Bhaichung Bhutia ready with Hamro Sikkim for 2019 elections

India’s iconic football player Bhaichung Bhutia’s political party, Harmo Sikkim, which got formally registered with the Election Commission in the last week of November, hopes to set an example in national politics with its unique constitution and its novel approach to politics. Speaking exclusively to Frontline , Bhutia, the former captain of the national football team, said, “We are essentially a very different kind of political party not just in comparison with other political parties in Sikkim, but also the rest of India. What sets us apart immediately is our party constitution, which lays down that nobody gets more than two terms in office—whether one is elected an MP, MLA, or party president. Another change we wish to bring about in Sikkim is to transform the present panchayat system, which is dominated by political parties, to the way it was conceived by Mahatma Gandhi. It has to be completely controlled by the villages and not by political parties.”

Bhaichung feels that if he has to make a mark in politics it will have to be from where he hails. He had contested unsuccessfully on the Trinamool Congress ticket from Siliguri in the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal. “I was seen more as a star in West Bengal, and even people within Trinamool saw me as an outsider, which is quite justified as I really could not give too much time to party work in West Bengal as I was living somewhere else. That is why I wanted to start my own political party in Sikkim, and Sikkim has many issues that need to be addressed,” said Bhutia.

One of the main issues in Sikkim that Bhutia’s party intends to address is corruption. “One of the biggest challenges in Sikkim is the rampant corruption that is prevalent today. Corruption affects society at large. Today we have one of the highest suicide rates in Sikkim. It is the younger generation that is committing suicide. In 2016, the unemployment rate in Sikkim was among the highest in the country,” he said.

Besides fighting corruption, conservation of forest and nature, preservation of Sikkim’s culture and development at the grass-roots level are among the top priorities of Hamro Sikkim. “In the name of development, the SDF (Sikkim Democratic Front) government has been selling off everything. We need to preserve our forests and our lakes for our future generations,” said Bhutia and alleged that agricultural land in the State had been reduced by 50 per cent under Chief Minister Pawan Chamling’s government. “Chamling claims that Sikkim is an organic state, something that we all desired, and at the same time he has brought down agricultural land from 14 per cent [of the total land] to 7 per cent, and foodgrain production has come down by 65 per cent,” he said.

Targeting Pawan Chamling’s stint as the longest serving Chief Minister in the country, Bhutia said, “Remaining Chief Minister for 25 consecutive years is a great achievement, but the bigger question is, what have you done in these 25 years? You have brought Sikkim into huge debt, there has been very little developmental work done at the rural level in terms of infrastructure building and health services, and in the last 25 years you have not been able to make Sikkim self-reliant. We are still dependent on funds from the Centre.”

With his focus now on the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections  in Sikkim, Bhutia is already in talks with regional as well as national political parties to take on the SDF. “We are looking at entering into a coalition with any party or parties interested in working for the betterment of Sikkim,” he said.