Opening Nathu La a big mistake: Sikkim leader

Dr Manmohan Singh's government may have gone over board and claimed credit for opening the trade route between India and China through Nathu La Pass, but former Sikkim chief minister Nar Bahadhur Bhandari feels otherwise.

Bhandari, the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee president, described the United Progressive Alliance government's first step towards normalising relations between India and China as a national security risk. He went on to give the credit for opening the route to Pawan Chamling's Sikkim Democratic Front government.

"Nathu La Pass is a security threat and it is being opened as a fancy for Pawan Chamling at the cost of national security," he told media persons in New Delhi. 

Opening the route was not benefiting the local traders since export import licenses could not be procured in Sikkim, Bhandari claimed, adding: "I have written to President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi against the decision."

The leader sought a CBI probe against Chamling, who he claimed had amassed huge wealth and spent money to lay roads leading right up to his residences all over the state. He also alleged that Chamling had a Nepal connection since he had granted land to the Chaudhary group of Nepal and Akshay Ispat group.

Bhandari alleged that several cases were pending against Chamling in the Supreme Court. He distributed copies of magazine titled Sikkim Pradesh Congress Sandesh to prove his allegations.