It's happened. A retired British Gurkha, Lance Corporal Hari Thapa, has dragged the British Ministry of Defence to an employment tribunal for racial discrimination. Echoing the call of many retired Nepali members of the British armed forces, Thapa is demanding the same pension and other retirement facilities as his British counterpart. He also claims compensation of ?43,000 pounds-a figure he says makes up for receiving an unfairly low salary for the 15 years he was in the service. Thapa is paid a monthly pension of ?58, while a British soldier of the same rank and with the same years of service is entitled to ?450. Thapa's claims are backed by the UK's Commission of Racial Equality, which claims that under the Racial Relations Act 1976, Thapa has the right to equal pension and retirement facilities as British nationals.

If the employment tribunal decides in favour of Thapa, there could be a slew of similar claims filed by over 30,000 ex-British Gurkhas and some 6,000 widows of British Gurkhas who live in Nepal, a move that could cost the British government something on the order of ?2 billion. For six years now, retired British Gurkha soldiers have been campaigning for equality in pension and retirement facilities, as well as the right to reside in the UK after retirement. In September 2001, the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen's Organisation (GAESO) filed a writ petition with the Nepali Supreme Court demanding that it issue a directive to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to initiate diplomatic efforts to settle their dispute with British government.

British Gurkha pensions vary, depending on the years of service and rank, between ?50- ?90 pounds-one-fifth of what their British counterparts receive-and fluctuate with changes the currency exchange rate. The British government has claimed that since the cost of living in Nepal is much lower than that in the UK, pension parity is not needed. The claims of the British Gurkhas came to international attention when a Gurkha widow was paid a death gratuity for her husband that was less than half the amount as awarded the wife of a British soldier killed in the same de-mining incident in Kosovo. Under intense public pressure, the UK government reviewed its policy and raised the death gratuity for Gurkhas killed in service and in December 2000, doubled the pension of retired Gurkhas.