Gurkhas campaign for full pension as Lumley visits Nepal
Updated
The British actress Joanna Lumley has been mobbed on her arrival in Kathmandu by hundreds of Gurkha war veterans and their families.
Joanna Lumley, who is 63 years of age, helped secure the war veterans the right to settle in the United Kingdom by directly lobbying the British government. But her work may not be over as the Gurkhas begin round two in their fight for equal pensions.
Presenter: Claudette Werden
Speakers: Krishna Kumar Rai, Gurkha veteran, Nepal; Joanna Lumley, British actress and activist; Gopal Siwakoti 'Chintan', legal advisor, Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen's Organisation, Nepal
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WERDEN: They waited for hours to see her, carrying offerings of flowers and silk scarves.
Some held banners with the words 'Goddess Joanna', while other banners simply read 'thank you'.
Gurkha veteran, Krishna Kumar Rai, told the waiting media the country had adopted Joanna Lumley.
RAI: Today is a great day for the Gurkha veterans because she fought for us. We have just given the name to Joanna Lumley - she is a daughter of Nepal.
WERDEN: In return, the 63 year old actress turned activist recited the soldiers' traditional battle cry and was met by rapturous applause.
LUMLEY: I am coming to Nepal for the first time. I want to thank you so much. I want to say in the time honoured cry, Ayo Gurkhali!
WERDEN: Joanna Lumley is now regarded as the face of the gurkhas' campaign to be granted residency in Britain. Lumley says she was drawn to the cause because her father fought alongside Gurkha soldiers in World War Two. Nepalese soldiers have fought for the British army for almost 200 years. But it was only in May of this year that the British Government gave thousands of Gurkhas the automatic right to settle in Britain.
CHINTAN: Her involvement in this campaign, the Gurkha rights campaign, has given a very big profile in her country.
WERDEN: Gopal Siwakoti Chintan is a legal advisor to the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen's Organisation.
CHINTAN: We need people like Joanna to help convince the public that the Gurkhas deserve the right treatment
WERDEN: Chintan says the Gurkha struggle is not over and he hopes Joanna Lumley will be persuaded to go in for round two. The Gurkhas have served Britain with distinction since 1815. Currently, there are 3,700 Gurkhas serving with the British Army in places like Afghanistan, but they are paid much less than their British colleagues. And their retirement pensions are also calculated at a much lower rate, making it more difficult for the veterans and their families to live in the UK - even despite their newly won resettlement rights.
CHINTAN: There is this so-called tripartite agreement, a colonial type agreement, and the British government unfortunately is still trying to rely on that document, and that document says the Gurkhas, even in the British Army and Britain will have to be treated according to Indian soldiers at the Indian pension rate, which is not fair after 50 or 60 years of all these developments in the field of human rights and equality. But this is the tragedy - let's look at the Gurkhas who are still in British army - if a Gurkha retires today he is not going to get the British pension, although he's going to retire there, he's going to be settled there with his family, he will not be coming to Nepal, and his pension rate is given according to the Indian rate and that in Nepali rupees, so for a normal rifleman at a rank of Gurkha, he will get 130-150 pounds a month when the same rank of British soldier will have more than 500 to 800 pounds of monthly pension.
WERDEN: And is Joanna Lumley prepared to take on your cause again?
CHINTAN: That's what we are trying to convince her and persuade her and that's one of the reasons she is in Nepal. She is visiting with the president, the prime minister, the foreign minister, she is travelling to the east of Nepal to meet all the Gurkhas, including the place called Dharan, where the first Gurkha recruitment had taken place in history. I'm also travelling with her to the east of Nepal, so these are the things we are going to tell her, have her meet the Gurkhas, so hopefully she will.
