In a major development the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday called off the ongoing strike in Darjeeling hills senior leader Benay Tamang said after consultation with the GJM central committee and the leaders of Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee.
The eighty-day general strike was called off as an interim measure to facilitate the way for the second round of talks that will be held at Siliguri in North Bengal on September 12.
“The strike has been withdrawn for 12 days until the second round of talks take place,” Tamang who led a 5-member GJM delegation to Kolkata where his party joined the first round of dialogue with a State Government team led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Apart from GJM, Gorkha National liberation Front and Jan Andolan Party also joined the talks on August 29.
Tamang said his party had “decided to lift the bandh from September 1 to 12 as people of the Hills are suffering. After the meeting with the State Government on September 12 further course of action will be decided.”
However giving indications that there were divisions in the GJM ranks Roshan Giri another senior leader of the party said “Bandh will continue as our party chief Bimal Gurung has said that the Bandh will continue
Gurung was currently underground following cases under UAPA registered against him in the wake of series of high-intensity blasts taking place in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and elsewhere in which one person was killed and several injured. A GJM supporter has since been arrested.
The interim withdrawal of the strike is seen as a “win for no one and loss for situation none” said a senior GJM leader adding, “it was the demand of the people who had supported the cause of a separate Gorkhaland State despite facing great hardship. It was the duty of the leadership to pay back by appreciating their problem by calling off the strike even if it is for the time being.”
He, however, would not hazard a guess on whether the lifting of the bandh — and “if it gets mass support” — would put an already cornered Gurung in a tighter spot.
Gurung had earlier said through his followers that the Chief Minister should give in writing a no-objection over the formation of Gorkhaland. “It is heard that she had told the delegation of the Hill parties that she had no power over formation of a new State. If this is so then she should give in writing her no-objection about the formation of Gorkhaland,” Gurung said.
With two poles in GJM pulling in different directions, situation gradually taking a turn towards of militancy and pressure building up from below to let normalcy return situation in Darjeeling tended to become more fluid than ever before experts said.
Meanwhile the Chief Minister lauded the decision taken by Tamang said “this is good news as all of us want peace to return to Darjeeling.”