Former Sikkim CM Pawan Chamling Honored in Nepal's Kathmandu

Gangtok, January 16, 2020:

Former Chief Minister of Sikkim Pawan Chamling has been honored with the Kiraya Yalamber Smriti Samman in Nepal’s Kathmandu.

Chamling was felicitated as a family member of the Kirat Rai Yayokha, a social organisation of the Kirat Rai ethnic group in Nepal that believes in maintaining social integrity and acquiring equality and justice.

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The Samman was bestowed on him for he underlined that despite political boundaries between Sikkim and Nepal, the people of the two countries are united by history, language, culture, tradition and similar struggles.

It may be mentioned here that the Kirat Rai Yayokha aims to protect, preserve and promote distinct social and cultural identity and linguistic diversity of ethnic groups and it has honored the Sikkim CM for staying true to the ideals.

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While expressing his heartfelt gratitude, Chamling said that he visited Nepal to pay his respects to his fatherland. “I am still in active politics. I, however do not have any political objective in coming here”, he said.

Reflecting on Sikkim’s development under his leadership, Chamling said that as longest serving Chief Minister, he has contributed to the recognition of the identity of the Nepalese. He also touched upon how Sikkim under the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) government had initiated projects like ‘Char Dhaam’ (Siddheswar Dham) which is unique in India and which bagged the most innovative project award by the government of India.

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The SDF leader also Highlighted ‘Visit Nepal 2020’ initiative and said that local cuisines must be promoted. He especially highlighted the relations between India and Nepal and the need to strengthen the relationship. He informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to solidify the Indo-Nepal relation is strengthened by his personal visit to Nepal in 2019, and stressed that all the Indian Nepali and the Nepali citizens must work together to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

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