Mamata's balancing act in hills - Bhutia board, case drop by CM

Mamata and Gurung at the Chowrasta programme on Tuesday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Aug 25: Mamata Banerjee today played the ringmaster of hill politics, announcing a development board for Bhutias and dropping 115 cases against leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha a little later, which had earlier accused the chief minister of resorting to a divide and rule policy by forming such panels.

Mamata capped the day's developments by saying she would, for the first time, hold a meeting of the tribal advisory council tomorrow at Lal Kothi, the administrative headquarters of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

At the launch of the "Clean Darjeeling, Green Darjeeling" project at Chowrasta in Darjeeling, the chief minister said the board for the Bhutias would be the last such body for hill communities. The Morcha had protested the formation of boards for Lepchas, Tamangs and Sherpas, saying these were attempts by the government to divide and rule the hill population and diminish the influence of the party.

"A Bhutia development board will be formed. We will sanction a sum of Rs 5 crore for it," Mamata said. "Now, we will not create more boards. How many boards can we have in the hills? We will tag various communities to different boards."

Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, who had postponed his trip to Delhi by two days to welcome the chief minister, sat quietly as the chief minister made the comments.

Aware that the announcement might not go down well with Morcha leaders, Mamata tried to do a balancing act. Soon after the programme, Mamata met a seven-member Morcha delegation, including senior party leaders Roshan Giri, Binay Tamang, Trilok Kumar Dewan and Harka Bahadur Chhetri and announced after the session: "In the first phase, we have decided to withdraw 115 cases slapped on Morcha leaders and supporters for blocking roads before 2011. We must all work together and we are working together."

During the tripartite agreement to form the GTA, it had been agreed upon that all cases slapped by the state government on statehood agitators, except for murder, would be withdrawn.

Till today, none has been withdrawn despite the Morcha raising the issue at various bipartite and tripartite meetings.

The Morcha claims the government had registered around 650 cases against party leaders and activists between 2007 and 2011.

When Giri was asked about the formation of the Bhutia board after the meeting with Mamata, he said: "Leave it now."

Hill sources said the Morcha was not sure how to react to Mamata's twin strategies. Development boards have been Mamata's trump card to expand her support base among various hill communities. The strategy has yielded results to some extent, strengthening the party and creating a platform to take on the Morcha.

A day after her relations with Gurung strained in 2013 after Morcha supporters protested at a government programme in Darjeeling against her announcement that Bengal would not be divided, Mamata expressed her wish of forming a Lepcha development board. On February 6, 2013, the cabinet cleared the formation of the Mayel Lyang Lepcha Development Board.

When the Morcha renewed its agitation after the Centre agreed to form Telangana, Mamata visited Kalimpong on September 3, 2013, responding to an invitation from the Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association. Thousands of Lepchas had attended the programme although the Morcha had urged people not to step out of their houses.

Just before the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the chief minister had announced a board for the Tamangs, who make up about 15 per cent of the hill population.

On January 23 this year, Mamata announced the formation of a Sherpa development board in the presence of Gurung at Chowrasta.

Immediately after the announcement in January, Giri had said: "This is a divide-and-rule policy. If a board is formed for the Sherpas, similar boards must be set up for all hill communities. The (Sherpa) board should be brought under the GTA."

All development boards are under the state's backward classes welfare department while the GTA runs the hill administration.

Many believe that the decision to form the development board has paid dividends for Trinamul as during the last parliamentary elections, the party had managed to get around 90,000 votes in the Darjeeling hills.

The Bhutia community maintains it has around two lakh members in Darjeeling district. In the hills, there are around 50,000 Lepchas and more than 2 lakh Tamangs. The Sherpa community claims that its population is over one lakh.