NEW DELHI, NOV 6: In an unprecedented step, Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has asked the Centre to deploy forces to check possible violence due to ``vicious anti-national propaganda'' by his political rival.Chamling has sent a letter to Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta saying that he apprehends unrest due to the ``upsurge of anti-India sentiments being fanned by vested political interests.''The letter names the Opposition Sikkim Sangram Parishad and its leader Nar Bahadur Bhandari as ``trying their best to destabilise the government by raising issues which while being emotive in character and content have strong anti-national and anti-merger overtones.''Copies of the letter have also been sent to Prime Minister IK Gujral and President KR Narayanan. Sources say the Home Ministry has asked Chamling for a detailed report on the situation there.The immediate provocation for the SSP, says Chamling, is the Sikkim Government's move to bring the state under the purview of the Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959. According to Chamling, this would enable people to get jobs in Central Government establishments situated in the State. Chamling alleges that Bhandari, his SSP and the Sikkim Ekta Manch, a newly formed party led by LP Tewari, have given this an ``anti-national twist'' by claiming that the State Government's move undermines the special status enjoyed by Sikkim under Article 371 F of the Constitution.There have been a series of SSP-sponsored bandhs and as of now, the State Government has decided to sit on the issue.``During the meetings addressed by the Opposition, the statements made by Bandari and Thukchuk Lachungpa (vice-president, Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee) had very strong anti-merger and anti-national overtones. The demand was made that All India Service officers should be withdrawn from the state. It was falsely propagated that Sikkim's separate identity is being deliberately undermined by the Central Government in collusion with the Sikkim Government, that the future of the Sikkimese people has become dark,'' says Chamling.Chamling alleges that students and government servants have been paid off to join the SSP's agitation.
