Crisis deepens as hill parties unite to demand Gorkhaland
TROUBLE IN DARJEELING Mamata ally GNLF sides with GJM in allparty meet, backs ‘separate state’
DARJEELING: The situation in Darjeeling seemed to worsen with the all-party meeting called by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders on Tuesday ending with a unanimous decision to fight for a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The move is seen as a direct challenge to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who has vowed not to allow the state to split.
The five parties and an apolitical body that attended the meeting were GJM, Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (apolitical), Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists and BJP. The meeting started at 1.30pm and went on till 4 pm.
Though two parties — All India Gorkha League (AIGL) and Jan Andolan Party (JAP) — did not attend, their leaders expressed their support for a separate state. “We have unanimously decided to fight for Gorkhaland,” said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri. RP Waiba, the vice-president of GJM, chaired the meeting in absence of Morcha president Bimal Gurung.
Suman Sharma, assistant secretary of the BJP Hill district committee, was present in the meeting. “I signed the resolution supporting Gorkhaland,” he said.
For ruling Trinamool Congress, the decision of the all-party meeting signals a setback as the GNLF, its ally in the recently concluded civic elections that helped it to post a victory in Mirik munic- ipality, voted for a separate state. “Trinamool Congress was our electoral ally and not an ideological ally. It was in a different context. This is politics, the art of the possible,” Niraj Zimba, the spokesperson of GNLF, said.
Reacting to the development, Darjeeling district Trinamool president and state tourism minister Gautam Deb said: “GNLF was sold out earlier. They just made an alliance with us for electoral benefits. They pretended to be with us, but actually helped GJM to win the polls.”
BJP leaders, too, were a tad uncomfortable. While a BJP representative was present in the meeting, he did not stay back for the press conference. In Kolkata, the party’s national secretary and former state president Rahul Sinha told HT, “We will find out what happened in the meeting. But let me state that BJP is against the division of Bengal.”
Meanwhile, normal life was paralysed in the hills on Tuesday, the second day of the GJM-sponsored indefinite bandh in offices of the state and central government and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, courtesy a oneday general strike called by 25 tea unions. Tea is the biggest industry in north Bengal and employs about three lakh workers. Police lathicharged a rally by GJM workers in Darjeeling.
Apart from a vow to fight for Gorkhaland, two resolutions were adopted in Tuesday’s meeting. The parties described as unfortunate the police action on June 8 and Tuesday. They also said the CM should issue a clarification that Bengali would not be imposed on students.
A state home department official said the Centre had verbally communicated that it will send a set of queries on the existing situation. “Once we get it officially, we will send a reply after consultation with the CM,” he said.