MY GORKHALAND

After Telangana it is the turn of Gorkhaland

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:33:00 +0000

By Prof Mahendra P Lama

After Telangana - It is our turn now

The UPA partners and Congress Working Committee’s decision to carve out a new state of Telangana is a welcome move for the people of Darjeeling district and Dooars. The UPA Government deserves our warmest congratulations for setting new trends and norms in the formation of the state. Firstly, this is for the first time in the recent constitutional history of India that a new constituent state is being created without the effective resolution by the concerned State Assembly. This augurs very well for a separate state in Darjeeling and Dooars.

Secondly, the Congress Party has now started rethinking about restructuring the federal structure of the country and looked into the larger aspirations of the people who were left out in the reorganization of states in the 1950s. This means it is also adhering to the path set by the NDA government when it created Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh in 2000.

And thirdly, the Congress Party is now willing to consider similar other demands on “merit basis”.

The demand for a separate statehood comprising of Darjeeling district and Dooars is perhaps the oldest non-fulfilled demand and movement in the 20th – 21st century political history of India. Two rounds of protracted and violent movements took place starting 1985 and ending 2012, yet this issue has not figured in the political spectrums and corridor of power in New Delhi.

Interestingly during this period of 27 years four new states have already been created and not in Darjeeling and Dooars.

Demand for separate statehood in Darjeeling District and Dooars are a much more comprehensive demand and historically rather powerful. This has three key elements in the core of the demand.
Firstly, it is the imminent need to consolidate the national security as this geo-politically sensitive region has four international borders viz with Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Nepal and a key corridor known as ‘chicken neck’ that links North East region with the rest of India. A separate state here will take care of so many national security concerns that exist in this region.

Secondly, the prime need to conserve and promote the identity of the communities including the Gorkhas, Bhutias, Lepchas, Adivasis, Rajbonshis and several other religious and linguistic minorities.
Thirdly, the extreme deprivations and backwardness of this region despite being one of the most resourceful geographies which need to be instantly corrected. Look at the conditions of our natural resources today. How do we account for so many hunger deaths in the tea gardens of Dooars, where are the traditional and modern institutions gone ? Why the people of Siliguri, Dooars and Darjeeling be subjected to such poor work cultures and why we should remain alienated from the national and global mainstream ? In fact in the new state we shall be one of the most developed states in the country.

And finally, the traditional harmony, peace and collective survival that prevail among the people in the hills and plains including among the Gorkhas, Bengalis, Biharis, Marwaris, Adivasis and Kamtapuris and various religions and communities need to be further consolidated.

The separate state with Darjeeling district and Dooars could benefit the nation, West Bengal and Sikkim, Bihar and all the neighbouring states in the North East region in many very many ways. The sub-division like Siliguri and the people therein will flourish as this will become the entrepot for the entire trading and commercial activities of a scale that is unbelievable. The regulated land border trading in the four international borders itself will bring fortunes to thousands of our children.

The younger generation will benefit from the large scale generation of new varieties of employment including in government, private and non-governmental sectors. For instance, how many IAS, IPS and IFS officers have we produced from Darjeeling district and Dooars in the 66 years of post independence India ? Given the fact that we have the best educational institutions in the country which once catered to the building of Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sikkim, north east regions and many other parts of the country, the question remains as why we could not produce these officers, technocrats, professionals, businessmen, industrialists, academics and even politicians like what other states have done?

The separate state will bring handsome benefits to all its residents and people and communities regardless of language, castes, creed, religion and locations which the present state of West Bengal cannot even think of providing. Our children have higher aspirations, they need much more space and institutions for their intellectual, physical and material growth which the present Government cannot provide at all.

A Bengali will be the Chief Minister of this new state, an Adivasi will be the Home Minister, a Rajbongshi will be the Education Minister, a Gorkha will be the Finance Minister, a Marwari will be the Commerce Minister and a Bihari will be the Energy Minister. Our children will get into central civil services, they will teach in our central university and Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management in our new state. Our women folks will have huge playing fields where they could be members in the state assembly, parliament and also in several institutions.

We shall have another All India Institute of Medical Sciences and several other technical and professional institutions that will take care of our health problems, education, cultural-social needs, farmers and agriculture, music, fine art and literary activities, and tea gardens and cinchona plantations, climate change and natural disasters, traditional medicinal system and natural resources.
We shall have the best of investors from both India and abroad coming to this region for investment. If the British companies came to the hills of Darjeeling and Dooars in the 19th century why not American, Korean, Japanese and German companies today to invest in tourism projects, water resources, horticulture and floriculture and software development. Our children from Chopra, Phansidewa, Siliguri, Panightta, Bagrakot, Kalchini, Jaigaon, Sonada, Pedong, Mirik and Rimbik will be civil servants, engineers, doctors, chartered accountants, architects, teachers and environmentalists. There will be no dearth of employment and the future will be alive and bright.

Our NGOs will get connected with various Ministries and funding agencies in the country and also with major development agencies including with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations agencies and other philanthropic institutions like Ford, Bill Gates, Aga Khan and Macarthur Foundations. All the central government projects, some of which we have not heard the names also, will smoothly and automatically flow to us. Our three-tier Panchayats with the at least Seven Zilla Parishads will actually govern the entire rural areas of our State.

Any political parties including Congress, BJP, CPM, RSP, GJMM, CPRM and Trinamool Congress could form the Government in this new and flourishing state. Any political ideology and all the communities will collectively flourish and bloom in this new State. There will be several languages as official and semi-official languages including the Bhutia, Lepcha, Nepali, Bengali and Hindi.
We must appreciate the huge sacrifice made by Shri Bimal Gurung from resigning the post of Chairman of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA). He has been leading the movement for the separate state for last six years and knows the complexities in the negotiation process. We should also fondly recall the protracted movement made by the GNLF led by Shri Subash Ghising in 1980s and contributions made by several leaders in the past like Dambar Singh Gurung, Madan Tamang, Ananda Pathak, RB Rai, Biren Bose, Theodre Manen, Mayadevi Chettri, Kanu Sanyal, Charu Majumdar, Birsa Tirkee, Gopal Maitra, Khudiram Pahan, Dawa Norbula, Maitryi Bose, PP Rai, Ratanlal Brahmin, KB Chhetri, SP Lepcha, LM Prodhan and several other leaders from Siliguri and Dooars in highlighting our plights and alienations.

We should pay our tribute to the hundreds of people who sacrificed their lives for a separate state and thousands of people who lost their home and hearth in the search for a separate state. Media played a very critical role and must thank persons like Subhas Talukdar, Shiva Kumar Rai, Sunanda Datta Ray, Tushar Kanti Ghosh, BD Basnet, Kumar Pradhan, MB Rai, DP Sharma, Dilip Bose and the present set of eminent newspapers like Himalaya Darpan, Dainik Jagran, Uttarbanga Sambad, Hamro Prajashakti, Telegraph, Statesman, Janpath and many others both in Bengal and at the national level.

Given that a separate state in this region is going to be a reality and GJMM is the party with a strong support base, Shri Bimal Gurung and his party; other national and regional political parties and all the people of the Siliguri, Dooars, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong together have to now make four critical interventions.

Firstly, we should bring all the political parties and socio-cultural organizations from the hills and the plains to a common platform to provide more effective direction and more powerful voice to the demand for this new state. The brain and muscle power must work together.

Secondly, we should build a strong team in Calcutta and Delhi that will intellectually and politically influence the Parliament, Assembly, media, political parties, bureaucracy and civil society. The other political parties that are working for separate states like Harit Pradesh, Vidharva and Bodoland must be brought under the fold. The Telangana experience shows that ultimately it is Delhi which really matters in deciding the creation of a new state.

Thirdly, we should provide a clear road map to the formation of this new State and also lay out a comprehensive structure of the state, its likely programme and planning that would mention how people, communities and various locations in the hills and plains will be benefitted by this separate state.

And fourthly, we should also very clearly provide a long term vision of how our nation and other states in the country including West Bengal will benefit from a separate state like ours.

After the formation of Telangana, it is our turn to have our own separate state. The nation and the people feel like this. And this is the aspiration of our people in the hills and plains of Darjeeling district and Dooars.

