Faced with “victimisation threat” from the Mamata Banerjee Government which earlier dispatched a 12-member team of “special auditors” to inspect the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) finances, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung on Sunday raised his demand for a separate Gorkhaland State amid reports that the Hills could once again lapse into violent days that marked the greater part of 1980s.
Even as the Hills prepared for a long season of bandhs, GJM’s second man in command Roshan Giri said, “We have no other way but to press for our final demand that is Gorkhaland because GTA seems to have failed in its purpose. Mamata has not allowed the GTA to function for the past five years,” even as TMC leaders wondered why the GJM did not raise the issue earlier and why it was raising it now.
Finding a link between the renewed demand for Gorkhaland and the special audit of GTA funds being done by the State Government, the local media in Darjeeling said “Gurung has no other way but to navigate the movement to some extreme point to stay afloat in the Hill politics.”
Close confidants of Gurung, who is also the chairman of GTA, an autonomous council that sprouted from a tripartite agreement involving the State, Centre and the GJM in 2011 when Mamata roared to power, said the team
of special auditors was “nothing but a tool in Mamata’s hands to victimise the GJM” and capture power in GTA which will go to polls in a few months from now.
Gurung, whose party last week had resorted to massive stone pelting and arson and attempted to raid the Raj Bhavan in Darjeeling when the CM was holding a Cabinet meeting with 30 other Ministers, called an indefinite strike of Government facilities from Monday.
The GJM’s hardening stance was reflected from what Gurung said on Sunday warning the tourists to “leave the Hills” to avoid getting trapped in any untoward situation.
The trigger of the sudden standoff was Gurung’s rejection of Bengali as the third language in the Hills this notwithstanding the CM’s assertion that Bengali would be made optional and not compulsory. As retaliation Gurung who took out long rallies last week said all the public institutions in the GTA area, including those that fall in the Terrain and plains would only use English and Nepali in signboards apparently taking the language war to polarise the populace.
Mamata on the other hand warned against any such “adventure” saying “law will deal sternly with those who will attempt to disrupt peace and public life. “We have compromised a lot and it seems that now we have our back against the wall. You can compromise against peaceful movements but you have to handle the situation sternly if bombs are hurled.”
The CM wanted the “peace and good sense to prevail,” and alleged “all that fuss is to resist the special audit. But why should not the Government conduct an audit of funds that have been given to the GTA in the past five years. “They have to explain every paisa of the Rs 2,000 crore given to them by the State Government. We will not tolerate embezzlement of public money.”
Gurung’s close aide Benay Tamang said, “The CM is trying to victimise our leaders and send them to jail so that they can capture power in the Hills. This is a shameless expansionist tendency that Mamata is showing. But she must understand that we are not CPI (M) that can be killed and ravaged at will and forced to change sides.”
The GJM has brought all Government establishments and banks save schools, markets and hotels under the purview of the strike while the State Government hardened its stance announcing breakage in service if employees did not report to work. Sending across a strong message, Mamata even got the SP of Darjeeling and the inspector in-charge of the local police station changed.