Under continued pressure from Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday went into a hit-back mode resuming the indefinite bandh in Darjeeling soon after the police arrested some of its senior leaders including Benoy Tamang and Satish Pokhrel.
While Tamang is a member of the central committee and working committee of the GJM, Pokhrel is an elected member of the GTA.
Apart from the indefinite call for a ‘Ghar Bahira Janta’ (another name of a bandh through picketing), GJM chief Bimal Gurung said the party members would also start an indefinite hunger strike “to protest the arbitrary arrests of our leaders and workers.”
He had earlier called a two-day programme of Ghar Bahira Janta.
Alleging that 721 supporters and leaders of his party had been arrested on false charges Gurung thundered “the ghar bahira janta would continue indefinitely until our men are freed.” He also said that those arrested would begin an indefinite hunger strike to protest against the “Government oppression.”
On his earlier proposal for talks with MK Narayanan the State Governor, Gurung said his party was ready to talk to anyone but the Chief Minister.
“There is no question of talking to the Chief Minister,” he said adding “we will talk to the Centre or its representatives but not the Chief Minister.”
Insisting that the arrests were being made to “increase pressure on the GJM to withdraw our agitation for a separate Gorkhaland,” Gurung said, “No amount of pressure can suppress the people of the Hills as they are determined to take what is legitimately theirs.” The Government was trying to arrest all the leaders to suppress the movement but they will not be able to do that as more leaders will come up to lead the movement, he added.
Meanwhile, the Governor told mediapersons in Kolkata that he would not make a move for talks with the GJM and said, “If they want my intervention let them come and ask for my intervention.” He insisted “let me be very clear that Bengal expands from the sea to the mountains” apparently rejecting the GJM stance for a separate Gorkhaland State.
Elsewhere in Kolkata, State Opposition leader Surya Kanto Mishra wrote a letter to the Governor seeking his intervention to defuse the current crisis, CPI(M) sources said. “No solution can be reached at by arresting people in hordes,” Mishra said adding the Government should convene an all-party meeting and tone down its aggressive posture to reach an amicable solution.