahmadabad corridor, China will do the same for the Delhi-Chennai route
which is expected to begin by early next year.
If
it materialises, the Indian bullet train project is a major gain for China
which is making an aggressive pitch to market its high speed train technology
outside the country.
Besides
the high speed train, India and China have agreed to cooperate to identify the
technical inputs required to increase speeds on the existing railway line from
Chennai to Mysore via Bangalore.
All
these projects are expected to take shape during Modi's visit, including the
operationalisation of the two industrial corridors that China has agreed to set
up in Gujarat and Maharashtra with an investment of USD 20 billion.
RSS has Sikkim in mind, holds session
Gangtok, Dec 29: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) has not forgotten Sikkim. It is also aware of the recent tie-up
between the BJP and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), which has ten MLAs in the
House of 32.
Last
week, RSS chief Dr Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat held brainstorming sessions with
Sangha members of Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar in
Bhubaneshwar. His five-day-long session ended on Monday, sources said.
Bhagwat
discussed about strengthening of the Sangh in the eastern States through
different RSS works. He also emphasised on protection of Indian traditions,
specifically Hindu religion and traditions, by creating awareness among the
people through different programmes, sources said. The Sarasanghachalak
conducted internal meetings with 200-300 Sangh members at Utkal Bipanna
Sahayata Sammiti in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday.
Editorial
FEDERAL FRONT
Sangh Parivar vs
Janata Parivar
Year 2014 has significantly changed the
political scenario of the country. Parties and individuals who were secured in
their respective bastions suddenly saw that their magic was fading. The Lok
Sabha results came as a shock to most of the non-BJP parties. In the light of
the Congress party’s inability to lead the Opposition the move to bring all
Janata Dal Parivar under one fold is a welcome development.
The emergence of Narendra Modi at the
national scene and his aggressive campaigning on economic issues combined with
“Hindutva agenda of the RSS” forced them to accelerate the process of reworking
their strategy. Six parties of the Janata Parivar are all set to merge in
January to take on the BJP. Considering the performance of AIADMK, TMC and BJD
combine, which won 91 seats – as compared to Congress’s 44 – in the recent Lok
Sabha polls and its leadership’s call for unity of secular and anti-BJP/Cong forces the Janata Parivar should heed the
call for a Federal Front by Mamata Banerjee.
DAVID
GARTH STEWART: ‘He always hoped the best for people’
Roslyn
Namgyal says Rev. David Stewart, former Principal of Darjeeling’s Mt. Hermon
School, who passed away in Auckland (New Zealand) on December 12, 2014 at the
age of 91, was a man of immense compassion, dignity and courage who dedicated
his life to those whom he served.
In
her eulogy for her uncle - given at his funeral in Auckland on 16 December 2014
– Roslyn says David Stewart, apart from being a charismatic personality and a
towering intellect, was also a bit of a universalist at heart.
 |
| (L to R) Mr. Stewart with Roslyn, Heather and Sandra. |
"We have come today to mourn our loss
of this beloved man David Stewart. I speak today on behalf of his extended
family members who live in Australia and cannot be here. Heather, Michael,
Indira and Sherina; Sherab, Debbie, Daniel, and Marley; Danny, Ayesha and Nuri,
Becky and Lochie. John and Wendy Williamson, Graham and Annette Williamson, and
Alan and Wendy Williamson and all of their families. It is, however, lovely to
have Jennie, my daughter here with us today from Fiji.
The first thing I want to say about my
Uncle David was that he was brother, father and grandfather to many more than
just those of us privileged to have been born into his family. Today I speak to
many of you here. I want to acknowledge how much you enriched his life – from
his childhood, from the mission field, Mount Hermon School in India, the Bible
College of NZ – later Laidlaw College, friends and brothers from his prison
ministry, and others who have come into his life over the years. At this point
I do want to make special mention of you, Darcy, and his church family here in
Henderson Baptist. You have been the community that has faithfully and lovingly
stood by him through the good as well as the bad, and often exasperating times
for the past 50 years. You have been with him right to the end of his life. We
want you to know how grateful we are for your love and care of Uncle especially
in these later years through declining health and the loss of his beloved
Dorothy and his son, John.
Although an imposing man physically,
possessing both a charismatic personality and a towering intellect, my Uncle
David was to me quintessentially simple and uncomplicated at heart. As a child
I had a much loved Christopher Robin book complete with the little ink drawings
by E. Shepherd. In my child's mind it was always quite clear to me that Uncle
David and Pooh Bear were interchangeable. My favourite pictures were those of
Pooh and Piglet holding hands and ambling along the road talking, or the one
where Pooh braves the brunt of the wind for little Piglet. In many ways I think
my childish perception was remarkably correct. David has always held out a hand
to us when we have found ourselves small, weak, vulnerable and marginilised,
and drawn us into his larger than usual orbit of life. He was Safe, loveable,
present, kind. He was fun and funny - a good listener and always sharing what
he had. He hated seeing people left out - and of course he also loved honey.
The one thing I got totally wrong was the size of his brain - he was most
certainly not a bear of small brain!
