GJAC heading for a split....GRNM to leave joint committee if GJMM does not quit GTA

SNS, Siliguri, 26 August 2013: The Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee, a conglomeration of eight pro-statehood parties and outfits, seems to be heading for a split in view of the GJMM, the most powerful party of the conglomerate, taking decisions related to the movement for statehood unilaterally without taking other members on board. 

The latest diktat by the party supremo, Mr Bimal Gurung, asking the students to take plunge in the movement, seems to have irked them the most. They charged the GJMM with riding roughshod over other constituents of the committee, ignoring resolutions adopted at earlier meetings. 

Interestingly, the GJAC chairperson Mr Enos Das Pradhan, called a meeting to discuss the contentious issues today, but the meeting was suspended. 

Mr Das Pradhan said: “The next meeting is slated for 30 August. We would review all the matters, including the GJMM’s unilateral decision to involve the students in the contours of the movement.” 

“We have to think whether the education sector should be kept outside the purview of our movement in the larger interests of the community”, Mr Pradhan said. 

“Besides, we would stress on the GJMM immediately ridding itself of the GTA,” he also added. “Our stand is clear ~ the GJMM should wash its hands of the GTA immediately. We have come on the unified platform with a single agenda in view ~ Gorkhaland. 

The GJMM then agreed to dump the GTA at an appropriate time”, Mr Das Pradhan said. He added: “We are also in favour of keeping education out of the purview of the bandh and other forms of stir ~ a stance that is violated by the GJMM having involved the students in the hurly-burly of the movement for statehood.” 

Mr Das Pradhan also said the members of the group other than the GJMM would decide individually whether or not to remain with the GJAC after the 30 August meeting. 

Notably, the Darjeeling Hills, a famous educational hub, where students from across the country and from abroad too come for study. 

GRNM to leave joint committee if GJMM does not quit GTA 

SNS: The Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha (GRNM), one of the constituents of the newly formed Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee (GJAC), may quit the committee if the GJMM does not dissociate itself from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). 

The GJM chief, Mr Bimal Gurung's plan to fight for Gorkhaland by taking all the pro-statehood parties and outfits on board already suffered a jolt after the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) pulled itself out of the committee over the same issue. 

"We will discuss the issue. But if the GJMM does not reject the GTA outright it would prove difficult for us to be a part of the conglomerate. We are waiting for the GJMM to take the right move,” said the GRNM president, Mr Dawa Pakhrin in Siliguri today. 

"My outfit joined the committee because of the issue of our identity is involved, not because we are for humouring Bimal Gurung or any individual," he added. 

Mr Pakhrin, who is also the vice president of the Federation for New States of India (FNSI), appealed to the Bengali intellectuals to support the Gorkhaland demand. 

"The Bengali intellectuals enjoy an exalted place in the realm of thinking. Their contribution to the country is enormous. We hope they would shed inhibitions and support our cause", Mr Pakhrin said. 

When asked whether he supports the GJMM-sponsored indefinite strike and Mr Gurung’s diktat to involve the students in statehood movement, he said he would discuss the issue with other members of the committee during its next meeting. 

Asked whether the Sixth Schedule extension for the Hills is left as the only viable option to resolve the impasse with the GTA being on the brink of being dumped, the former Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) councillor from Kalimpong said the proposal is dead. “It is useless to whip a dead horse to life,” he said. 

The FNSI president, Mr Baba R K Deb Tomar was also present along with Mr Pakhrin at the press meet today. Mr Tomar said the Gorkhaland has become a national issue and the federation fully supports it.

(Source& Courtesy: http://www.thestatesman.net/news/12099-gjac-heading-for-a-split.html http://www.thestatesman.net/news/12100-grnm-to-leave-joint-committee-if-gjmm-does-not-quit-gta.html)