With Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cracking the whip on the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the pro-Gorkhaland outfit has sought prime ministerial intervention in sorting out the issue of a separate State.
Alleging that his party’s “democratic and peaceful movement” was being “forcefully crushed” by the State Government, GJM chief Bimal Gurung on Thursday said the people of Darjeeling were looking up to the Prime Minister for a lasting solution to the vexed issue.
He said that the nation needed to remember that the Gorkhas’ voice was not being heard. The “Prime Minister must hear our prayer and spare a thought for us!” he wrote in a social networking site adding “your support will encourage us to achieve our goal for Statehood. Our plea has been overlooked. We have not been able to change the mindset of our adversaries,” he maintained.
Gurung’s statement comes in the wake of random crackdown on GJM supporters including municipal councillors and GTA members after his party called an indefinite bandh of Darjeeling which was called off temporarily from August 15 to 19 after which the party would “reassess our strategy and decide on our future course of action”.
More than 250 pro-Statehood supporters have been arrested in the past one week or so after Banerjee gave a 72-hour time to the Hill outfit to withdraw the strike failing which “strong action will be taken”.
Apparently playing an emotional game, Gurung wondered the way “our democratic and peaceful movement for Statehood is being forcefully crushed. Can we take this as the reward for defending the country’s borders and sacrificing our livesIJ”
Referring to a Trinamool Congress MlA asking the GJM to make the demand for a separate State before the neighbouring countries, a seemingly helpless Gurung asked “what wrong we have committed to be treated like this and being asked to go China or Nepal to ask for Statehood.”
The GJM’s strike call has been declared illegal and unconstitutional by Calcutta High Court which has asked the party to explain as to why it would not be made to compensate for losses suffered by the common people.
Gurung seemed to be left with Hobson’s choice with one section of the people questioning the justifiability of indefinite bandh putting public life in jeopardy and the other insisting on an indefinite stir irrespective of the hardship.
The dilemma was manifest in the uncharacteristic dithering in the GJM leadership on the issue of taking a decision on whether to continue the strike after August 19. “The decision will be taken at a later date,” said a senior party leader.
Meanwhile, State Governor MK Narayanan on Thursday expressed his readiness to talk to Gurung “if he is ready to talk”. He said he was prepared to go to Darjeeling if there was a positive response from the other side.