Bhutan News Service

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Anonymous said...

The program on Bhutanese Nepali literature is laudable. The truth is that language is the source of wholesome development. If our language disappears, our culture and religion will also disappear, and with that disappears the source of development and eventually we all be disappeared. Thanks that few enlightened Lhotshampas promoted our language until the tyranny of the regime turned against them. I would like to mention here in short how much emphasis the Lhosthampas within Bhutan are giving to our language. I recall one of the five year plan meeting in Tongsa in 1992 that His Majesty the King told to the public tha: 'Lhotshamkha is a language of bahuns and chhetris alone and because their population is insignificant, it is not important continue the use of this language'. The king said this in response to the Tongsarpas demand that Lotshampas language of BBBS, Nepali Kuensel and interpretation in the National assembly be stopped. I was in the BBS responsible for broadcasting in the Nepali language. After this event tremendous discrimination, hate and disgust began against the Lhotshampa staff working for this language in the Media. The plot was to force us leave the job, find mistakes and halt the use of Nepali language in the media. But I became more concerned to preserve this language, at least in the media. Some of the colleagues responsible for Nepali kuensel stopped preparing the Newspaper as a protest against government's intention to close down. My opinion was to work even harder and keep it alive. To overcome the shortage of manpower in the Nepali section of Kuensel, I took the responsibility of filling one page, and thus did it by writing the epitome of Guru Padma Sambhava that ran in serial for about eight months.

Later in 2006 the kuensel corporation decided to seek the approval of the cabinet to stop the publication of Nepali Kuensel. Luckily I was informed by my colleagues there and began campaigning from The Netherlands. The Dutch ministry of foreign affairs fortunately took my appeal seriously and asked its embassy in New Delhi to pressurize Bhutanese embassy in Delhi to take up the matter to the king, ie not to stop the use of Nepali language in the media- BBS and Kuensel. I hope it is still continuing and pray that it should exist for ever. I request the Bhutani Nepali Bhasa Parisad to kindly try out your way to prevent government from stopping Nepali Kuensel and BBS Lhotshamp programs please.

With regards,
Nanda Gautam
Hilversum, The Netherlands
ibijournalist@yahoo.com

1:34 PM

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