With pressure mounting from Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and no assurance of a respectable escape route from the Centre in sight, a visibly cornered Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung on Sunday declared the indefinite bandh of Darjeeling would now degenerate into “janta curfew” from Monday.
This would require all the citizens to remain indoors. His “curfew” call is in retaliation of the Chief Minister’s 72-hour deadline to the GJM strikers to lift the strike and allow normalcy in the Hills. “We will be forced to take strong action if bandh is not withdrawn in 72 hours,” Banerjee had said asking New Delhi in the same breath to keep its hands off Darjeeling.
Gurung also iterated his party would also not consider Union Territory status even if it was brokered. “There is no question of any UT status. We are not budging from the Statehood demand,” he said ruling out any discussion with the State Government.
He, however, gave a temporary relief to the Hill people by allowing a relaxation on Independence Day. “There will be no bandh on August 15 and there after relaxation will be given to the courts also,” he said apparently to allow the arrested GJM leaders to seek bail. At least 175 GJM supporters had thus been arrested out of whom 10 were arrested on Sunday.
“We will not talk with the State Government. We will only talk with the Centre,” Gurung insisted amid reports that his senior lieutenants like Roshan Giri, HB Chhetri who were camping in Delhi for the past fortnight had yet not been successful in getting any appointment from Rahul Gandhi or even Home Minister for that matter.
“If the Government forces itself on us by unleashing CRPF and RAF then there can be bloodshed in Darjeeling for which Mamata Banerjee will remain responsible,” Gurung reminded once again.
Gurung’s hardening of stance is seen in terms of his battle for political survival in the Hills as he is facing stiff challenge from are at least two rival outfits Gorkha National liberation Front of Subas Ghising and Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists both of which are sitting in the sidelines to cash in on Gurung’s failure.
The desperation for the GJM chief for an escape route from the bandh he had called — as there was extreme food scarcity in Darjeeling — was also seen in his calling an all-party meeting on Monday in which even arch rivals GNlF and CPI(M) have been invited.
“We have called Congress, CPI(M), CPRM, Trinamool Congress, BJP, AIGl and even the GNlF for talks,” party leader Benoy Tamang said. Gurung was under tremendous pressure was further proved from his party’s inviting the GNlF whose chief Ghising he had ordered to be forcibly banished from Darjeeling.
While CPI(M) leader Jibesh Sarkar said that as a policy his part was against a separate State. “All-party meeting called by a political outfit will lead nowhere,” he said, adding the agenda of the meeting had not been conveyed to them.
On the other hand, BJP State president Rahul Sinha said there was no harm joining such a meeting by the local party representatives just to listen to what others had to say.