Lepchas to keep it ‘short’

Preparation in Mela Ground - Photo: KalimNews

TT, Aug. 31: The Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association today said it would organise a “short and sweet” programme to felicitate Mamata Banerjee in Kalimpong on September 3 and allayed fears that the event’s timing would drive a wedge between Gorkhas and Lepchas in the hills. 

The comments came a day after the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee, a conglomeration of eight parties leading the statehood movement, appealed to the people of the hills to stay indoors during September 2 and 3. 

The move is being seen as an attempt to ensure thin attendance at the chief minister’s programme. 

The Lepcha association’s president, Lyonsang Tamsang, said: “Our programme can’t be postponed. Even if 500 people turn up, or 1,000 or 5,000, we will hold the programme.”

“She (Mamata) is the first person to address our concerns. We will hold the event to express our gratitude to her,” Tamsang told a news conference in Kalimpong. 

The state has set up a Lepcha development board, for which the community wants to felicitate the chief minister. Tamsang, who is chairperson of the board, said the event would not create a division between the Lepchas and Gorkhas. 

“For about 150 to 200 years, we (the Lepchas) have embraced all others and lived together. The Lepchas believe in the spirit of ‘live and let live’. We all are one and we should not be divided,” he said. 

Asked about the Gorkhaland committee’s ghar bhitra janata (stay put at home) programme on September 2 and 3, Tamsang said he expected cooperation from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. 

“I would like to believe that they (the Morcha) will tell us: ‘We will remain indoors, you go ahead with your programme’.” 

In Siliguri, north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said the government would provide all assistance to the Lepchas to organise the programme.

“The chief minister is going there at the invitation of the Lepchas. The programme will take place as scheduled,” he said.