At a time when it is fighting a political battle with the Mamata Banerjee Government on the issue of introducing Bengali as a must-read language in Darjeeling, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha seemed to find a unique supporter in one of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephews, who on Wednesday urged the Mamata Government to show “adequate respect” to the Gorkha population.
Even as Darjeeling reached the third day of a GJM-sponsored bandh, Chandra Kumar Bose, also a BJP leader, tweeted “You have to win over the Gorkhas by giving them respect and identity and not by stick.”
Reminding that Gorkhas are warriors who fought for India’s freedom, he reminisced how Captain Ram Singh Thakure, who was a Gorkha of the INA, composed the famous song Kadam Kadam Badayeja and Netaji gave them respect.
Incidentally, what had started as a language war tended to have snowballed into a renewed battle for Statehood with the GJM leaders slipping the Gorkhaland agenda with the language issue even as Mamata Banerjee denied having made Bengali a compulsory language to be read in
the Hills.
She said, “Bengali is the fourth and optional language alongside English, Hindi and Nepali which may or may not be opted for by the students.”
Bose’s tweet came on a day when GJM chief Bimal Gurung intensified his war cry saying Gorkhaland Territorial Authority had lost its relevance and there was no other political alternative to a new Gorkhaland State. He said he would “not stop till the goal of a new Gorkhaland is achieved.”
Throwing a new challenge to the State Government, he said “The Gorkhaland movement is a fight for the betterment of our community. It is only through Gorkhaland that the aspirations of the people of the Hills would be fulfilled. The other demands may be fulfilled later, but for us the freedom of the community comes first.”
Daring the Government to go ahead with their repressive policies, he said “Even if all the CRPF in the country comes to Darjeeling, our movement will continue. We will achieve Gorkhaland at any cost.” He warned the Government against using undemocratic means to suppress the democratic movement of the people of Gorkhaland.
He said “Our movement is democratic, but the police are acting as TMC cadre and disturbing us. This will not continue for long. The DM and SP are behaving as though they are TMC men, but they should understand that the people protecting them are also Gorkhas. They should remember that they would not be protected day and night in the coming days.”
Gurung’s statements came at a time when hearing on Madan Tamang murder case was going on in a Kolkata Court. Tamang was an All India Gorkha league leader who was murdered in an open market in Darjeeling a few years ago. His wife had named Gurung and a number of senior GJM leaders as accused in the case. The court was likely to frame charges after the hearings are over.
Gurung, who saw a Trinamool Congress hand in “efforts to fame GJM leader in the murder case” was also not happy with Mamata for sending a team of special auditors to Darjeeling to inspect the expenditure files of GTA which had been granted Rs 2,000 crore over the last five years.
The CM said FIR would be registered on those who would be found guilty of embezzlement of funds in the audit sending alarm bells among the GJM leaders, who apprehended victimisation by the State Government.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress leadership on Wednesday dismissed GJM claims that TMC supporters were joining that party in hordes. Gautam Deb, a TMC leader and Minister from Siliguri said “No TMC man is joining the GJM. They are making false claims to unnerve our supporters by parading their own men before the camera as those joining the FJM. But they will not succeed in doing so because soon the people of Darjeeling will come to know about the truth about the GJM leaders after the special audit.”