'Govt govt must act tactfully on statehood demands’

Manas R Bannerjee, SNS,Siliguri, 7 August: The senior leaders of the non-GJMM political parties operating in the Darjeeling Hills have opined that the state government must act with circumspection while dealing with the emotive statehood movement now going on in full steam.

The Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists president, Mr R B Rai said the present situation in the Hills would further worsen if the state government, bolstered by today’s Calcutta High Court directive, tries to run roughshod over the emotional susceptibilities of the Hill people by taking recourse to stern administrative measures. 

“This is not a problem to be dealt with on the plane of law and order. True, nearly 90 per cent of the Hill people are in trouble due to the indefinite shutdown. But it would be wrong to view things from the surface. It is a case of cauldron of long pent-up emotions having burst out. They are strongly inclined to undergo suffering taking this as penance for a better future. Yet, we wonder how long the people will put up with things with larders being exhausted. The plight of wage earners is the most pathetic. How they would sustain themselves is a question we all should ponder over,” he said. 

Defending the democratic right to call strike as part of a peaceful movement, the CPRM leader said nothing should be done to gag the collective voice of the Hill people. “The chief minister should desist from ramming things down on our gullet. The stalemate can end if she tackles the tangle with love and understanding,” he added. 

The All India Gorkha League vice president, Mr Laxman Pradhan echoed the view, saying it would backfire if the state government proceeds to choke the collective emotion of the people in the vain belief that it is a mere law and order problem. 

“Application of excessive force to crush the spontaneous oomph sustaining the dragging movement would be counter-productive. It is true that the indefinite shutdown is landing the people, particularly the poor, in trouble. But it does not mean that they would welcome the state bullying them into submission,” he added. 

The Hill-based CPI-M leader, Mr K B Watter, said the state’s administrative machinery is deluding itself into believing that stern measures would crush the spirit out of the statehood movement. 

“People even if they are not favourably inclined to the continuing bandh would put up with it as defying it would invite vendetta from those who are calling the shots,” he said. 

“The Central forces might be deployed in front of the government offices, but it would be suicidal on the part of the state government to force the common people go against the momentum of the statehood movement,” he also said. 

“This is despite the fact that over 80 per cent of the people here live from hand to mouth. They have been leaving the strike-stuck Hills for Nepal, Sikkim and in Siliguri to earn a living. Yet, this trend should not embolden the state government to go all out against the ongoing movement for statehood,” he opined.