Duars killing of Gorkhas by West bengal Police

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 06:35:00 +0000

Courtesy: Bishal Rai

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noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:29:00 +0000

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GORKHALAND: FROM HIMALAYA DARPAN

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:04:00 +0000

STORM BREWING IN THE MOUNTAINS

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:50:00 +0000

The indifference of the state government towards the people of Darjeeling makes a separate state the obvious solution to their problems, writes Mahendra P. Lama
The inevitable has happened in Darjeeling district. The demand for Gorkhaland has erupted once again, and this time in a much more vocal, sweeping and determined manner than the last. There are four primary reasons for this. First, the setting up of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1988 as a solution to the last round of Gorkhaland agitation of the Eighties failed to do Darjeeling any good. The DGHC had no power to speak of, as it remained under the control of the Writers’ Building. Its chairman, Subhas Ghisingh, ran it as a personal fief and with the tacit support of the Bengal administration, systematically demolished well-known institutions and created a deep sense of insecurity among the people. The West Bengal government obviously enjoyed this throttling of democratic rights and further consolidated its friendship with Ghisingh. Even nine months back, the Bengal government maintained that there are no opposition parties in Darjeeling.
Second, if Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh could happen without much fuss, why not Gorkhaland? An autonomous Gorkhaland would complete the geographical definition of the North-east. If Sikkim and Assam are parts of the North-east, then why not the contiguous Darjeeling district and the Dooars? The political history of the demand for Gorkhaland dates back to 1907. The memorandum submitted by the Hillmen’s Association to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Secretary of State for India, on October 25, 1930, states in detail why the hill people wanted to remain outside Bengal. Ghisingh and his party, the Gorkha National Liberation Front, sold out the core issue of Gorkhaland just to remain in power. This movement, like that for the constitutional recognition of the Nepali language before it happened in 1992, has been linked to questions of Gorkha identity and of the need to acknowledge their contribution in the making of modern India.
Third, the last 20 years have shown clearly that the Bengal government’s interest in Darjeeling is only skin deep. It continues to treat most parts of Darjeeling and the Dooars as an ‘internal colony’. This attitude was reflected most clearly in the way the government tried to impose the Sixth Schedule status on Darjeeling. For the Gorkhaland agitators, this proved to be the last straw.
Last, the sharp decline in economic and other opportunities within Bengal and the steady rise of Sikkim as a political power have had a serious effect on the Darjeeling region. Every one there now feels that the only way to ensure development for the hill people is to let them have a constituent state of their own.
Unlike the Gorkhaland agitation of the Eighties, this time the movement has spread not only all over Darjeeling but has also covered the Dooars region of Jalpaiguri district. As the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha took up the cause of Gorkhaland, it received tremendous and spontaneous support from the people. It is necessary to understand the fundamental differences between the Eighties protests and the present campaign.
Twenty years after the DGHC was formed, the people have become acutely conscious of the negligence and deprivation they are being subjected to. It is an awareness they did not possess last time. After two decades of misrule, they have realized how hollow the political intentions of the ruling elites of Darjeeling are. As a consequence, the movement has become more widespread. It is almost entirely being carried forward by the younger generation from across various communities — Marwaris, Biharis, Bengalis, Koche-meches and Gorkhas. While the mainstream political parties are nowhere to be seen now, in the last phase there had been a strong opposition from the cadre of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) operating in the hills. The presence of local, national and international media is a major boost to the movement.
The protest movement has now included the Dooars on the ground that a state that includes the hills and a part of the plains will have a solid economic viability. With the major tea gardens falling within this area and given the huge hydel power potential, attractive tourist destinations, important educational institutions and roughly four international borders, Gorkhaland will be one of the most developed states in the country. The future state can generate millions of dollars by diplomatically managing the economic transactions in the border areas. Darjeeling, as a brand-name, is well known all over the world. If rightly repositioned, it would attract a large number of multi-national companies and both domestic and foreign investment.
The protests this time have been non-violent, unlike the Eighties, when a large number of people were killed and properties destroyed. Moreover, in contrast to the last phase of agitation, the current struggle is receiving positive signals from the Union government, which seems to be fairly disposed towards the idea of giving a durable solution to the problem. The West Bengal government had called the GNLF movement ‘anti-national’. It had then promised to undertake substantial projects for development in the district. But even after two decades, it has nothing to show for its efforts. The government had been warned many a time about the steadily deteriorating situation in the hills. But it chose political convenience in prolonging Ghisingh’s debilitating rule rather than lend a ear to the grievances of the people.
The emergence of a dangerously communal outfit like Amra Bangali, blatantly parochial statements made by the urban development minister, Asok Bhattacharya, and police violence at the peaceful demonstration by veteran armymen clearly show how the government is resorting to condemnable tactics to suppress the hill people. Their agitations, like those in Nandigram, are more against state oppression than anything else. Today, the people of the Darjeeling district are demanding answers to questions such as why the entire tea and cinchona industry is in the doldrums, what happened to the rich forest resources, why are there starvation deaths in the Dooars tea gardens, why are the three hill subdivisions still crying for drinking water and basic health facilities, and why Darjeeling has only two drinking water reservoirs in Sinchal, built in 1910 and 1931 by the British administration. There are various other signs of neglect by the state government. There are no panchayats in Darjeeling and hardly any Central government schemes are implemented here. Except in the state assembly, the people of Darjeeling figure nowhere in the decision-and policy-making process of West Bengal.
If West Bengal thinks of Darjeeling as its ‘crown’, then why has there never been a tableau on the Queen of the Hills in the Republic Day parades in New Delhi for the last 60 years ? The state government has not added a single good educational institution to the entire hill region after 1947. What do the people of the Dooars and Darjeeling gain out of hydel projects like those on the Teesta, Rammam or Jaldhaka ? And, had it not been for the local residents and admirers of Darjeeling from outside India, the toy train would not have been included in the Unesco’s world heritage list. These are some of the complaints of the hill people today. They take these as the indicators of a policy of discrimination followed by the state government in dealing with the hill region. It is striking that even after Ghisingh’s humiliating exit, the Bengal administration still has nothing more to offer other than the talk about a few more freebies in the already defunct basket of autonomy.
All eyes are now rained on the way the Morcha conducts itself in its forward march. It is up to the Morcha now to enlist the support of other local and national political parties to its cause and to convince the state and Union governments about the inevitability of a separate state for the hill people. In the process, it has to find solutions to such vexed issues as those over the alleged advantages enjoyed by the people of the plains over those of the hills, and the communal insinuations being delivered deliberately by the political leaders of the ruling party in Siliguri. The tasks are not easy, to say the least. However, there is one assurance. The public opinion, as expressed in the media, is clearly in favour of a separate Gorkhaland. After all, why not a 29th state in the grand, ever-expanding federal structure of the country ?
The author prepared the first Development Plan of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1989. The position he holds has no bearing on the views expressed in this article (The Telegraph)

Top cop raises KLO alert Inspector-general says extremist outfit regrouping in Jalpaiguri, Malda and the Dinajpurs

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:41:00 +0000

Siliguri, July 2: The intelligence wing of Bengal police has found enough proof to suggest that the KLO is trying to regroup in three districts of north Bengal, state inspector-general of police (law and order) Raj Kanojia said today.
“From inputs received from the intelligence wing, we have come to know that a fresh batch of KLO militants is trying to reorganise in Jalpaiguri, Malda and parts of Dinajpur districts,” Kanojia told reporters at Siliguri Circuit House.
The officer added that a number of other insurgent groups existed in north Bengal. “There are so many issues here. KLO and border-related issues are among them. I have discussed the issues with local police officials. We are getting information about Maoist activities as well and are alert about it,” he said.
The inspector-general arrived here on Monday and during his stay, reviewed law and order and force deployment in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts. He left for Calcutta this afternoon.
Kanojia did not comment on the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or the possibility of force deployment if the party re-imposes its indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills after July 5.
The hills are currently enjoying a bandh breather.
“I do not want to comment on these issues as everything has been stated by the state home secretary yesterday,” said the inspector-general.
However, Kanojia added: “Keeping in mind the current situation in the hills, besides keeping armed police, we also have the Straco Force, which was formed about a year ago. This force has been trained here in north Bengal and another batch is currently being trained in Panagarh.”
The Straco Force comprises men selected from police forces posted all over the state. The army trained them through its Junior Leaders’ Training Establishment that was set up in 2005.
If the Morcha bandh resumes, the administration’s main concern will be to keep open NH31A — the lifeline of Sikkim — which was affected during the earlier phases of the agitation.(The Telegraph)

