With no response from the British Government to their request for dialogue on their grievances, Gurkha Satyagraha are pressing ahead with their action in London tomorrow, 21 July 2021.

They will assemble in Trafalgar Square from 11.00 am, then march to the Cenotaph in Whitehall for speeches, before returning to the Gurkha Statue opposite 10 Downing Street for the start of hunger strikes at 1.00 pm.

Yesterday, in Kathmandu, Gurkha Satyagraha met with the Foreign Minister of Nepal to request dialogue with the British Government on the Gurkha grievances, including Equal Pensions.

“I support the Gurkha Satyagraha action over the grievances that the British Government has failed to address,” said Councillor Alex Crawford, who represents Aldershot North Division on Hampshire County Council.

“Gurkha veterans are justified in protesting about the unfair way they have been treated over the years.

“However, the British Government has never given way to hunger strikes. For example, 40 years ago, 10 hunger strikers in Northern Ireland died, but the British Government did not grant any of their demands until the hunger strike was called off.

“There needs to be some way of addressing the Gurkhas’ grievances through dialogue and conciliation, so I hope that the Governments of the UK and Nepal can do so before good people die in a just cause.”