6 years down the line, gurung going the GNLF way?....Stir may see violent turn

SNS, Kurseong, 20 September 2013: The common people across the Hills are now speculating over whether the GJMM would follow the GNLF’s footsteps by shedding its obsession with the Gandhian postulates of non-violence and taking a more stringent course, not ruling violence out. 
“The rhetoric Mr Bimal Gurung, the quondam protégé of Subash Ghising, has been indulging in for some time is raising the spectre of the violence-tarred movement that had hit the Hills in 1986,” a senior citizen from Kurseong said. The people here still remember Mr Gurung having said after the GJMM phase of the statehood stir that started in 2007 that Gorkhaland would be achieved through songs and dances. 
But six years down the line, Mr Gurung looks set to change tack and take a leaf out of the book of his former mentor ~ the path involving violence to make the power that be to mellow? “What he said on 17 September ~ threatening to resort to violence ~ is indicating the drift of the subjective change. 
Many are supporting him as there seems to be no other way than one of violence to make the unresponsive state government see reason,” said Mr Vikram Golay, a youth from Darjeeling. However, there is another section that feels violence to achieve a thing has become a thing of the past. 
“Impulse-driven stir cannot take the matter far. Over 1,200 people had died during the GNLF-led stir, but Gorkhaland has remained elusive. 
We must not forgo the constitutional path and the path of democracy. Gandhian principles are far superior to headstrong excesses. We should not lose faith in the efficacy of constitutional struggle despite the present situation being extremely depressing,” said Mr Pranab Chhetri, an elderly person from Darjeeling.