Court blasts states ‘helpless’ in bandh

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:34:00 +0000

New Delhi, July 3: The Supreme Court today slammed state governments for their habit of pleading “helplessness” when supporters of “illegal” bandhs harass people through “muscle power”.
The court’s observations came as it asked the Bengal government to ensure that the sole highway to Sikkim was open to traffic when the indefinite Darjeeling hills bandh resumed from Saturday.
“Every day some part of the country or the other is blocked. Roads, railroads are blocked… and you are not doing anything as it is the election year. No one can be allowed to hold the country to ransom,” a two-judge bench said.
“You (the Bengal government) are waiting for a court order to do something that you should do by yourself… then you say there is interference and judicial overreach.”
Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice G.S. Singhvi referred to the recent bandh in Hyderabad during which seven patients died because they could not reach hospital in time.
“Movement of medicine, fuel and everything gets affected and the state expresses its helplessness. This cannot be allowed,” the court said.
The court was hearing a petition by Sikkim resident .P. Bhandari that mentioned the blockade of the state during the recent bandh in the Darjeeling hills.
When Bengal counsel Tara Chand Sharma said there was no strike at present and the state should be given time to reply, the court said: “What about July 5? What is going to happen then? You should stop thinking and do something.”
It added: “You are the state of West Bengal. You are required to maintain law and order… keep the national highway (No. 31) free for traffic.”
The bench directed the Centre to provide whatever help the Sikkim and Bengal governments sought in the matter.
Morcha attack
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders accused the Bengal government of using the Sikkim issue to create a rift between the Himalayan state and the Darjeeling hills. “We’ll ourselves solve the issue with Sikkim; the Bengal government is trying to create trouble,” said Morcha central committee member Amar Lama. (The Telegraph)

Gurung only interested in tripartite talks

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:32:00 +0000

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday said it was no longer interested in holding talks with the West Bengal government on Gorkhaland issue and was awaiting tripartite talks in Delhi.
GJM president Bimal Gurung made the comment while reacting to West Bengal Home Secretary A M Chakraborty's recent statement here last week that further talks between the GJM and state government were required to find a solution to the Darjeeling problem.
Gurung said that during talks with the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in the last week of June, GJM leaders had requested Bhattacharjee to take the initiative for tripartite talks involving the Centre, state government and GJM.
"But we have not received any further invitation from the government. We can give our opinion only after we receive the invitation," Gurung said.
The GJM's insistence on tripartite talks, meanwhile, received a shot in the arm when three major constituents of the Darjeeling district Left Front -- CPI, AIFB and RSP -- unequivocally stressed the need for having immediate three-way dialogue.
Darjeeling district secretary of Forward Bloc Smritish Bhattacharya told PTI that the state government should take an immediate initiative for the talks.
Similarly, the CPI district secretary, Ujjawal Choudhury, said the state government should not lose any further time for the talks and the GJM at the same time should come forward with a positive frame of mind.
RSP district secretary Benoy Chakraborty went a step further, saying, "The GJM is doing the right thing by not showing interest in talks with the state government as the government has created the situation itself by indulging Ghising for almost two decades." (The Hindu)

Pintail village not to let battalion in

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:31:00 +0000

Statesman News Service SILIGURI, July 3: Pandemonium broke out at the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council tourist resort ‘Pintail Village’ in Siliguri this afternoon over providing accommodation to the security personnel summoned in view of the turmoil in the Darjeeling hills. Apprehending escalation of the Darjeeling turmoil, the administration has summoned about five companies of the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and obtained permission from the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council to lodge the personnel at the ‘Pintail Village’ tourist resort located on the outskirt of Siliguri. On the other hand, the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM), which is spearheading the renewed bout for Gorkhalnad, is occupying a number of cottages at ‘Pintail Village’ and is using those for its political activities. The GJMM central committee, its Siliguri sub-divisional wing and the women wing are occupying one cottage each allegedly without any formal permission from the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council authorities. A section of the hill students too had moved into the ‘Pintail Village’ following the violence in Siliguri during an anti-Gorkhaland band on 12 June and since then has been appearing for their under-graduate examinations in Siliguri colleges from the resort. Thus, when the IRB troops moved into the resort last afternoon and were taking accommodation in the cottages, a section of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha activists confronted them demanding that apart from the three cottages occupied by the GJMM directly, one more cottage would have to be spared for the hill students to enable them to appear for their examinations which are yet to conclude. With night descending, the tension subdued yesterday only to resurface this afternoon after the security personnel allegedly tossed away the furniture in use by the students. Pandemonium broke out at the resort, with the GJMM activists and a few of the students present opposing the action demanding another cottage for the students at the same time. Police teams from the Pradhannagar police station and the Sukna outpost arrived at the spot and saved the situation. According to the ASP Siliguri, Mr Rajesh Yadav, the feud over accommodation has been resolved amicably. “There are a number of cottages at ‘Pintail Village’ and both the IRB personnel and the hill students would lodge there,” the ASP said.The tourist resort ‘Pintail Village’ was a dream project of the former DGHC chairman, Mr Subash Ghisingh. The resort was built on a plot leased out by the state government to the DGHC as per provisions of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Agreement of 1988.

‘Gorkhaland’: GJMM seeks Advani’s intervention

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:28:00 +0000

DARJEELING, July 3: The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha is all set to submit documents pertaining to the separate state of Gorkhaland to the leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mr LK Advani. “The outcome of meetings with the different leaders in New Delhi recently proved fruitful. We will submit various documents of Darjeeling, Dooars, Terai and Siliguri from the time those areas were ceded to Bengal from their respective territories,” said GJMM general secretary Mr Roshan Giri today. With the nuclear deal controversy coming in the way of the Gorkhaland movement, Mr Giri cleared that the larger perspective must be considered before taking any decisions. “The Centre is busy trying to save the UPA-Left coalition, which may collapse any day. It would be wise for us to make our moves according to the present political situation. It is encouraging that the union home minister assured that Gorkhaland is a constitutional demand and has not been ruled out by the Centre. He has even agreed to a tripartite meeting to discuss the demand,” Mr Giri said. Countering the hill-based Opposition parties’ allegation that the GJMM's actions lacked transparency, party central committee member, Mr Amar Lama said: “There is speculation why we went to Kolkata two days ahead of the meeting with the chief minister. The reason is that our party units are being set up in Kolkata and we had to look over such matters. We had no hidden agenda.” Mr Lama further added: “Some anti-Gorkhaland elements are trying to counter the Gorkhaland movement by linking it with controversial issues like the Greater Nepal theory. It would not affect the movement.” n SNS

Volunteers for Gorkhaland movement

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:51:00 +0000

BY BENUPRAJ BHATTARAI
DARJEELING (INDIA), July 3 - Hundreds of youths here are busy enrolling themselves in the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP), a contingent of volunteers representing Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) that has been struggling for separate statehood for Nepali speakers since the past eight months.
At the initial stage, GJM has decided to recruit around 2000 GLP from Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Siliguri and Dooars regions. GLP will be mobilized throughout the proposed Gorkhaland boundary to provide support to the ongoing Gorkhaland Movement.
Besides, the GLP will also be used to provide security to GJM leaders, undertake social reforms and assist the local administration. The tasks of GLP selection, training and management are being supervised by GJM's sister organization, Ex-Indian Gorkha Army Front.
"The proposed GLP will be different, of greater standard and more disciplined than the Indian Police Force," claimed the Front chairman Colonel Ramesh Ale.
According to GJM Publicity Secretary Binay Tamang, the recruitment process will be complete by mid-July and selected GLP will be mobilized after they undergo a seven-week long training session. "GLP will be unarmed and they will be mobilized peacefully as GJM volunteers, staying within the norms set by the Indian constitution," said Tamang. Aware that mobilization of GLP could mean GJM's unannounced challenge to the state's security, the West Bengal (WB) and the Indian federal government have already corresponded with GJM leadership for a fresh round of talks to discuss its demand.
GJM has also shown positive response to the talks invitation. Earlier, GJM had spurned the talks offer of WB state government. (Kantipur)

Gorkhaland: An unrealistic proposition

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:14:00 +0000

CJ: Sujit Roy

The latest developments on Gorkhaland issue have given birth to several mind-boggling questions. How far is the proposition for separate Gorkhaland practical? Is it really a demand on ethnic issues or does the GJM have some master-plan.?.

