“My dad served as a British Gurkha soldier for 27 years, but received a pension only for 14 years of service due to an unfair pension scheme,” Lex Limbu, son of a Gurkha veteran, wrote on Twitter, highlighting the British Army’s unequal treatment of the Gurka soldiers. “That is 13 years of service lost, he retired in 2006 and there is so much that is not right.”

Gyanraj Rai and Dhan Bahadur Gurung, two former Gurkhas from the British Army, and Pushpa Ghale Rana, widow of a Gurkha, have been staging a hunger strike outside Downing Street, where the office of the British prime minister is situated, in London, demanding pensions and other benefits on par with other British Army soldiers.

Saturday was the eighth day of the hunger strike.

The strike has attracted considerable attention from the media, and the opposition Labour Party of the United Kingdom has expressed its support to the retired British Gurkha soldiers’ cause but the Nepal government’s silence on the matter has been conspicuous.

“The position of the government of Nepal is not clear,” Rai told the Post over the phone from London. “The Nepali ambassador to the United Kingdom comes and listens to our grievances but there has been no concrete development to address our demands.”

Former chief secretary Lokdarshan Regmi is the ambassador to the United Kingdom.

“There must be a dialogue and agreement between the Nepal and British governments on our issue over the pension parity,” Rai said. “We do not agree to the pension and other perks as per the agreement between British and Indian governments over 70 years back.”

After the independence of India, the recruitment of Gurkha soldiers was organised on the basis of a 1947 tripartite agreement among Nepal, India and Britain. The agreement also paved the way for the distribution between India and Britain of existing Gurkha brigades serving in British India. Thus, the 2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th Gurkha Rifles became part of the British Army while the rest were retained by independent India.

The tripartite pact assures that all perks, remuneration, benefits and pension schemes for Nepalis serving in the British and Indian armies will be equal to those of British and Indian nationals. However, Gurkha veterans have long alleged that Britain has discriminatory policies in remuneration.

“The Gurkha Pension Scheme was based on Indian Army rates for those with at least 15 years' service in the British Army. This needs to change,” Rai said.

Sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Post that the ministry on August 6 wrote to the British government offering talks to resolve the issue once and for all.

“We have also urged the agitating Gurkhas to stop all protest activities in order to create an atmosphere for holding talks,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told the Post on condition of anonymity.

Although Gurkhas who retired after 2007 are getting pension and other perks on par with other British Army personnel, the problem is with regard to those who retired before 2007. Their number is above 8,000. The disparity and difference is over 300 percent, according to Gurkha Satyagraha United Struggle Committee, the organiser of the hunger strike.

“This issue is tough because if the British authorities ensure pension parity for the Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997, then this would apply to everyone serving in other British services,” a Nepali diplomat who has been involved in several rounds of talks with British officials told the Post on condition of anonymity.

“The parity in pension for Gurkhas will create a huge disruption to their system. If others also seek the same benefits within the UK, then it is going to be a huge financial burden on the British government.”

“So I hardly see this being addressed by the British side.”

The British government had given word that those who retired after 1997 would get pension on par with other British Army personnel but this has not happened.

Another point British officials have raised in the talks with the Nepali side is that Gurkhas need to serve only 15 years before they can retire.

“After their retirement at the age of 32 to 35 on an average, they again go to serve in Singapore, Hong Kong, Brunei [which recruit former British Army personnel in their security services] and other countries. Therefore, they are adequately compensated,” the diplomat said.

“But British citizens don’t have this luxury and they have to serve the complete term of at least 22 years before they can retire with a pension. The British argue how can the pension be equal for the people who served for 15 and 22 years?”

According to the Gurkha Satyagraha United Struggle Committee, over 25,000 pensioners who retired before July 1, 2007 were deprived of equal pensions but that number has now come down to around 8,000 as the rest have passed away.

“For how many years do we have to struggle?” said Rai.

On Friday, nine British Members of Parliament led by Virendra Sharma, chair, All Party Group, Nepal wrote a letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and asked him to meet Rai, Gurung and Ghale and discuss their concerns and the concerns of the thousands of the veterans and tens of thousands that support their strike.

After completing a 17-day-long relay strike without any hearing from the British government, the Gurkha veterans and their families had started the hunger strike on August 7.

Chairman of the Committee Krishna Ruchhenbung Rai told the Post from London that Nepal’s prime minister should intervene in their case.

“We wrote to the British prime minister in the first week of May about the delay in implementing the tripartite report submitted by representatives of the Nepal and British governments and Gurkha veterans in March 2018,” he said.

The report suggested both governments form a committee for dialogue between Nepal and the British governments to address the demands of the British ex-Gurkha veterans for equal pension.

With the health condition of the three on hunger strike deteriorating day by day, the Nepal and British governments should form a dialogue team as soon as possible to resolve the issue, he said.

Apart from equal pension rights, the Gurkha veterans have been demanding equal pay and perks, free health care and equal compensations, residency for family members of Gurkha soldiers and equal pension to the widows of Gurkha soldiers who died during service.

To show the disparity over equal pension, Rai, 63, who joined the British Army at the age of 17, in a recent interview with the BBC, said that he used to receive only £47 a month in pension, whereas a British veteran got over £800 a month.

At the time of retirement, Rai received a lump sum of £3,000, compared to £60,000 to £70,000 a British veteran got. At present, Rai receives a monthly pension of £350, while a British ex-soldier of the same rank receives £1,200 to £1,300.

According to him, some attempts are being made to reach an agreement between the agitating Gurkhas and the British government by increasing some of the pension amount but they will refuse the offer.

Spokesperson of the Committee S B Ghishing said they have informed all major political parties, parliamentarians, parliamentary committees, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal and the British Embassy in Kathmandu about their hunger strike.

The International Relations Committee of Parliament on Monday instructed the government to form a high-level team to hold diplomatic talks with the British government.

“The veterans are all set to march in London today and tomorrow. We have received rousing support and solidarity across the globe and inside the United Kingdom but why is the Nepal government keeping mum?” said Rai from London on Saturday.

“The time has come for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to call up the British prime minister directly in order to resolve this issue permanently by forming the talks team.”