Open letter to K.P Sharma Oli

Dear UML Leader Oli,

This is in response to a news report Thimphu is nearer from New York: Oli published in the esteemed media Bhutan News Service . You have expressed that all the Bhutanese refugees from the UN-administered camp should opt for the ongoing third country resettlement program, claiming that the refugees would have a secure future in western countries where children get access to better education. However, you didn’t remember to acknowledge that it is due to Nepal’s failure that these innocent Bhutanese are compelled to choose resettlement when yourself and the governments of different parties failed to convince Bhutan to accept citizens back home with dignity and honor.

Nepal has to admit that it has always landed nowhere in convincing the Bhutanese dictator in Thimphu and Indian authority to materialize the long dream of exiled Bhutanese to get back to their hometowns. The international community clearly knows this and you should always admit this fact.

Nepal, which has been undergoing through political instability since a long time, paid insufficient attention towards the suffering of over 100,000 Bhutanese, who were driven out of their villages applying various tactics including the Marshal Law. Thousands were made to undergo through unbearable turmoil inside the country that compelled them to abandon everything and move to Nepal for shelter and security.

The king and policy makers in Bhutan do not need any better jokers than Nepali politicians to look at and laugh. To be specific here, politicians like Sher Bahadur Deuba did a blunder by agreeing to opt four categories of refugees in the camp. And, this was not a free service. Several know the reality behind the scene where Deuba received a golden knife weighing over a kilogram as a precious gift from the former king Jigme Singye Wangchhuk. Lavish foreign drinks, dinner and few Nepali dances and songs by Tshering Wangda (a well known male prostitute) were other convincing assets which still stand as great evidences for then Home Minister of Nepal, thanks to his contribution for daring to classify citizens who have a history of over 400 years in Bhutan.

Nepalese newspapers quoted you and your delegation to Bhutan in several instances where you vowed to settle the longstanding refugee stalemate in the past. Indeed, that has become a history for them now. The refugees have understood your caliber. You may still regard that the Bhutanese autocrat and his loyal servants did not violate rights of ethnic southern Bhutanese. Therefore, I don’t find anything that the remaining refugees in the camps should follow you. What can the refugees expect more than this from Nepal and leaders like you?

The Indian interest, political instability and frequent changes in the government in your country are the key factors that propelled the refugee situation to the present stage. The resettlement has changed over dynamics of the Bhutanese refugee scenario. Those who have already reached countries like America and Australia may not wish to get back even if Bhutan becomes willing to accept them back. But, what is the guarantee that Bhutan will change its mentality in future by expressing desire to allow its citizens return home, both from camps in Nepal and resettlement countries? And, if that ever happens, returning to Bhutan will be a direct fight among citizens since it is likely that the regime would intricate communal fights among Lhotshampas. The past has revealed this to a greater extent where the King and his royals tried planning communal disharmony, thanks to Bhutanese common people for understanding the ploy.

Having betrayed by the ruthless rulers of their own country, the resettled friends should now look towards building own community and exercise in the best level to be true citizens of the respective countries. I know they are hardworking people. Infrastructure developments that had carried out in Bhutan prove this reality. Indeed, the regime used them for constructions of road, schools, hospitals and the alike, and threw them out when they were not needed.

As you have claimed, it is true that at least a few dozens of refugee students have been enrolled in good colleges and universities. In Nepal, they were never allowed to sit for free competition, even for pursuing educations. The system is different in western countries where everyone has equal opportunities. The fellow countrymen, who were deprived of right to property in your country, have now bought their own houses, and over 500 must have been enjoying this right. Leader like you could have advocated for entertaining those rights to refugees when Nepal expressed generosity to host them for almost two decades. Did you ever try? Instead, your people chose to warehouse refugees and even attempted to make them means of cheap bargaining for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its implementing partners.

However, the refugees shall ever remain thankful to the Nepalese government for providing them with travel documents, although it is just a single paper. If this process continues, thousands of refugees still wish to have a place called home in America or elsewhere, and drive luxurious cars like Mercedes and Ferrari. You should also know that some of your people from Damak are jealous of this and have been pressing the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to even accept them for resettlement.

Lastly, however, I must thank late Girija P Koirala who gave shelter to thousands of Bhutanese refugees. You may have known the idea was to expel the southerners in future was generated by then Bhutanese king Jigme Singye Wangchhuk’s dearest friend Rajiv Gandi in one of Bumthang camp. Some insignificant incidents that occurred in Kathmandu during his visit to Nepal along with wife Sonia Gandhi made him unhappy. There was also the issue of Gorkhaland at height. He vowed not to allow the Nepalis from Bhutan to stay in India. So, they will go to Nepal and culturally assimilate with locals as they do like thousands coming from Assam and Manipur. If Girija P Koirala had not called UNHCR and allowed refugees to build camps, the stories of Bhutanese Nepali today would have been like the one of Assamese and Manipuri Nepali origins which India throws in thousands every year.

Before I wrap up, let me ask you if you really feel that resettled people would still wish to get repatriated to see and face the same atrocities prevailing in the country?

Thanking you in anticipation,

A.R Chhetri
United States of America