THE FRUITLESS bipartite talks between the West Bengal chief minister and the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) have added a fresh lease of life to the Gorkhaland movement. Apart from this, a public announcement of the GJM leader Vimal Gurung to create Gorkhaland before 2010 and to go underground for six months before that has also breathed life into the movement. Sikkim’s Democratic Front leader and former state chief minister BB Gurung’s claim for the separate state of Gorkhaland is another contributor to the recent turn of events.
It may be noted that all these developments have shaped up in the same day. At the same time, these series of events have given birth to the question on the future of the hill queen, its added localities and its people.
The biggest question that romps on the current political situation is that whither goes Darjeeling? Will the state and the Centre ever allow the separation of West Bengal and creation of a new state? If so, at whose cost and for what reason? If not, what will be Gurung’s strategy? Will he follow the path of Ghising for a blood shedding movement? And even if Darjeeling gains its separate statehood, how will it run without having a strong economic backup?
It is anybody’s guess that the Centre will not bow down to the demands of the GJM, considering the demand on ethnic issues. Once the claim is approved, ethnic issues in other states too will gain momentum and that will be horrible to tackle. This will be a very costly proposition because the base of the movement lies in separatism - the most vulnerable danger before the central government. Another issue, which is more important, is the demographic situation of Darjeeling. Being a northern border area, Darjeeling has always posed threat of foreign aggression. Leave aside the immigration issues, largely related with illegal intrusion. This threat will mount manifold if Sikkim joins the movement because Sikkim is close to China. China has already claimed a part of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The movers claim a bigger state with the inclusion of the Terai region. This is also a foolish proposition because this will give birth to serious political trouble and ethnic issues. Communal clashes are also not overruled. Is it believable that the Bengali population of the Terai region will accept the rule of the Gorkhas to remain as second class citizens?
So what will be Gurung’s stand in the expected scenario? He will go underground, as announced and definitely the announcement is not to hide from the movement but more evidently for initiating something more vigorous, even if it is not in the style of guerilla warfare. Is the state and the Centre ready to undertake the trouble of a greater master-plan to disturb the country’s communal and demographic fabric?
However, the most vulnerable point to be discussed in different forums is whether the Gurungs will be able to run, perhaps, the smaller state Gorkhaland without having enough revenues? And whether West Bengal will agree to abandon the revenue whatever may be the amount, being collected from the hill corner?
Administering a state without sufficient revenue generation is an imprudent offer because it is not like running a small family. The poorest family can only survive on begging. And in the case of Gorkhaland, the Gurungs will have to survive on central aids and subsidies. This is more troubling than freedom.
The hill queen Darjeeling, once a British colonial town, had been designed for a mere population of 10,000. But as per the 2001 census, the Darjeeling urban agglomeration with an area of 12.77 per square km has a population of 1,09,163. The municipal area only has a population of 1,07,530. The town has an additional average diurnal floating population of 20,500 – 30,000, mainly consisting of the tourists. The population density of the municipal area is 10,173 per square km. The sex ratio is 1,017 females per 1,000 males, which is higher than the national average. The town houses approximately 31 per cent of its population in the slums and shanty buildings — a consequence of heavy immigration. The major religion is Hinduism, followed by Buddhism. Christians and Muslims form minorities. The population’s ethnic composition is closely linked with that of Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and Bengal. The majority of the populace is of ethnic Nepali background, having migrated to Darjeeling in search of jobs during the British rule. Indigenous ethnic groups include the Lepchas, Bhutias, Sherpas, Rais, Yamloos, Damais, Kamais, Newars and Limbus. Other communities that inhabit Darjeeling include the Bengalis, Marwaris, Anglo-Indians, Chinese, Biharis and Tibetans. The most commonly spoken language is Nepali (Gorkhali). However, Hindi, Bengali and English are also spoken.
Darjeeling has seen significant growth in its population during the last century, especially since the 1970s. Annual growth rates reached as high as 45 per cent in the 1990s, far above the national, state, and district averages. The subsequent population growth has created extensive infrastructural and environmental problems. The region is relatively new in geological terms and unstable in nature, suffering from a host of environmental problems. Environmental degradation, including denudation of the surrounding hills has adversely affected Darjeeling’s appeal as a tourist destination
With this background, the two most significant contributors to Darjeeling’s economy are tourism and the tea industry. Darjeeling tea is regarded as the best of the black teas and is widely popular, especially in Britain and the countries making up the former British empire. The tea industry has faced competition in recent years from tea produced in other parts of India as well as other countries like Nepal. Widespread concerns about labour disputes, worker lay-offs and closing of estates have affected investment and production. Several tea estates are being run on a workers’ cooperative model, while others are being planned for conversion into tourist resorts.
The district’s forests and other natural wealth have been adversely affected by an ever-growing population. The years since independence have seen substantial advances in the area’s education, communication and agriculture – the latter including the production of diverse cash crops like potato, cardamom, ginger, and oranges. Farming on terraced slopes is a major source of livelihood for the rural populace around the town and it supplies the town with fruits and vegetables.
Summer and spring seasons are most popular with tourists, keeping many of Darjeeling’s residents employed, directly and indirectly, with many residents owning and working in hotels and restaurants. Many people earn a living working for tourism companies and as guides. Darjeeling is now one of the popular filming destination for Bollywood and Bengali cinema. Small contributions to the economy come from the sale of traditional arts and crafts of Sikkim and Tibet.
This is all, with enough thorn helmets on its head. It is difficult to say what economic plan does the GJM have in mind for the proposed Gorkhaland because they are yet to submit any document on its sustainability.
The questions, however, would take a separate turn if the whole of north Bengal joins the movement and poses a greater threat to the east and north-east region of the country. (Merinews)

Communism - a utopian dream( From Ashutosh Space)

