Already on the backfoot — thanks to a tough handling of Hill affairs by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee —Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung seems to be in for more trouble with smaller ethnic groups showing signs of dissent from the mainstream pro-Gorkhaland outfit.
Apparently encouraged by the Chief Minister’s formation of lepcha Development Council within the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration much to the chagrin of the GJM, a section of Tamang community which was earlier with the Morcha has also cocked a snook at Gurung by demanding an autonomous Tamang development board.
Sanjay Moktan, a Tamang leader representing the Tamang Youth Association the youth wing of the All India Tamang Buddhist Association has submitted a memorandum to the North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb demanding an autonomous council for the Tamang community.
Deb who acknowledged having met the Tamang leader said his Government would take up the issue seriously and “apprising the Chief Minister of the latest developments in Darjeeling Hills.”
“We are not against GJM’s demand for a separate State but in any scheme of things, the Tamang community must be given a status where they can take decisions about their own development,” Moktan said adding the a representation to this effect was being sent to the CM who would take a decision after the Durga Puja was over.
“We will meet the Chief Minister some time before Diwali and explain our position to her,” he said refusing however that his step would be a cause of enmity between his outfit and the GJM.
“If the lepchas can get the right to preserve their language and culture why not the Tamangs” he asked referring to Banerjee’s earlier recognition of the autonomous lepcha Development Council.
The creation of lDC had been vehemently opposed by Gurung who had seen this as a ploy to break the backbone of the Gorkhaland movement. “There is no difference between the lepchas, Tamangs, Gurungs or any other community. This is the ploy of the Government to create rift in our party and movement. But our movement will continue,” he said.
Curiously the senior Tamang leader Benoy Tamang who is also the central committee member of the GJM was currently under-arrest and had denied that his community had made any such claims.
The Tamangs who got scheduled tribe status in 2002 “continue to be in favour of a separate State and will never strengthen the hands of those leaders in Kolkata who are trying to break the unity of the Gorkha people,” he had said.