By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : The Gurkhas did not go to the Foreigners’ Tribunal (FT) to prove their citizenship, ”said Sukhman Moktan, national president of the Gorkha Council of India.Addressing a delegation in Guwahati, Assam, Mokhtan said that a defamation suit can be filed against the Gorkha system. “It is an insult to the Gurkhas to be Indian in FT and we can file a defamation suit against the system for taking Gorkha citizenship and Nepali-speaking population to the FT courts,” he said. The Gorkha Council of India took a walking tour across Assam to meet the entire NRC victims and arbitrarily marked voters.Moktan said, “We met the NRC victims and marked the De Voters and their descendants, whose citizenship has been challenged and are being directed to go to the FT as per NRC guidelines, while recently the Ministry of Home Affairs ‘S notification exempts Gurkhas.

” He alleged that this was an attempt by some vested interests within the system to disrespect the Indian Gurkhas.The delegation included General Secretary Nirmal Kumar Pun, National Vice President Yama Prasad Ghimire, Bharatiya Gorkha Mahila Parishad, Women Wing President Dr. Poonam Subba and Program Secretary Mamta Lama and National Executive Member (NEM) Balram Thapa. Assam State BGP President, Nityananda Upadhyay said that if the state government does not act as per duty then the party will take the matter to the Supreme Court. He further said that they will ensure that Gurkhas are not taken to foreign tribunals.general secretary Nirmal Kumar Punah reiterated, “No Indian Gorkha should be left out of NRC.” It is noteworthy that the Gauhati High Court gave instructions to the Government of Assam. To file a fresh writ petition before the appropriate bench to legally enforce the MHA Notification BB / PK / SS Release ID 1549227 issued on October 10, 2018. However, the case remains to be registered.National vice-president, Yum Ghimire, said, “It has jeopardized the cases of thousands of Gurkhas who seek redress from the list of de-voters and for their names to be removed from the FT.” Assam Chief Secretary Alok Kumar has been requested to take appropriate steps to register a new case in the Gauhati High Court at the earliest so that the Gurkhas get justice.In a communication to the Assam government, the ministry said only those individuals, who have come to Assam from specified territories, including Bangladesh, immediately before commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985 and are not Indian citizens, can be referred to the foreigners tribunals to identify whether they are illegal immigrants or not. A senior home ministry official, however, made it clear that Nepalese citizens living in Assam are not eligible to be included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as well as in the electoral rolls.