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:06:00 +0000

Ashutosh's Space

Left in India is very powerful for the time being but Leftism at the international map is a marginal force . I still remember my one of the professors, who was a commited Marxist and doyen of Marxist theories , said from a public platform just after the disintegration of USSR , that it is no longer fashionable to call oneself a Marxist . Another professor who happened to be Dalit ,in one of his most frustrating moments, admitted he wasted his life chasing an utopian dream in the shadow of Marxism.
Both these gentlemen were still convinced that Marxism as a philosophical argument was a very effective tool for social change but its practitioners have been responsible for its demise. They were honest people and commanded enormous respect from their students and pear group and were willing to internally introspect practical dimension of Marxism . They were intellectually restless to understand what went wrong with Left ideology .
But unlike these professors, the problem with the mainstream Indian Left is that though they are honest and committed bunch of politicians but are unwilling to look inward , to find out what is wrong with Marxism in theory and in practice.
That is the fundamental reason for their unambiguious approach towards Nuclear deal, the consequent of which might result in instability at the centre and lead to early elections . For me this is very surprising as the Indian Left were the only communists apart from Chairman Mao who realised the ground realities and accordingly experimented with Marxism .
Mao knew that communism in its classical form will not gel into agrarian Chinese society . Hence he redefined Marxism which would be in sync with local needs and practiced in a way which suits Chinese needs . After Mao when his successors realised that even Mao's dictum is no longer valid they did not even hesitate to flirt with market forces in the Communist garb . No body can be more candid than Deng Xio Pheng who openly used to say that it does not matter if cat is black or white as long as it catches mice . It was due to this pragmatic approach to Marxism that China suddenly took a dramatic turn and moved on to a capitalist path thereby becoming future super power without destroying their old power structure .
Indian communists were also very pragmatic . They had no problem in becoming part of a feudal society with ultra modern state structure . Despite being ideologically convinced that Indian state is semi-capitalist in nature, democracy a facade they joined mainstream politics , did not go underground to launch a movement to overthrow anti-working-class-state- apparatus as Marxists did in Nepal . I am not talking about the fringe players like Naxals or Maoists who call CPM and others as Sarkari Marxists . In fact they were so successful in their approach that in 1957 they created a history when they formed the first democratically elected communist government in Kerala. And E M S Namboodaripad became their first leader to become Chief Minister . It's a different thing that in the implementation of their government policies at the state level they became so radical that central government dismissed their government .
Despite being dismissed they did not waver from their path , they did not leave mainstream politics , they continued taking part in democratic set up , remained a powerful block , kept occupying opposition space , contested elections , and as they got opportunity formed communist governments in West Bengal , Kerala and Tripura . And gradually they become so glued to the system that CPM even accepted having functional relationship with ultra conservative forces like Jansangh in mid seventies and with BJP in late 80s .
But as success has a self destructive logic . CPM in its pursuit to power lost its revolutionary fervor and became a conservative force which did not try to redefine its ideology with a pragmatic approach to Indian society and accordingly did not re-strategise its vision and policies . It got trapped in it own Jurassic park . So when BJP discovered aggressive Hinduism and backward leaders radicalised caste politics, CPM did not have an answer to it rather they continued indulging in rhetorics . They were not even willing to understand that caste is a reality in Indian society . They were still caught in the class web . For them Ayodhya movement was only a by product of nationalism and an urban phenomena . They failed to understand that Ram Mandir movement could also be a search for a militant identity for a section of Hindus.
When congress got disillusioned with its brand of socialism and drifted towards market economy, CPM could not give a convincing alternate ideological response.
They only had words which lost its meaning with the death of communism . When momentous changes were taking place old Comminists guards, who had their grounding in freedom struggle , were at the helms of affairs while the next level of leadership was trained in JNU where only two class existed - an English speaking upper class and language speaking lower class. No caste , no community , no religion and even no nationalism only internationalism .
This was the JNU in 70s when Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri were doing political internship . Yechuri was so away from reality or was so naive that when pro democarcy students were massacred in 1989 at Tianmen square , Yachuri had the guts and courage to lie to the students of JNU in Pereyar Hostel mess that 'NOT A DROP OF BLOOD WAS SHED AT TIANANMEN SQUAR '. But after coming back from Rumania he reported to party politburo that every thing is hunky dory in Rumania. And he realised in a weeks time that PEOPLE of Rumania had revolted against then communist ruler Chausesku who was shot dead .
Now when all three new militant reflexes of Indian society i.e assertive-caste-identities, aggressive-hinduism and liberal - market-forces-creating-ultra-confident-class are consolidating their political grounds Prakash Karat is still speaking a language which is alien to them and so in direct disconnect with these aspiring sentiments.
I don't buy this argument that Karat is opposing nuke deal because he has been told to do so by China .
His problem is that at the ideological level he is convinced by old Marxistdogma that it's a trap laid by Imperialist America to colonise strategic Indian interest and at the political front he believes that Muslims will not vote for CPM if it is seen favouring nuke deal meaning perceived anti-Muslim America. This dual logic has two inherent contradictions . One , America is no longer the same Capitalist nation and world is no longer captive to communism vs capitalism logical divide . At the normative level communism can no longer boast of the final victory for the struggling working class which was the single most inspirational motivating factor in their fight against oppressive capitalism . Communist models all over the world have proved to be equally repressive and anti -freedom to common man . And at the empirical level world has seen disappearance of communist states one after another without any resistance in late 80s and early 90s .
Iraq war has made America realise that powerful economy and military might can not win a war . In modern times, defined by interdependent-global-economy and inter-linked-virtual-web-world, winning of minds are more important than winning a strategic battle . America first time in history is defensive and vulnerable as it has lost the moral battle after the attack on Iraq . Emergence of economically and startegically growing China and slowing down of American economy has created more cracks in its armour .
Two, Indian Muslim is now a changed lot . Al-Qaeda style of terrorism has made them a suspect globally and Modi brand of Hinduism has forced them to strategise their political understanding . They have realised that minoritism and secularism is no guarantee for their physical security . So there is no point in living dangerously . It is more important to have a strategic alliance under the gab of silence and surrender with pro-Hindu forces with the intention to extract better benefits for their physical needs and their families .
Unless Prakash Karat realises these new trends, sheds his old mind set, tries to rediscover new ideological moorings he will remain prisoner of the past and keep the country hostage to his whims thereby confining CPM as a party of only three states . I am sure Karat will not like to lament like my professors that they wasted their lives chasing an utopian dream in the age of virtual world.
Posted by Ashutosh

30 Minutes: Darjeeling demands Gorkhaland | Gen X leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:03:00 +0000

Sougata Mukhopadhyay / CNN-IBN
CNN-IBN takes you inside Darjeeling, a region, which many now believe should be called Gorkhaland. The Gorkhaland demand is one that not only includes Darjeeling, but also Siliguri, Terai and Dooars in its domain - places that the Gorkha leaders believe they are in striking distance of.
Siliguri (Darjeeling): Drills are carried out on the outskirts of Darjeeling town to recruit the youth in the hills of Bengal for the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP).
This group is meant to act as an independent force for the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)
GJM is the organisation that has renewed the demand for the separate state of Gorkhaland after two decades. Under the garb of a social service group it's, for all practical purposes, a cadre force to run a parallel civic and law and order administration in the hills of Darjeeling.
Recruiter Gorkhaland Personnel, K Tshering Bhutia says, "We are going to teach the youth about the IPC, CrPC, Indian Police Act. Also motivating them is very important. We shall have to tell them that you will have to further our aims and objectives and realise our dream, our only dream that is Gorkhaland."
And there is dearth of excitement amongst the GLP aspirants. Most want to achieve and believe they can achieve Gorkhaland and post that, they want to get into social work.
Raising an autonomous police force for the hills, which could duplicate as the people's army when required, is a clear indication that the GJM already has one foot firmly grounded on statehood.
To achieve Gorkhaland is over a century old aspiration of the multi-ethnic Gorkhas of Darjeeling hills. However, it gathered momentum in the mid-80s when Subhas Ghising-led Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) ensued a violent struggle, which killed over 1,200 people. Ghising settled for an autonomous hill council but failed to address the identity crisis of the Gorkhas. Scholars trace root of the crisis to a certain mindset.
Former Teacher Loreto College Darjeeling, Amar Rai says, "Why do people still call us foreigners? Just because we have a state near Nepal and they associate us Indian Nepalese with Nepal? I think there lies the problem of identity and that is why this demand for a separate state has become strong."
In the recent past, the Gorkha demand has resorted to violence, which has spread in the adjacent plains of Siliguri and the hills have witnessed phases of indefinite bandh. GJM leaders like Amar Lama - who is a Central Committee member - justify the Gorkha ethnicity.
"In Darjeeling, Gorkha is not a race. It's a way of life. Here Gorkhas include even the Bengali. Everybody speaks Nepali language. So language is our common thread," says Lama.
That's the long-term goal which the new generation rebel Gorkhas are hell bent on achieving in the days to come.
But who are these new generation leaders who have fired the imagination of the hill people two decades after Ghising's so-called surrender before the Centre and the Bengal government? Here is a look into their background.

Demand for Gorkhaland: The new generation leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Sougata Mukhopadhyay / CNN-IBN
The leadership of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is repackaging a demand that many believe is as old as the hills - that of achieving Gorkhaland. But who are these new generation leaders who have fired the imagination of the hill people two decades after Ghising's so-called surrender before the Centre and the Bengal government? Here is a look into their background.
Amar Lama says, "This is not a fight to divide Bengal. We are fighting for our existence, for our identity. This is right to self-determination."
An accused in an assassination attempt on Subhash Ghising - in Saath Gumti, Siliguri, February 2001 - Amar Lama spent 15 months in jail. Today, a key man for the GJM, he calls himself just a soldier in the cause for Gorkhaland. Like the other leaders, he believes in a peaceful second coming of Gorkhaland along a Gandhian route.
The GJM office today preaches Gandhigiri, but many of those office-bearers inside were once an integral part of the first and violent Gorkhaland movement.
The President of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Bimal Gurung, was once Subhash Ghising's right-hand man, striking terror in the hills in the '80s, heading the Gorkha Volunteers Council, armed militia of the GNLF.
Son of a tea plantation worker, Gurung has come a long way from driving tourists around Darjeeling. His drift away from Ghising started in the mid-90s as the popularity of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council began to fade under charges of corruption and failure to generate employment in the region.
He did all he could to upstage Subhash Ghising, even campaigning for Indian Idol contestant and local boy, Prashant Tamang. The formal breakaway came with the formation of the GJM in 2007.
Gurung says, "Our students were beaten up. People looking like Gorkhas are being beaten up. But have we even slapped anyone?"
Amar Lama adds, "No violence from out side, no violence from our side."
This restraint seems to be the USP of GJM's demand for a separate state. Under constant media glare, these leaders, calling bandhs at their own will, bringing Darjeeling to a screeching halt, all for Gorkhaland, seem to project a new face of "Janmukti".
GJM is clear that the people of the hills have been left waiting for a long time by the state, the Center and the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. And they are out to redraw the map.
GJM General Secretary, Roshan Giri says, "When the hill council was formed, Siliguri, Terai and Dooars were left out of what was historically our land."
What's more, not a single voice today speaks against the GJM.
A journalist, Neeraj Lama says, "People in the hills stay together. Dissidence is not encouraged. What I have seen is that there is a tendency amongst people to make heroes here."

