In an apparent setback for the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the Calcutta High Court on Friday termed indefinite shutdown in Darjeeling called by the party three days ago as “illegal” even as the outfit supremo Bimal Gurung in a message appealed to the people of the Hills to “remain prepared for the final battle” to achieve a separate Gorkhaland State.
While calling for the “final battle” Gurung also earned the backing of arch rival Gorkha National liberation Front which said the struggle for a separate Gorkhaland had reached a point where “it is not confined to a struggle of one party but a mass movement.”
In Kolkata, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Nishita Matre and Justice Tapabrata Chakrabarty issued the ruling on the line of an earlier order passed by the Supreme Court saying the indefinite general strike called by the GJM as illegal and directed Bengal Government to restore peace and order in the Hills and submit a report detailing the losses incurred on account of the bandh and the violence in the aftermath of the strike called by the outfit.
The Court also directed advocate Ramaprasad Sarkar the petitioner to serve notices to Gurung and GJM general secretary Roshan Giri.
Meanwhile, the State Government-Morcha touched a new low on Friday when Gurung urged the Gorkha population to get prepared for what he called the “final battle” towards achieving a separate State of Gorkhaland.
“I urge the people to get prepared for the final battle as the time has come for a do-or-die fight if we want to achieve our dream of Gorkhaland,” Gurung said in a message from an undisclosed location. The GJM chief, who was also the Chairman of Gorkhaland Territorial Authority formed in 2011 in the wake of a tripartite accord involving Central and State Governments and the Morcha, has been in the hiding after a large contingent of police raided Gurung’s house and allegedly recovered “contraband including fire arms and sharp-cutting weapons.”
Gurung’s statement came in tandem with escalating violence in the Hills when the GJM supporters burnt down a number of Government facilities, including a panchayat office, a Primary Health Centre, sources said adding a large posse of Armymen were parading outside the GJM chief’s residence at Patleniwas. In Terrain region, hundreds of GJM supporters gheraoed Birpara Police Station for hours.
Gurung found support from arch rival GNlF which said “The agitation has now snowballed from a party’s movement to mass struggle and we fully back it.”
Gurung warned the State Government saying “We are Gorkhas and not CPI(M) or Congress which you can bombard into obliteration. Mamata is trying to do to the GJM what she did to CPI(M) and the Congress in the plains. But she will get a bloody nose here.”
An ally of Mamata till a little time ago, Jan Andolan Party leader Harka Bahadur Chetri also took on the Chief Minister saying she had “committed a big mistake by trying to tackle the movement by deploying security forces.”