India stands firm to support junior Jigme by barring MPs (Update)

Siliguri (India), January 20: Forward Bloc General Secretary Debarata Biswas said "India, Nepal and Bhutan should jointly solve the problem of the Bhutanese in exile," reported Mohan Tamang who was coordinating the Indian MPs team from Siliguri to Jhapa.

The Indian authorities’ tried to stop the delegation in Bagdogra airport. However, Biswas refused them and headed to Nepal border.
The District Magistrate of Darjeeling Rajesh Pandey imposed curfew according to Section 144 criminal penal code along the border just to stop the delegates from moving ahead.

There was huge presence of Indian armed forces. There held a long debate. Finally, Biswas held press conference in Panitanki and regretted highhandedness of Indian government.

He said that he would take up the issue as a challenge in the parliament. He also said that India, being the immediate neighbor has inevitable role to play to resolve the problem peacefully for which he was in a mission.

He said that he would go back and tell authorities in Delhi that he would be moving once again to the camps by any means. He said that he was here to assess the situation of exiled Bhutanese as a member of Bhutan solidarity.

Heten Burman, Deep Sarkar, Ritish Bhatacrarya and Anand Swarup Verma were prominent leaders in the team. There were party collogues following them.

General Secretary of Group for International Solidarity Nepal Pramod Kafle was also in the team.

Indian force also barred Nepali media persons to attend the press meet.

Vice-President of Bhutan Peoples' Party Jagiman Lama reacted, "India's such act is just an attempt to foil repatriation process of exiled Bhutanese."  Lama was along with Tamang in the press conference. Bhutan News Service