Joint forum backs strike

Photo: Samten Kabo

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Kalimpong, Aug. 23: The Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee today suggested that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha reject the GTA Sabha in six months even as it extended its support for the Morcha’s “unilateral decision” to continue the indefinite shutdown. 

The Morcha said the party had already resolved to dump the GTA and the time-frame set by the action committee was not important. 

The action committee, a conglomeration of eight organisations formed for a joint fight for Gorkhaland, said all the constituents were agreed that the GTA had to be rejected. 

Addressing a press meet here today, Enos Das Pradhan, the chairman of the action committee, said the Morcha should be given a reasonable time to implement the decision. 

“We have not set any timeframe. A reasonable time will have to be given. Maybe three to six months. Six months is the maximum,” he said when asked if the committee had set a timeframe for the Morcha to reject the GTA. 

The action committee had earlier agreed on rejecting the GTA at an “appropriate time”. 

Parties like the CPRM, ABGL and the apolitical Bharatiya Gorkha Parisang had set aside its quit-GTA-first precondition and joined hands with Morcha to lead the agitation for Gorkhaland in the wake of the Centre’s decision to create Telangana and the state government’s perceived moves to crush the separate state demand in the hills. 

Pradhan also extended the committee’s support to the indefinite strike in the hills announced unilaterally by the Morcha following the arrest of its assistant general secretary Binay Tamang and five others on Wednesday night. 

Photo: Samten Kabo

“We appreciate the circumstances under which Morcha president Bimal Gurung was compelled to take a unilateral decision (on the strike) yesterday. We principally extend our support to the programme.” 

He also denied that such unilateral decisions would create a rift in the committee. 

“We have come together on the basis of trust. Till such time there is no breakdown of trust, we will continue to keep our faith.” 

Pradhan, however, said the action committee would try and hold a meeting on September 26 to review the impact of the strike on the people of the hills. 

Contacted, Morcha spokesman and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri, said: “This can be on the agenda in the next meeting. 

However, the timing, I believe, is not of so much importance given that the Morcha has already taken a decision to abandon the GTA, and there is no going back from that.” 

The Morcha is also a constituent of the joint action committee. 

According to the original programme, the strike should have ended today.