Is Gorkhaland An Unjust Demand?

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:56:00 +0000

By Dhruba H. Adhikary (Gorkhapatra)
Absolutely not. Indians of Nepali ethnicity deserve what they have been demanding since 1980s : Gorkhaland within the Indian union. All they are saying is that Darjeeling and adjoining areas be made a state so that Nepali-speakers could establish their identity on cultural and linguistic lines. Bimal Gurung and his colleagues in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) have made it abundantly clear that theirs is not a secessionist movement of any kind. The political leadership as well as the bureaucracy in New Delhi need to understand the aspirations and concomitant pledge expressed through the GJM leadership. The Indian authorities can take timely measures so that the ongoing campaign does not assume additional, if not ugly, dimensions. It does not need elaboration, for example, that by being insensitive to a genuine claim New Delhi runs the risk of alienating the Gorkhas who are a crucial component of the India’s armed forces. Gorkhas, after all, are Gorkhas, and it does not make any difference, in a given situation like the present one, whether they live in the hills of Nepal or in areas across the Mechi river.
Inexplicable
New Delhi and Calcutta have remained indifferent to the voice of Gorkhas for far too long. Lack of enthusiasm in Calcutta initially looked understandable because fulfillment of Gorkhali demand would directly result in the reduction of the size of the state of West Bengal. But, the stony silence New Delhi chose to maintain on this issue remained unfathomable. As is obvious, a call for a general strike in the Darjeeling hills does not affect only the population of that area; it also disrupts the traffic on the highway linking Sikkim which borders Tibet. Security implications are there for everyone to see. Should effects on security aspect be pronounced after a prolonged spell of inaction, Calcutta would eventually be forced to take its share of the blame for making India insecure. The leftist leadership in West Bengal, therefore, has a choice to offer a timely help to the Gorkhas for a state of their own in territories currently dubbed as north Bengal or maintain a negative stand now and pay a heavy price afterwards. What Pranab Mukherjee, India’s External Affairs Minister, said in Calcutta on June 14 is reflective of the negative attitude on the Gorkhas. By assigning external affairs minister to say "no" to the Gorkhaland demand, the Indian leadership tried to show that the demand is prompted by foreign powers. This is bound make the Gorkhas angrier. If it was a separatist movement right from the start, as it is being projected now from Calcutta and New Delhi, where was the need for the Indian leadership to recognize Subhas Ghising and then grant a hill council status to the area under his leadership—in 1988 ? India’s omnipresent intelligence agencies must have collected necessary information on the movement.
Controversial
After all, there is nothing new or unusual in the demand for a separate statehood. Such demands have been successfully made elsewhere in India, and have been favorably responded to in a number of cases. The states of Uttarkhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were created out of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar respectively. These newest states came into being when New Delhi had a BJP-led coalition government. Then there is an ongoing issue of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. Do the Gorkhas have to wait until a new government is installed at the centre? It appears that the existing dispensation is determined to continue to deprive the Gorkhas of their distinct identity, on one pretext or the other. The Manmohan Singh government’s controversial attempt to turn Darjeeling into a tribal area has already been fiercely resisted by the Gorkhas. As Bimal Gurung has argued, the centre’s plan to put the area under Sixth Schedule of the Indian constitution would divide Nepalis along tribal and ethnic lines ; hence, unacceptable to the people living in three subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong and surrounding areas.
Obligation
Should Nepal turn a blind eye to these developments in its eastern neighborhood ? Of course, not. While the demand/dispute is in the land that ceased to be Nepali territory since the Sugauli treaty of 1816, the social and cultural affinity that Nepalis enjoy with the Nepali-speaking inhabitants there cannot be overlooked. Nepalis in Nepal have to express their solidarity for the just struggle their brothers and sisters across the border have been carrying out for years. Even official Nepal must not keep quiet on the Gorkhaland issue. As is known to us all, it has been offering shelter to one hundred thousand Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who entered Nepal as refugees since 1990. Earlier, Nepal was compelled to accept several thousand Nepali-speakers evicted from Assam and Meghalaya. Nepalis in the Gorkhaland are not seeking assistance of this kind. All they are looking for is Nepal’s whole-hearted support for the cause they are fighting for.
" As Nepali-speaking community we are expecting a great deal of help," said Bimal Gurung in an interview published in Nayaa Patrikaa on June 26. He has expressed hope that Nepal’s new government, to be headed by Prachanda, would pay attention to the subject which happens to have their origins in some of the old bilateral treaties.
Anyhow, Nepal simply cannot afford to sit back and be a silent spectator when the issue at hand may affect the life of some 15 million Gorkhalis living in India.

Delhi team fishes for sympathisers-Morcha keeps eye on developments at the Centre, hunts for statehood allies

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:26:00 +0000

Darjeeling, June 26: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s delegation in Delhi is trying to find sympathisers for the Gorkhaland demand with an eye on the possibility of a change of power at the Centre.
Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri, who had been heading the four-member delegation, said: “We met (BJP chief) Rajnath Singh, yesterday and (Opposition leader) L.K. Advani the day before. The leaders are sympathetic to our demand and have asked us to go back to them with relevant documents justifying our demands. The outcome has been positive.”
Giri had to return to Darjeeling today for personal reasons, but the three other members of the delegation — Pradeep Pradhan, Harka Bahadur Chhetri and Phubi Rai — are expected to stay on for a couple of more days to try and meet a few other politicians. “The delegation will definitely try and meet (UPA chairperson) Sonia Gandhi in the coming days,” said Giri.
Sources maintain that the Morcha is aware of the fact that the UPA and the Left Front are unlikely to support the statehood demand, especially at a time when the nuclear imbroglio is yet to subside. The hill party is keenly following the developments in Delhi and is pinning its hopes on an early parliamentary election, the sources said.
“This government is surviving because of the Left support and our demands will definitely be met with hostility (by the government). However, the silver lining is the fact that the Centre is not averse to calling a tripartite meeting as of now,” said a Morcha leader.
There is a strong feeling among the Morcha leaders that the party would be on an advantage if it aligns with the BJP rather then the Congress. “The important leaders of the Congress are against division of Bengal. This cannot be said of the BJP, who are in favour of smaller states,” said another Morcha leader. He referred to the three new states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand — that were created during BJP rule at the Centre.
If the Morcha aligns with the BJP, it will be a break from the past as the hills have traditionally voted for the Congress. The Subash Ghisingh-led GNLF had even helped the CPM win the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat twice in the nineties by staying away from the parliamentary elections.(The Telegraph)

