Under pressure from Delhi, the Sikkimese King was forced to hold tripartite talks with SNC and India. The talks not only curtailed royal powers, it also turned Sikkim into Indian ‘Protectorate.’ In the elections held in 1974, Lhendup’s SNC got overwhelming majority in the parliament. The government and the king saw each other as enemies. Ultimately, the cabinet meeting, on 27th March 1975, decided to abolish monarchy. The Sikkimese parliament endorsed it and decided to hold a referendum on the future of monarchy. Four days later, the outcome of the poll in 57 stations across the country was: ‘Abolition of the monarchy.’
In an interview, then Agriculture Minister of Sikkim KC Pradhan recalled that the referendum was nothing but a charade. “Indian soldiers rigged the polls by pointing rifles at the hapless voters,” he said. Immediately after the referendum, Kazi Lhendup moved a motion in the parliament proposing that Sikkim be annexed to India. The 32 member parliament, which had 31 memberrs from Lhendup’s SNC- passed the motion without a blink. Needless to say that the entire episode was being orchestrated by India. The then Indian envoy to Sikkim (known as ‘political officer’) BS Das wrote in his book ‘The Sikkim Saga’, Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarer, and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.”
But Chogyal didn’t play his cards welll. When Sikkim was undergoing turmoil, the Chogyal visited Kathmandu in 1974 to attend the coronation ceremony of King Birendra. According to insiders, King Birendra, Chinese deputy premier Chen Li Yan and Pakistan’s envoy advised Chogyal not to return to Sikkim. “They narrated a ‘master plan’ to save Sikkim from Indian hands but the King didn’t accept,” said Chogyal Yongda. “It was because the King couldn’t think even in dreams that India could use force to annex Sikkim.”