Hospitality and generosity were hallmarks
of his life, but I cannot talk of this without mentioning his beautiful wife
Dorothy, his sisters Joy Rongong and Heather Williamson and his brothers in law
- Gyanendra Rongong and David Williamson. As children, we in the family, grew
up with the expectation that people were only ever strangers for an instant.
Invariably they would become companions at the dinner table and very often
guests in the home as well. These encounters always brought joy and interest. They expanded our horizons and remain one of
the most treasured legacies these elders in our family leave us. Most recently,
while he was bed-ridden, I read him emails and letters from people all over the
world who remember him sharing his money with them, bringing them home with
him, advocating for them or simply listening to them and hearing what they were
saying. It's testimony to the man that quite often he’d forgotten he’d ever
done these things.
 |
| David Stewart with wife Dorothy (file pix) |
Uncle was always learning- right to the
end. A word he loved to use was cogitate, which means to reflect upon, think
deeply about and mull over. On his death bed he received a phone call from a
nephew who talked about Asperger's syndrome. After the call he asked Darcy and
me if we knew about it and what it was.....Sick as he was, I saw him cogitating
as he lay there after our little conversation.
David was also gentle with those in pain -
and for me this became most noticeable after his own brush with death in 1987
after his massive stroke. He would become so choked up it caused rather
extended periods of uncomfortable silence for his listeners. However, I also
noticed that his tears never seemed to be for himself- in any form of self
pity- but were evidence of the depth of his feeling of compassion for the
other. Stories relating to forgiveness, compassion, restitution and healing are
the ones that would stop him short. I am no Biblical scholar, and I am quite
happy to be corrected after the service, but I believe that the Hebrew word for
compassion isn't just a kindly thought or attitude, but describes a visceral
feeling experienced in one’s body - not dissimilar to the protective feeling
and love one feels towards an unborn child. I believe David grew in his depth
of understanding the other person’s physical, emotional and spiritual pain
after his own stroke and it moved him profoundly. His ability and willingness
to stand alongside the other person in their pain and weakness is to me one of
the things I have most loved and admired about him.
David loved camping and the outdoors – but
his secret passion was fishing. Initially, as a naïve 18 year old, I joined
Uncle and 8 year old John in a little dinghy, but sea sickness and uncle’s
never ending resolve to catch something – anything, put paid to any joy in the
ventures! I do remember once that he was absolutely determined to catch a huge
fish, and popped the appropriately sized bait on a large hook, stood up in the
dinghy and cast it. There was a squawk as a bird dived for the bait, and the
next thing we knew he had caught a very large, very cranky albatross by its
wing.
David
was fun loving and filled with the joy of life right to the very end. He could
laugh - with that dry sense of humour sweeping us up into his bad jokes - for
almost for as long as he could talk. One morning after he'd started to have
trouble swallowing, I came in and brightly asked if he'd had breakfast. He
replied somewhat dryly with a twinkle in his eye - " I've had a spoonful
of porridge, half a glass of milk, and lots of spittle."
David was always breaking boundaries, and
skating close to the wind taking risks. This was never more evident than behind
the wheel of a car. My personal experiences include - being in a Jeep stuck on
tea bushes in Darjeeling above a hairpin bend with a chasm of 100 feet or so
just under our airborne front wheels; a cow lying on the bonnet of the jeep
with its horn through the windshield ; being stopped by cops in Auckland for
speeding on our way to church where he was the speaker and we were already
late....and so the litany continues. The family heaved a collective sigh of
relief when Uncle’s driving career came to an undignified end in a final prang
outside Waitakere hospital.
However he also took on risks and
challenges in other life matters and stood beside people who had to make
difficult challenging decisions themselves. Against much cautionary advice from
the missionary community in India, he encouraged his sister, my mother, to
embark on a marriage with a man from a different culture, years younger than
her, and with the physical handicap of blindness. For this, my own sister
Heather and I (and I’m sure our families) are profoundly grateful!
He and Dorothy took us, his two nieces into
his already full home for a total period of 8 years (probably without
consulting their two sons)! And today I’d like to say to you, young David -
never once were we made to feel that it wasn't our home too. You and John are
the brothers we never had – and you were the most beloved sons of David and
Dorothy. You both brought such joy to them. They were so proud of you – of your
individuality and differences, of your achievements and the wonderful men you
became. It goes without saying that that same love flowed through to your
families – to Sue and Jude and to David and Kristina, Mark and Casey, Chloe,
Jack and Joshua.
David rose to the heart-breaking challenge
of trying to support and take care of Dorothy in her long battle with
Alzheimer's, and most recently he took on the challenge of dying - and dying
well. He did this, as he did most other things, with grace, dignity and courage
and without a shred of bitterness or anger.
While, as you know, he did have extremely
comprehensive answers for many of life's questions, in later years I found
Uncle to have a much deeper capacity to acknowledge the mysterious, and
serendipitous. His iconic phrase "Ah well....." Could mean either he
was ending the conversation, or he'd come to a point where there were no black
and white certainties, and he really had nothing more to add... This seemed to
apply especially to those situations where people may have found themselves
excluded, or left out. He always hoped the best for people - sometimes
exasperatingly so - sometimes long after they had stopped having any hope for
themselves. He embodied for me verse 7 from 1 Corinthians 13 – “love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never
ends”. Dare I say that one of the really precious things he said to me during
these last 7 weeks was that he felt that deep down he was a bit of a
Universalist at heart. He could not believe that any one - any one at all -
could be lost or left outside the love, grace and mercy of God.
