GJM issues do-or-die call for Gorkha state

Photo: Suman BarailySUMAN BARAILY

Amitava Banerjee, THT, 30 July 2013, DARJEELING:: WAR CRY -Bimal Gurung to quit GTA, intensify stir in the Hills.  Day one of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s 72-hour bandh in the Darjeeling Hills sounded the death knell of the Gorkha Territorial Administration, with GJM chief and GTA boss Bimal Gurung announcing his impending resignation from the administrative body and declaring that there would be no retreat from the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. 

With reports emerging from New Delhi that the final decision on Telangana would be announced on Tuesday, Gurung made a grim promise to intensify the separatists’ ongoing agitation, while simultaneously lashing out at chief minister Mamata Banerjee. “We know that the West Bengal government will try to curb our movement with bullets. This government firmly believes in the politics of bullets. 

She (read Mamata) will even send in the central forces against us. I might die, but I will never allow the voice of Gorkhaland to die out,” he told the media in Darjeeling on Monday. With the battle lines seemingly etched in stone, the GJM chief issued a clarion call for the Hills to unite.

“Telangana is about to be formed. This is the time when we all have to forget our political differences and unite for Gorkhaland. It’s time for the political leaders who’ve been sitting snugly in their party offices to come out onto the streets and face bullets for Gorkhaland,” he thundered. 

Gurung announced that he would resign from the post of chief executive member of the GTA in the next few days. “The GTA is a total failure and I’ve decided to submit my resignation to Governor MK Narayanan soon. The government of Bengal is responsible for this failure. The state hasn’t followed the GTA agreement in letter and spirit. A full-fledged transfer of departments hasn’t taken place from the state to the GTA. 

The GJM had to move court to get a principal secretary for the GTA. The state government is constantly overshadowing the GTA. We have to fall back on the state government for everything. Where’s the autonomy then?” he asked. Gurung added that Darjeeling was never a part of Bengal and that it was high time that Gorkhaland was carved out. 

“The West Bengal government, in a white paper on Gorkhaland published in 1986, had admitted that, historically, what’s known as the District of Darjeeling today was, in fact, part of two kingdoms in the pre-Raj era — the kingdoms of Sikkim and Bhutan. 

This, in itself, shows that the state’s claim that Darjeeling is an integral part of West Bengal is false and totally unfounded,” he said. 

Although Gurung and Mamata have had several spats since the GTA was put in place in September 2011 only to reconcile later, political observers now feel that, with all signs pointing to the formation of Telangana, the GJM chief no longer has any option but to push forward with the demand for Gorkhaland, no matter what opposition he faces.