Workers’ unrest to hit hills

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:24:00 +0000

Darjeeling, June 26: The 8,000 ad-hoc workers of the DGHC will start a fast-unto-death in town from Saturday to demand immediate regularisation of their jobs.
Permanent government employees in the hills, on the other hand, will go on a mass casual leave tomorrow.
“We have heard that the government is mulling a move to shift government offices from Darjeeling to Siliguri and have decided to go on mass casual leave tomorrow as a mark of protest,” said B.P. Chhetri, vice-president of the Hill Employees’ Association.
The decision, which has been taken together with the Hill Employees Workers Trade Union, will disrupt all offices in Darjeeling.
The ad-hoc workers’ demand is a long-standing one and they have been on a relay hunger strike since June 7.
“Our relay hunger strike in front of the Lal Kothi (the administrative headquarters of the DGHC) will end tomorrow. We will hold a massive rally in town after that and from Saturday we will start the fast-unto-death,” said Machendra Subba, the president of the Janmukti Astai Karmachari Sangatan — an affiliate of the Morcha.
A seven-member team will sit for the indefinite hunger strike, said Subba.
The 8,000 workers are currently employed on six-month contracts and although DGHC officials had earlier promised that they would be regularised, there is still no word from the Bengal government.
The term of the current six-month contracts will end soon. Sources said the regularisation process would take at least a month to be completed, largely because the council is overstaffed.
The DGHC officials had also said that before the regularisation process begins, the workers would be given new contracts that will not be time-bound. Although no official could be contacted, sources said the council had forwarded the new terms to the state government on June 20.
“If we get to hear something positive from the state government by tomorrow evening, we will call off the fast-unto-death. It all depends on the state government’s response now,” said Subba.
The contract workers get paid between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,500 a month. Sources maintain that the state government has agreed in principle to do away with the six-month contract system and increase the salaries of these workers until the regularisation process is completed.
A final word from the state government is expected to come after the Morcha delegation meets chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Calcutta tomorrow. (The Telegraph)

Teachers ask, kids volunteer for fast

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:22:00 +0000

Darjeeling, June 26: Seven Class IX boys started a relay hunger strike here today and hundreds of schoolchildren brought out rallies across the Darjeeling hills even as the Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha tried to justify the role of students in the movement for a separate state.
All seven are from Municipal Boys’ High School and will be on fast till 11am tomorrow when the next batch takes over. They reiterated what the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has been harping for some time.
“If we get Gorkhaland, our future will be better. The situation in Bengal is hopeless,” said 16-year-old Laxman Prasad in front of the district magistrate’s office where the fast is going on.
The protesters, all within the 16-19 age group, considered themselves “lucky” for having been selected for the agitation.
“Our teachers asked us who all wanted to take part in the hunger strike. Quite a lot of us volunteered. We were selected for the first batch and another group from our school has been chosen for another day. I am lucky to have got a chance to fast for Gorkhaland,” said Prasad.
Students from different schools will take turns in groups of seven to participate in the relay hunger strike in Darjeeling till July 5 as announced by Bimal Gurung, the president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. Simultaneous fasts will also be held in Kalimpong, Kurseong and Mirik.
The students claimed that they had the support of their parents. “My mother who depends on my father’s pension supported my decision. I am part of the hunger strike because this is a question of my identity too,” said 16-year-old Prasit Rai, who comes from Badamtang tea garden, 15km from Darjeeling town.
The Vidyarthi Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, justified the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s decision to involve the students in the hunger strike. “The Gorkhaland we are talking about is for these children. They must be aware of the demand. Fruits given on a platter does not have much charm. All agitation, including the country’s freedom movement, has seen active involvement of students,” said Keshav Raj Pokhrel, secretary of the Vidyarthi Morcha.
Pokhrel also cited the example of the All Jharkhand Students’ Union in creating Jharkhand.(The Telegraph)

Safety first (Editorial on Gorkhaland Issue)

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:17:00 +0000

Mr Subhas Ghisingh was no angel. Apart from promoting corruption and maladministration, he kept the pot boiling by raising irrelevant and untenable issues dug out from obscure crevices of history, perhaps with a view to hogging the limelight and creating problems for the state and the Centre. Eventually, being frustrated in their attempt to regain influence through subversion and subterfuges in the hills, the Marxists started courting Mr Ghisingh. But the honeymoon was destined to be a bitter one.For quite some time, the state government has been saying that as a final solution to the Darjeeling problem the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) will be elevated to the status of an autonomous council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. However, neither the state government nor the Gorkha National Liberation Front chief has cared to share with the people exactly how they will do this without amending the Constitution on at least two counts. First, amendment is necessary for application of the Sixth Schedule outside the North-east, and second, since the Sixth Schedule can be applied only in a tribal area, an amendment is necessary for its application in a non-tribal area like Darjeeling.However the CPI-M and Mr Ghisingh jointly found a solution to the second problem. The size of Darjeeling’s tribal population should be so increased that the region may be marked as a tribal region. For this purpose, the more numerous Tamang and Limbu communities among the Nepalis of Darjeeling should be marked as Scheduled Tribes (STs), ignoring norms laid down for determining Scheduled Tribe status. Mr Ghisingh being a Tamang, has overnight become member of an ST.This, in fact, was a fraud perpetrated on the Constitution since they conspiratorially decided to change the anthropological character of a region for political expediency. The CPI-M, as a partner of the UPA government, inveigled the weak-kneed Centre not only to agree to this manipulation but also to accept the recommendation of the state government and issue a formal notification giving these two communities ST status. This will facilitate the declaration of Darjeeling as a tribal region, dispensing with the need for a second amendment to the Constitution.But unfortunately the calculations went awry. When this change became public, the hill communities were angry and Mr Ghisingh started losing his social status and popularity as a leader in the hills. The Sixth Schedule status was no coveted thing with the people as it meant a demotion down the social ladder. Mr Ghisingh and state government leaders while calculating political gains could not gauge the social reaction to such fraudulent conversion and were swept off their feet by the tornado of protest. The hills are on fire once again.The upsurge is now spearheaded by the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha, a hastily organised outfit led by Mr Bimal Gurung, a long-time Ghisingh loyalist and a former muscleman of the Gorkha Volunteer Cell. During 1987-88, he was pitted against the most terrible muscleman of the CPI-M in the hills and proved his mettle to his boss, Mr Ghisingh. After the DGHC came to power in the hills, Mr Gurung spent a short stint in prison and came out only to ask for a seat in the council. Mr Ghisingh did not oblige him. Some years later when Mr Rudra Pradhan, a council member was murdered, Mr Gurung wanted to contest the seat, but this time too he was denied.He contested as an Independent candidate and won.Mr Gurung shot into prominence in 2007, mobilising support for Prashant Tamang in the ‘Indian Idol’ contest. Tamang won it, making Mr Gurung popular in the hills vis-à-vis Mr Ghisingh, who had been reluctant to canvass support for Mr Tamang. About this time, it came to be known that the Tamangs and Limbus had been recognised as STs. Mr Ghisingh’s popularity has nosedived since then.It will be naïve to think that Mr Gurung’s demand for Gorkhaland is merely a strident rejection of the proposed Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling because such a status is associated with a social stigma. It is also an expression of disapproval of the DGHC and the politics associated with it. The options available to the Indian state for containing the movement have, therefore, become limited. Mr Gurung’s perceived Gorkhaland state is coterminous with Mr Ghising’s Gorkhaland, a map of which was circulated at the peak of the movement. Mr Gurung took out a procession from Darjeeling to the border of Assam through the Dooars with a view to notionally establishing his claim to the territory, which he wants to incorporate in Gorkhaland. It is not known whether by design or due to indiscretion he wanted to garner support in areas where his hold is marginal by making it clear that those areas would be included in a possible Gorkhaland. Such moves are sure to create racial tension.When emotion and sentiment get the better of a people, it is futile to argue on the basis of the facts of history. As a matter of fact, history often is deliberately distorted to generate strong emotions. So it is of no consequence to say that the present Siliguri subdivision, described in 18th and 19th century history as “the territory between Mechi and Teesta rivers” and also as “terra incognita” was under “Sikkimpati Raja” and was never under Nepal and that the present Darjeeling and Kurseong sub-divisions were under the nominal control of Nepal for a short time between 1790 to 1814. Or to say that when Darjeeling was bought from “Sikkimpati Raja” by the British in 1835, there was hardly any Nepalese population in the hills. While the facts of history have little relevance in an emotive ethnic movement, the present ground reality should not be ignored in determining the ethnic character of a piece of territory, lest such indifference and ignorance lead to undesirable consequences.According to census figures, in the Dooars region, from Mal/Metelli to Kalchini/Kumargram, Gorkhas constitute on an average 25-28 per cent of the total population. In Siliguri subdivision, the percentage is much less. These facts of history can be ignored only at the cost of plunging the region into greater turmoil. But for the actors in this game these are perhaps not essential and compelling arguments for maintaining communal and racial harmony, which have been greatly strained as a result of the recent upsurge.More important, because the security of this thin piece of land is linked with the security of the nation as a whole, we perhaps cannot afford to further slacken the administrative hold on the region by fragmenting and splintering it and thereby making it vulnerable to frequent internal disorder and infiltration from unfriendly countries. All political settlements in this region have to take care of the interests of national security.

