New Delhi: On the 50th anniversary of Sikkim’s statehood, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday said India has been enriched enormously by the integration of Sikkim and the state has a number of impressive achievements to its credit.

The Congress general secretary in-charge communications said the 36th Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on April 23, 1975, and by the Rajya Sabha three days later.

Subsequently after the President’s assent, the 36th Amendment was enacted and on May 16, 1975–exactly fifty years ago–Sikkim became the 22nd state of India with special provisions for it and its people enshrined in Article 371-F of the Constitution, he recalled. “The Republic of India has been enriched enormously by the integration of Sikkim. The state has a number of impressive achievements to its credit,” Ramesh said.

P.N. Dhar’s book called Indira Gandhi, the ‘Emergency’ and Indian Democracy (2001) is the topmost insider’s account of how the merger happened, he said.

“My own Intertwined Lives: PN Haksar and Indira Gandhi (2018) has two fascinating notes written in the early 1970s by Haksar, who was then the PM’s chief aide, which formed the backdrop to what was finally accomplished in 1975,” Ramesh said on X.