They came in their Sunday best — a sea of tweeds, brogues and blazers with gold buttons — and mingled politely opposite the Houses of Parliament. There was a lot of hip-hooraying and handshaking. It was the most British of protests.

But while the thousand retired Gurkhas who gathered in London yesterday were certainly British in heart and mind, theirs was a campaign to become British by law.

Last March, the Government said that all the Army’s Nepalese fighters who retired after 1997 would be entitled to pay and pension equal with the rest of the Army and would be allowed to settle in Britain.

For those who retired before 1997, their pensions remained six times less than their British counterparts and they still have no automatic right to stay in Britain. They are campaigning to be treated the same as the other Gurkhas.

“The British Government has always been a champion for equality. Now we want them to live up to what they preach,” said Indra Gurung, 44, who served with the Army for 25 years.

Mr Gurung was among 50 Gurkhas who removed racks of colourful medals from their chests yesterday in what Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, called a “powerful and poignant expression of anger”.

“It’s extremely sad,” said Mr Gurung, as he placed his medals in a leather padded box which Mr Clegg later presented to Gordon Brown. “We are not proud to hand away our medals.”

Yubaraj Gurung, 42, also gave his medals awarded for 17 years of service including the conflicts in the Balkans and Sierra Leone to Mr Clegg. But nothing, he said, compared with this most important of battles.

“I’m very sad to give away my medals, but it has to work,” he said. “When we are on operations in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, we are treated the same as the other soldiers. But when we return, we are treated differently. We must have equal pay and equal rights with British troops.”

Khagu Mall, 55, served in the Army for 17 years. When he retired in 1985, he was shipped back to Nepal and it took him more than two decades to work his way through the Home Office immigration process as a civilian and return to Britain.

His wife could not get permission to come with him so Mr Mall lives with his 26-year-old student son in a flat in London. His army pension is £115 a month. His rent is almost twice that.

“I’m without a job. All my savings are gone. I’m really having a hard time here,” he said. “I served in the British Army for 17 years!” He pumped his fists: “I want my wife, my son and myself in the UK. I want to buy a house here. I want a job.”

As Mr Clegg returned to the Commons with the box of medals, one Gurkha shouted through a megaphone: “If this doesn’t work, we will return for a hunger strike.”

“There are many people prepared [to go on hunger strike],” agreed Gyanraj Rai, 49. “We were prepared to die for this country. Why not die for our rights and our dignity?”

Mr Rai served as a Gurkha for 19 years. He retired in 1985 but won permission to stay in Britain just nine months ago. His three daughters did not get visas and are still in Nepal.

Padam Bahadur, 61, president of the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organsation, said Mr Rai’s daughters were among tens of thousands of Gurkha widows and orphans and more than 30,000 former fighters hoping to come to Britain. But he still had the Union Jack pin he wears every day “to represent the British flag in my heart”.

Martial history

— More than 200,000 Gurkhas have fought for Britain around the world. Thirteen have been awarded the Victoria Cross

— About 43,000 Gurkhas died fighting in the two world wars

— The first Gurkhas were recruited into the British Army in 1815 after the Victorians identified them as a “martial race”, naturally warlike and aggressive. Gurkhas still carry into battle a traditional 18in curved knife, or kukri

— The name Gurkha comes from the hill town of Gorkha, from where the nation of Nepal expanded

— The motto of the Gurkha is: “Better to die than be a coward”

— About 28,000 Nepalese youths enter the notoriously tough Gurkha selection process every year to compete for just over 200 places

Source: BBC

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