CM Lepcha card against Morcha Mamata accepts hill tribe invite

TT, Aug. 21: Mamata Banerjee’s acceptance of an invitation from Lepchas to felicitate her is meant to send a signal to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that the original inhabitants of Darjeeling are with her, Trinamul sources said today.

In a Facebook post yesterday in which the chief minister said the Morcha’s statehood agitation would hamper development in the hills, she added at the end that she would be visit Darjeeling “during the first week of September”. “The Lepcha brothers and sisters have invited me to attend a programme,” she wrote.

It is not clear whether the event would be held in Siliguri, where a place for the felicitation has already been booked, or in Kalimpong, where most Lepchas live in the hills.

The sources said Mamata wanted to send home the message that the hill party was not the sole fountainhead of power in Darjeeling, and the Lepchas, though fewer in number and with not much political clout, were backing her government.

Relations between the Morcha and the state government soured after the hill party launched a fresh agitation in the hills at July-end following the Congress’s announcement of support for a separate Telangana state.

Sources in Trinamul as well as the government said that Mamata had adopted the “divide and rule” policy for the Darjeeling hills to keep the Morcha in check.

“The chief minister wants to tell the Morcha that the Lepchas are totally with her,” an official said. “For her, this is some sort of moral victory. For her, having an ally in the Darjeeling hills is important even though the Lepchas are small in number and do not wield much political clout.”

Much to the chagrin of the Morcha, Mamata brought the Mayel Lyang Lepcha Development Board under the state backward classes welfare department. Morcha chief Bimal Gurung had wanted any hill board to be kept under the purview of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

The chief minister had held a meeting with representatives from the Lepcha Youth Association and Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association on January 30 at Algarah, near Kalimpong, where she had discussed the setting up of the Lepcha Development Board.

A day before her meeting with the Lepchas, the chief minister had stormed out of Darjeeling after Morcha supporters shouted slogans in favour of Gorkhaland.

Morcha leaders have criticised Mamata’s move of setting a separate body for the Lepchas bypassing the GTA, and accused her of trying to divide the hill people.

The Lepchas cited a Government of India notification issued on September 10, 2004, which referred to the community as the “original inhabitants” of Darjeeling. “The Government of India has recognised Lepchas as the original inhabitants of the Darjeeling. We are only asking for our rights,” said a Lepcha leader today.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb denied the chief minister was trying to create a division in the hills. “She is talking about development for all. It is the Morcha which is creating a rift,” Deb said.

The Lepcha leaders have started preparing for felicitating the chief minister on September 2 at Siliguri’s Bagha Jatin Park. “However, if she wants to go to the hills we will make changes accordingly,” a Lepcha leader said.

Sources said during a meeting yesterday, Mamata mentioned the invitation from the Lepchas and also explained why she needed to visit the hills when the Morcha activists were out on the streets.

“Mamatadi said the hill people were tired of the Morcha’s strong-arm tactics. She believes her visit to Darjeeling would give confidence to the common people,” said a senior minister.

“We do not want to do anything to provoke the situation in the hills,” Deb said. “But if the chief minister wants to go up to the hills then necessary arrangements would have to be made.”