The Vajpayee Government has opened what has remained a closed chapter for successive governments in New Delhi - paying compensation to the family of the tiny Himalayan state's former rulers. New Delhi responded this time to a plea by Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling who brought it up with Atal Behari Vajpayee soon after he became Prime Minister. "I think Delhi should get the issue sorted out once and for all," Chamling says, "the compensation should be paid on humanitarian grounds and also for practical reasons. The Sikkim government frequently gets involved in legal cases over land and other property which the Chogyalfamily claims. This hampers development work."

Following Chamling's plea, the Union Home Ministry called a meeting with Sikkim Government officials in New Delhi on May 5. Although the meeting was postponed, Chamling has asked several government departments to prepare lists of the "palace" property. He says this is being done with the Centre's approval.

Chamling has sound political reason to see the issue settled. For, the palace may be deserted and lacklustre, the merger a settled fact and the 13th Chogyal Wangchuk living almost an ascetic's life, but the legacy of the palace still strikes an emotive chord in many Sikkimese hearts.

Until a few years ago, most politicians in Sikkim would try to exploit public sentiment over the merger during elections. That has changed 23 years after the event. But making sympathetic gestures to the palace is still considered politically correct.

Nar Bahadur Bhandari, whose pro-palace sympathies brought him political prominence and subsequently 15 years of chiefministership until 1994, also raised the issue of compensation to the Chogyal's family with New Delhi, albeit without success.

The 12th Chogyal, Palden Thondup Namgyal, never accepted the merger and refused to sign the instrument of accession. He also declined an offer of generous compensation by the Janata government's prime minister Morarji Desai.