Unfazed by the agitations in Darjeeling and possibilities of being greeted with black flags by the pro-Gorkhaland agitators, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to visit Darjeeling on September 10, sources in the Writers’ Building said.
She would attend a function of lepcha Development Council at Chowk Bazaar much to the chagrin of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha which on Friday condemned Mamata on her policy of divide and rule.
“If the Chief Minister thinks that she can control and suppress our legitimate movement for separate Gorkhaland through her divide and rule policy then she has no idea of our mettle, “ senior GJM leader Roshan Giri said on Friday amid reports that the police were preparing to arrest Morcha chief Bimal Gurung.
Earlier the GJM called an “indefinite” bandh under the garb of “ghar-bahira janta” (people outside their houses) where all the three Hill subdivisions — Darjeeling, Kalmpong and Kurseong — went in for a complete shutdown.
“Banerjee is trying to break the movement by instigating the lepcha community against us. She is trying to wage a war between the two communities in order to give Government a chance to use brute force against the agitators. But this will further instigate the matter,” party leader Harka Bahadur Chhetri said.
The Chief Minister had close on the heels of GTA elections created lepcha Development Council without taking the GTA into confidence.
“Instead of trying for a permanent solution to the Hill crisis she is just playing politics with the aspirations of the Gorkhas and the lepchas” another senior GJM leader said adding how “she has been in the habit of using various political and ethnic groups and leaders to climb up and kick them aside when her goal is achieved. She did this to the Maoists, the Congress, and the GJM — without whose help she could not have won so many seats in North Bengal — and now she has aimed at the lepcha community. But her designs will fail in Darjeeling” said the GJM leader.
On High Court order for banning bandhs Giri said “GJM has not called a bandh nor are we stopping people from opening their shops as we have full respect for the High Court order. We have just given a call to the people to come out on the streets to join our rallies and they are doing so accordingly.”