A few days after his party’s victory in the primary, I chatted briefly with the outgoing Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley via his Facebook page. Responding to my query about his party’s position on the refugee issue, he said, “It is a humanitarian problem that must be resolved in ways that are dignified and durable for the people in the camps.”
The few positive changes following the first general election in 2008 should not be seen as a sign that Bhutan is heading to fully-fledged democracy.
As long as the country continues to sideline the refugee issue, those in the Diaspora are likely to continue to question the legitimacy of moves toward democratic change in their home country.
Click here to read the full article by TP Mishra, contributing editor of BNS, which originally was published by The Global Post.