Uncle David - in your life you Walked the
Talk. You loved The Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and
strength, and you loved your neighbour as yourself.
You did this - and we witnessed it.....What
a legacy!! "
Sikkim Hermonites pay rich tributes to former Mount
Hermon School Principal
(L to R) Jigme N Kazi, Arthur Pazo, Raaj Bangar, Punam
Agarwal, Uttam Pradhan, NK Pradhan, Tempo Bhutia, Udai P Sharma, Ram Gopal
Pradhan, Shuva Pradhan and OT Bhutia. (Pix by Tashi RN Kazi)
Gangtok,
Dec 29: Sikkim Hermonites paid rich tributes to
their former Principal Rev David Garth Stewart, who passed away peacefully in
Auckland, New Zealand, on December 12, 2014.
At a condolence meeting held in Gangtok
(Sikkim) on December 16, 2014, grateful Hermonites, alumni of Darjeeling’s Mt.
Hermon School (founded in 1895), said
Rev. Stewart who passed away at the age of 91 was a ‘man of God’ , whose
dedication and commitment to the school when he was its Principal (1953-1963)
raised the standard of the school and
brought it to becoming the best boarding school in India in 1961-62.
Former Minister and senior Hermonite NK Pradhan said Rev Stewart was not only a
towering personality, a great orator, but cared for each and every individual
in the school. “We are what we are because of MH (Mt. Hermon) and we are
grateful to Mr. Stewart for his love, affection and care.”
Reading from the Bible (Psalm 23), Jigme N
Kazi, President of Hermonite International, said Rev Stewart, like King David
in the Bible, was a “man after God’s own heart”.
Kazi, who also taught in MH, said, “God
sent him to MH in the 1950s when the school was floundering and by the time he
left it in 1963 our school was adjudged the best boarding school in India.” He
added, “If we as Hermonites have contributed anything significant to society it
is because we have been touched by this mighty man of God.”
 |
| Uttam Pradhan |
Arthur Pazo, grandson of Gangtoks Pastor,
Late CT Pazo, and Ram Gopal Pradhan prayed for the departed soul while Udai P.
Sharma and Sikkim Hermonite Association (SHA) Vice-President Uttam K Pradhan
also spoke on the occasion.
Among those present during the condolence
meeting, where a two-minute silence was also observed, were Tempo Bhutia, Raaj
Kumar Bangar, Punam Agarwal, OT Bhutia and Shuva Pradhan.
SHA President Karma Bhutia attended the
funeral service in Auckland on December 16.
A Tribute
Rev. DG Stewart: A Man After God’s Own Heart
By Jigme N. Kazi
“Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord for ever”. (Psalm: 23)
“Jigme, Can you
tell me anything about the present situation?
I seem bereft of information. I
heard an indirect report that the school had started again this year, but with
only 100 boarders, and that it was deeply in debt.”
This is what Mr.
Stewart wrote to me on June 27, 2012 in my email. He was concerned about Mt.
Hermon (MH) thereafter, too, and perhaps till the very end.
 |
| Jigme N Kazi |
I am happy and
proud of the fact that I was in MH in class 2 during his last year as Principal
in 1963. I believe it was him or Mr. Murray who asked me, “Do you like the
school?” when I entered the school building for the first time in 1963 from the
front porch. I said, “Yes.”
And for 16 short
years (1963-1972 – student (1974-1975 – TTC) and (1976-1979 – teacher) I lived
in MH and had a good time. I am a part of MH and MH is a part of me.
I remember him as a
football referee – he was very strict – and when he used to come to the school
dining room to announce the name of the Saturday night movie. When he used to
say, “And the movie is technicolour” he used to get a loud applause from us.
Those days most of the movies were black & white.
When Mr. Stewart
visited MH in the latter part of 1970s he spoke about the need to have men and
women of ‘integrity’ in today’s world in the school chapel. He was a great
speaker and he spoke with much conviction.
I spent more time
with him when he came for the school’s centenary celebrations in 1995. Mr.
Stewart, along with other former teachers and students, wanted the school
Managing Committee to seek induction of Hermonites in the Committee to help the
school to forge ahead.
Thereafter, we kept
in touch with each other till the very end.
The main school building with Stewart Building (left)
When I think of Mr.
Stewart I often compare him with King David of the Old Testament. Like the
warrior-king of Israel Mr. David Stewart, too, was “a man after God’s own
heart”.
God sent him to MH
in the 1950s when the school was floundering and by the time he left it in 1963
our school was adjudged the best boarding school in India.
If we as Hermonites
have contributed anything significant to society it is because we have been
touched by this mighty man of God.
 |
| Arthur Pazo |
 |
| Udai P. Sharma |
 |
| Ram Gopal Pradhan |
 |
| Narendra K. Pradhan |