‘A Black Day’ for protestors

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:16:00 +0000

Statesman News ServiceSILIGURI, June 26: Protesting against the proposed negotiation between the state government and the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha in Kolkata tomorrow, the Jana Chetana, an apolitical organisation known for its strident opposition to the Gorkhaland demand, announced its plans to observe tomorrow as ‘Black Flag Day.’ “We would oppose such talks until the crucial question of nationality of those spearheading the Gorkhaland agitation is resolved once and for all,” Mr Debaprasad Kar, the President of the outfit said. Meanwhile, Aamra Bangali, another radical organisation opposing the Gorkhaland demand, has urged the state government to form a Bengali Regiment in an obvious reaction to the recently formed Gorkhaland Personnel in the Hills. Casting aspersions on the continuing round of negotiations the state has been having with the GJMM leadership, the Jana Chetana president said, “It amounts to putting the cart before the horse. At the outset, a screening operation must begin in earnest to differentiate the genuine Indian Nepalis from the migrants from the neighbouring country. As for the demand for Gorkhaland only true Indian Nepalis can cry for it."Dwelling upon the Indo-Nepal treaty, 1950, Mr Kar said that the Nepali nationals, who had settled in India prior to the signing of the treaty, had been endowed with citizenship rights including political franchise. “But for those who migrated after the treaty was signed, they could participate in the process of economic and industrial development sans the political franchise as per the treaty,” Mr Kar said.“Now the crucial question is - are the GJMM leaders migrants or genuine citizens of the country? That has to be decided before any meaningful parley can take place over the outfit's territorial demand,” the Jana Chetana leader asserted.The Aamra Bangali on the other hand today revived the Bengal Regiment formation demand. Mr Sambhu Sutradhar, the organisation's Siliguri secretary said that the state government must seriously consider the demand. “Otherwise the organisation would go for an agitation keeping in view the interest of the Bengalis in this fluid situation,” the Aamra Bangali leader, said. He also demanded the transfer of all administrative offices in Darjeeling to Siliguri in view of the volatile political scenario in the Hills.

Hill people back 'non-violent' movement for Gorkhaland

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:14:00 +0000

Darjeeling (PTI): The indefinite bandh called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) has hit the people of the Darjeeling hills hard, but they nonetheless swear by GJM chief Bimal Gurung, who has expressed willingness to achieve Gorkhaland following the path of Mahatma Gandhi.
Chandra Bahadur Rai, an octogenarian who lost his only son in the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) movement, said he could trust Bimal Gurung because "he has achieved two things - defused the 6th Schedule bomb and ousted Subhas Ghising."
"Only Gorkhaland remains to be achieved. But at the same time, we don't want anymore bloodshed. Gurung has adopted the path of non-violence which is why people support him.
"If Mahatma could achieve freedom for the country, why can't we get a separate state through a peaceful movement?," he asked.
Tendu Sherpa, who runs a business venture in Sikkim, said autonomy provided by the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council could not achieve much.
"Darjeeling has more resources than Sikkim, but there is a world of difference in the standard of living. We have to attain Gorkhaland since the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council could not do much in past two decades," he said.
Traders like 25-year-old Anju Lama, who runs a LPG spare parts sales and service centre, are even ready to run into losses if it means greater good. "My elder brother was scarred for life after being hit by a stone thrown by a cadre during a GNF rally. We can suffer business loss but we don't want anymore violence," she said.
According to official sources, 266 persons, including 20 securitymen and 80 CPI(M) supporters were killed and 1,085 persons injured between August 1986 and July 1988 during the GNLF movement.
In comparison, during the seven months of the agitation by the GJM there has been no loss of life. (Hindu)

No separate state for Gorkhas: Buddha

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:12:00 +0000

Kolkata: Though West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said that there would be no precondition for talks with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, the state government, a day before a crucial meeting with the GJM, today ruled out discussion on its separate statehood demand.
"There will be no discussion with the Morcha on the statehood demand, but talks can be held on administrative re-arrangements and greater autonomy (for the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council)," Chief Secretary A K Deb told newsmen.
The chief minister after an all-party meeting on June 17 had said, "In my (earlier) letter to the GJM for talks, we had not set any precondition. We still do not have any precondition." GJM President Bimal Gurung, when asked to react, told PTI from Darjjeeling that the party delegation in Kolkata would not seek a discussion on Gorkhaland, but stress on a tripartite meeting to resolve the Darjeeling issue.
"I have instructed the GJM delegation to stick to a one-point agenda to urge Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to take the initiative for tripartite talks," Gurung said.
"The GJM demand covering Darjeeling district and the contiguous area of Dooars would be taken up at the tripartite meeting," he said.
"We have only one aim, that is Gorkhaland. We are not interested in talks for more administrative powers for the hill council, or development of the hills," he said.
The GJM chief said the meeting with the chief minister was a 'courtesy call' and statehood talks could only take place in the Centre's presence.
The GJM delegation's talks in Delhi with Union Home minister Shivraj Patil had been 'positive', he said.
Asked if the indefinite bandh in the hills, which has been relaxed till July five, would be relaxed further, Gurung said "If there is positive indication then we will think over it." The indefinite bandh was called by GJM on June 16 but a 60-hour relaxation was given to the people from 6:00 pm of June 22, which was further extended till July 5.
Meanwhile, school students sat on relay hunger-strike in various parts of Darjeeling district to press for Gorkhaland.
Students from standard nine and above in batches of seven launched hunger-strikes from 10:00 am in front of the district magistrate's office in Darjeeling, before the sub-divisional officer's office at Kurseong, at Trikone in Kalimpong and in front of block development officer's office at Mirik, superintendent of police Rahul Srivastav said.
"We are keeping a watch over the situation and handling it carefully as it is an emotional issue," he said.
GJM press secretary Benoy Tamang told PTI that at least 20 batches of students were on hunger-strike at many places, including at Nepanea bustee in the plains area of Siliguri in the district. (sify)

WB Govt ready for more autonomy, GJM says no

noreply@blogger.com (Jyoti Mukhia) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Kolkata, June 26: On the eve of the crucial meeting with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) in Kolkata, the West Bengal government on Thursday ruled out any discussion with it on its separate statehood demand.
"There will be no discussion with the Morcha on the statehood demand, but talks can be held on administrative arrangements and greater autonomy (for Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council)," Chief Secretary A K Deb told reporters at Writers' Buildings.
Deb said in the absence of Morcha President Bimal Gurung, Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee would talk to any GJM representative.
The chief secretary said, "Stateheood demand cannot be accepted. Instead, we can discuss, if GJM wants, administrative rearrangements and even extending greater autonomy (to the DGHC). Everything depends on what they want."
The chief secretary's assertion of not accepting the demand for a separate Gorkhaland in the talks, is being construed as a pre-condition for talks with the GJM.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a few days ago had said that the state government was ready for talks with the GJM without precondition.
GJM not interested in more autonomy
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha on Thursday said it would not budge from its demand for Gorkhaland and would not accept accept the West Bengal government's offer of discussion on development and more autonomy for the Darjeeling hills.
"I have instructed the GJM delegation in Kolkata to stick to a one-point agenda to urge Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to take the initiative for tripartite talks," GJM President Bimal Gurung said from Darjeeling.
His comments came shortly after Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb said that that there would be no discussion with the GJM on its statehood demand and greater autonomy and administrative rearrangements for the Darjeeling hills could be discussed.
The GJM delegation, Gurung said, would only stress on a tripartite meeting and would not seek a discussion on Gorkhaland.
"The GJM demand covering Darjeeling district and the contiguous area of Dooars would be taken up at the tripartite meeting," he said.
"We have only one aim, that is Gorkhaland. We are not interested in talks for more administrative powers for the hill council, or development of the hills," he said.