Former Gurkha Soldier Hands Over Memorandum To PM Oli

Kathmandu: Former Gurkha military organizations have handed over a memorandum to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli focusing on the problems of retired British Gurkha soldiers. The memorandum calls for the formation of a high-level dialogue committee to take a diplomatic initiative with the British government to address the 13-point report, including discussions held in the Joint Technical Committee of the organizations.

Similarly, it has been demanded to make public the correspondence, other information, and official opinion of the Government of Nepal regarding the ex-Gurkha soldiers. A day after the memorandum was sent to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Bhupu Gurkha Military Organization and the NRNA Gurkha Department also sent a joint memorandum to Prime Minister Oli.

The memorandum was handed over to the Nepali Embassy in London on Wednesday morning in the presence of representatives of various Gurkha organizations. At the handover ceremony, Dharma Tamang, acting president of GESSO, an organization of ex-Gurkha soldiers, said that Nepal has historical ties with the UK but GESSO has been running the movement for more than three decades as discrimination against ex-Gurkha soldiers persists.

Understanding the memorandum, Nepal's Ambassador to the UK Lokdarshan Regmi said that the issue of retired Gurkha soldiers was a priority of the Government of Nepal and that he had given priority to this issue as soon as he became the Ambassador to the UK.