My name is Kailash, an architect by profession. My family moved to Tadong, 6th mile from Development Area in 1980. I was 16. 6th mile was a ‘rural’ area then and my dad needed land to carry out his floriculture and horticulture activities.

44 years later, Gangtok is an unplanned urban sprawl that extends beyond Ranipool. Being trained as an architect, I have thought through possible solutions to our problems. Unfortunately a climate of collaboration does not exist and there is not much you can do about the situation at a professional level since decisions are made by the political bosses with their own agendas. Therefore, if politics is the only route to solve our urban problems and make the city better, then is that the path for me?

I've decided to contest the coming elections as a stepping up to shoulder responsibility. My constituency of choice is Upper Tadong. Not just because I live here, but as an architect with an eye for planning, there is a real possibility to bring design to inner neighborhoods and improve lives and the built environment.

I’m taking this campaign as an opportunity to explore innovative, yet viable and appropriate solutions that have the capacity to transform neighborhoods and improve the overall quality of life of the community. Upper Tadong is the perfect sample to prototype a pattern of development that is fresh and new. One that prioritizes human development as much as physical development and values democracy most of all.

If my profession is architecture, my religion is humanism. Democracy, that enshrines equality and freedom, is the highest form of humanism. How can true democratic culture seed in Upper Tadong where there is a clear process to understand and address the collective will of the people? I will reach out to talk and understand your pain points as well as anything you want to share.

Its been 3 years since the GMC elections. Those who remember it will understand when I say that it felt like we were planting seeds then. Many of those seeds sprouted. Some of us started a small civic organization called (baby) manch, which gestated for awhile.

There is a simmering discontent about the social, institutional, economic and environmental dismantling of Sikkim in front of our eyes and the naked use of state power to intimidate the people into coercion, epitomized by the Singtam incident. That seeded a silent desperation that pushed many of us out of our comfort zone to try and and find a way to course correct Sikkim’s trajectory. We seeked out and found allies who were value aligned but from diverse backgrounds and Manch was born.

We are convinced that the only way to good governance is to make a political intervention to get the right people as our political representatives. Conversely, without competent people with integrity, we cannot get to good governance.

For a place like Sikkim, where government is all encompassing, if the government is in a mess, Sikkim is in a mess. There's no safety net. The Government is meant to be the safety net. Its been painful to see Gangtok get out of hand and it hurts to see the high handed approach of the urban authorities towards solving our problems. A government that cannot see the potential opportunities that lie in solving our problems, cannot lead us to a better future.

I always felt and feel that Gangtok could be a great city and a wonderful place to live. We have the basic ingredients: comfortable climate, good water source, abundance of nature and peaceful people. What we need is imagination, integrity, critical thinking and capacity at the government level to put our house in order and emerge out of the bubble of mediocrity that reflects in the kind of city Gangtok is becoming.

My foray into politics is a desperate measure to somehow shake up if not break the status quo.

You may not know me but I know you. You may think that I dont, but at a fundamental level I do. You and me get our sense of belonging from the same place. Sikkim is home to both of us. That binds us together. Like how we don't get to choose our family, we don't get to choose where we are born and belong. We have to get along,  support one another, help the ones who need it, create a safe, happy and prosperous home. Just like a family.

50 years ago, power changed hands from the king to the people and we became a democracy. We took freedom, but we didn't take the responsibility of Sikkim’s safe keeping.. Maybe changes happened too suddenly and we lost our way. Becoming a democracy from a 300 year old monarchy and losing sovereignty to become a part of India simultaneously overnight was a lot to digest. But that, coupled by aggressive ‘development’ (generous central funding), created fertile conditions for corruption to take root, specially in a society just escaping the oppression of a feudal past.

Once money was discovered as a political tool, the bottom fell off and its been a free fall since. Without knowing, corruption has crept into our DNA. A morally compromised society cannot dream of a better future. Fear cannot be the normal (maybe in North Korea and China, but not in a democracy. Sorry).

A government and a mafia are not the same thing.

Perpetually living off central largess cannot be our development model.

Unless we understand that it is owning our problems and solving them that makes us self reliant and resilient, our evolution is stunted. Unless we also grow from the inside out, the present outside-in growth will steamroll us into oblivion.

Independent Candidate, Upper Tadong 2024