In a mighty blow to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “Hills are smiling” claims, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung on Sunday iterated his party’s “determination” against taking part in theupcoming elections for the autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Authority which sprang into existence in 2011 post a tripartite agreement involving the Centre, Bengal Government and GJM.
While Morcha second in command Roshan Giri said “GTA chapter is closed” Gurung said “Our party will not take part in the elections as we are out of it. We will not let the elections happen in Darjeeling. There is no question hence forward of stopping at anything short of Gorkhaland.”
An unwavering Morcha leadership’s statement came with parallel developments in Dooars region showing Darjeeling crisis was heading from bad to worse. Regions in Dooars saw a counter posturing by the non-Gorkha elements when a large anti-Gorkhaland rally in Siliguri ended up with attacks on Gorkhas living in the plains and drivers from Sikkim.
Incidentally, Pawan Chamling the Chief Minister of that State, had a few days ago openly advocated the cause of Gorkhaland writing a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking his intervention for the favour of creating a new State based on the GJM’s demand.
Sikkim and Darjeeling bound drivers were attacked and their vehicles were damaged by angry Trinamool Congress-backed mob protesting formation of Gorkhaland. The incident could provoke fresh trouble in the Hills, police sources said.
Darjeeling had been silent for the past one week after three Morcha supporters were killed in alleged police firing with neither the security forces nor the rallyists messing with each other.
Gurung, who had been protesting against the State Government’s imposition of Bengali as the (optional) fourth language in the Hills, became furious after Mamata ordered a special audit of the GTA accounts worth Rs2,000 crore allocated by the State Government.
He called it “aggressive expansionist policy” of Mamata by toppling the GJM by implicating it in false cases and giving it a bad name. “She is trying to do to us what she has done to Congress and the CPI(M) in the State. But we are not them and this is our territory where we will give them a bloody nose,” he said reminding the Chief Minister that he was not Maoist leader Kishenji.
“I am not Kishenji whom you can kill. I am Gurung and will show you my mettle. I am ready to die for Gorkhaland,” he said while the political observers blamed the Chief Minister for pushing the Morcha chief against the wall and “leaving him with no option but to take extreme path.”
In an apparent bid to send a signal to the minorities, the Morcha on Sunday announced partial relaxation to the ongoing indefinite Darjeeling bandh on the occasion of Eid on Monday.
“Considering the festival of the Muslims we have decided to give partial relaxation on Monday when the vehicles taking the worshippers and their families will be spared movement. But the shops will remain closed as usual,” Norbung lama a Morcha leader said.
Meanwhile, the State BJP on Sunday made its stand clear stating that it was not in favour of Gorkhaland.
“We had indeed backed Chhattisgarh, Uttarkhand or Telengana but that is different from this issue because new States are created on certain principles which do not fit here. You cannot create new States in each municipality or district or perhaps a village on the basis of language only,” said BJP State president Dilip Ghosh.