Scarves and silence greet Mamata Banerjee in Hills

TNN, 3 February 2013, KALIMPONG: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday reached Kalimpong to a warm welcome from the Lepchas but a sullen silence from the rest of the population. 

As decreed by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), all non-Lepcha residents of the Hills town - numbering around 60,000 - stayed indoors. 

But the CM was all smiles as dozens of Lepcha men, women and children - all clad in traditional attires - gathered in groups along the highway leading to the town and around 200 lined Rishi Road to welcome her with 'khadas' (traditional white scarf) and hail her with the traditional Lepcha greeting of "achuley". Ignoring a steady drizzle, Mamata got off her SUV several times to receive the khadhas and shake hands with the Lepchas, who will crown her with the 'Kingchoom Darmit' (Goddess of Fortune) title in a public felicitation at the mela ground on Tuesday morning. Even if the CM was irked by the shuttered shops and sullen stares from the non-Lepchas, she did not show it and looked relaxed. 

The Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association (ILTA), which has organised the public felicitation, thanked Mamta for forming the Lepcha Development Board. The felicitation, however, has not gone down well with the GJM, which wanted the board to be under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. 

It is sure to put the ties between Gorkhas and Lepchas, who are the original inhabitants of the Hills, under some strain. The ILTA ferried hundreds of Lepchas from all over the Hills and even Sikkim for Tuesday's programme and most of them have been put up in the Town Hall that is being guarded by the paramilitary force.