Gorkhas seek apology for RJ Nitin’s comment on Tamang, want Centre to intervene

Aanchal Bansal
New Delhi, September 28 While violence broke out in Darjeeling over a radio jockey’s remarks about Indian Idol winner Prashant Tamang, leaders of Tamang’s Gorkha community in Delhi have asked Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi to intervene.
After Tamang won the contest on Sunday, RJ Nitin (also known as Ulta Pulta Nitin) casually remarked the next day that mall owners and shopkeepers would themselves have to guard their businesses by night.
“Everyone can put two and two together. His comments imply that all Gorkhas are chowkidaars or sell momos on the streets of Delhi,” said Dr Y P Shreshta, a businessman from the community who called up the RJ on hearing the comments. “I told him his comments were offensive and asked him to apologise. He said he wouldn’t and tried to clarify that Tamang was a cop, so all policemen would be celebrating after all.”
Said Dr Enos Das Pradhan, president of the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisan, Delhi, “The RJ’s remarks have hurt the sentiments of the community. The FM channel has refused to give a written apology.”
He said the apology was important and necessary. “The media is generally responsible for perpetuating this image by usually showing chowkidars as Gorkhas. We forget that Gorkhas are soldiers and there’s a regiment called the Gorkha Regiment.” Pradhan said that last year, too, another channel had described Gorkhas as chowkidars.
He said many Gorkhas, chiefly those who come to India from Nepal, do take up jobs as watchmen but there's no reason to perpetuate a stereotype about a community.
“The Gorkhas take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath. We happen to live in India and Nepal. By implying that Tamang is a Gurkha and therefore a chowkidar, the media is perpetuating a stereotype and ignoring the presence and contribution of over 1 crore people as an Indian community that happens to speak Nepalese,” says Pradhan. Over the last couple of days, the RJ's comments have sparked protests in the Nepali-dominated Kurseong and Kalimpong areas. On Friday, curfew was imposed in Siliguri after clashes broke out when people protesting the comments held up an ambulance taking a patient to hospital. Meanwhile, Tamang has appealed for peace.