Open letter to Gorkhaland state seekers

Hillman the analyst, KalimNews, Kalimpong, 23 October 2013: The writer intends to imbibe a sense of consciousness to all Gorkhaland seekers, firstly that the state of Gorkhaland, was possibly intended to be announced by those concerned at the Centre on 23 October 2013, which was naught to be, as the anticipated Scheduled Tribes Ordinance was expected to be passed into an act in the just concluded session of Parliament. The Ordinance tabled by the concerned central authority in the Rajya Sabha on 14 March 2013 was an instruction as an Order to the Central govt. by the Supreme Court of India. Therefore the Ordinance was considered important in its considerations and which was required to be fulfilled by the Rajya Sabha by passing it into an Act as an amendment to the Constitution. 
Though the title of the Bill was referred to as Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Bill 2013, it was however felt unnecessary to include the reference to SCs (as per a question raised by CPIM, MP Sitaram Yechury in the House) since the Bill contained the list of ST only. But the most grievous account of the ST Bill, very sad to mention here, is the fact that the Bill (as per the information in the net submitted by Indo Asian News Service [IANS India Private Limited –Thu 14 Mar, 2013] which paras entirely quoted here : 
“Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley questioned why government was rushing with the legislation when the general elections were a year away. 
The Supreme Court never told you to pass the legislative process and pass the bill, nor did the Supreme Court tell the government what the contents of the bill should be, Jaitley said. 
As the members continued to press, the government agreed to send the bill to a standing committee with a fixed time frame”. 
Presumably the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha P.J.Kurien said “I would convey it to the chairman (M.Hamid Ansari) to refer the bill to a standing committee”. 
Therefore the above proceedings in the Rajya Sabha and the deliberations on account of the ST Bill clearly suggests that, rightly or wrongly, intentionally or unintentionally the ST Bill (Ordinance) submitted by the central Govt. , as per understanding the above sequence of events, seemed to be in bad taste to the members of the opposition who “continued to press, the government agreed to send the bill to a standing committee with a fixed time frame”. 
The above indication is a clear enough message that although the UPA govt. seemed to be literally speaking, ordered by the Supreme Court of India to implement the ST Bill, which is perceived to be containing the additional list (recommending the names of new STs) in respective States mentioned therein. 
Therefore as an immediate consequence of the opposition to the Bill (although not inferring that they are not against the Bill as such) but objecting to it, inspite of the fact it was an Ordinance accounted for as an Order of the Supreme Court, does seem to indicate, however that the opposition in tandem have delayed the purpose of accounting the new list of STs is surely not a happy occasion, as the issue of increase in the ST population in Darjeeling District and the adjoining Dooars in Jalpaiguri District has a direct relation to the demand for the state of Gorkhaland. 
That is to interpret the constitutional right or the legality of placing the statehood demand require the population of the areas concerned demanding statehood require a quantitatively more than a large population of STs (near or above 80%) in order for the President to declare the adjoining territories therein as Scheduled Area. This definition of the Fifth Schedule in which the two Districts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri are placed within the framework of the Constitution, has only one criteria (Scheduled Tribes) whereas of the two (the other Scheduled Area), both comprise in defining the entire meaning of the Fifth Schedule. Presently the two Districts is contained in the Fifth Schedule only with the first criteria implying the establishment of a statutory Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) under direct instruction from the President of India who is the sole authority in charge of both the Fifth and Sixth Schedules being directly under the Presidential control. Darjeeling District (as a Partially Excluded Area) was transferred for administration under the West Bengal govt. by the Govt. of India Absorbed Area Act 1954 implied as such by 1. The Requisitioned Land (Apportionment of Compensation) Act, 1949 and 2. 
The West Bengal Raw Jute Futures Act, 1948 (West Bengal Act No.XXV of 1948). Therefore by virtue of this act it clearly indicates Darjeeling District and perceptually speaking the Dooars areas of Jalpaiguri District also actually does not, or was not, intended to form the territorial areas of West Bengal. The area concerned was merged with West Bengal simply for administration and management under the State. If this is really understood as a legal implication, the state has no right whatsoever to utter any word which might even slightly indicate the meaning of separation, as the word is superfluous in considering that the District ever formed part of the territory of West Bengal. On the contrary, if one recalls the partition of the Province of Bengal in 1947 (ref. Radcliff Boundary Commission), West Bengal as a new province in British India was created as a consequence of the 1935 Act wherein Darjeeling District (Partially Excluded Area) was a separate administrative unit outside British India, as a result of which criteria only it was possible to define the new province. Whereas the other half of the province was similarly converted into East Pakistan by virtue of the existence of the Excluded Area (1935 Act) of Chittagong Hill Tracts populated predominantly by Chakma hill tribes and others, comprising 97% of the population being Buddhists were included with the majority Muslim population, is the dichotomy which clearly shows in declaring that, infact, religion was not the actual reason for the bifurcation of the province of Bengal. East Bengal and West Bengal was legally formed on the basis of the 1935 Act. These aspects have already been discussed earlier and therefore considered unnecessary to do so now. 
The above incidental factors are intentionally related here as a matter of legal perspectives wherein the issue of listing the recommended hill communities as per the new ST list now pending before the parliamentary standing committee on social justice and empowerment, is a predominant factor in considering certain a new state of Gorkhaland on a similar basis implied by the above example in 1947. Therefore perceptually speaking, scuttling the ST Ordinance for discussion to the parliamentary standing committee is surely seen as a delaying factor in the long history of the statehood agitation perceived to be so in the GNLF demand for Gorkhaland which too unfortunately was scuttled by the state intentionally, over two decades (1986-2007) by establishing a non entity of the Fifth Schedule and therefore by constitutional amendment passing the DGHC as an aspect of the Sixth Schedule. Unknown to most, and even the concerned, the DGHC truly speaking, happened to be a ST council in similar perception as the ST councils of the Sixth Schedule and applied by a constitutional amendment into Darjeeling District which is in the Fifth Schedule. This perspective accounts for the fact that there was no reservation of any kind in DGHC, neither for SC/ST. Unlike the DGHC, the GTA falls within the ambit of the Fifth Schedule provisions and which is why establishing the same did not require any constitutional ‘tinkering’ (amendments).Which by definition, the establishment of GTA as an interim body by itself indicates that the demand for a state is legally guaranteed (within the provisions of the Fifth Schedule) provided the two districts Darjeeling & Jalpaiguri are declared Scheduled Areas. 
This is the main idea which this deliberation behoves to indicate, that the ST Bill 2013, was motivated by the central govt. at the behest of the Supreme Court of India, which itself is concerned, as a legal measure in performing its acts together by :
1. Declaring the new list of ST for insertion in Census 2011; 
2. The new list of ST would necessarily increase the ST population to a magnitudal degree (approx estimated 80%); 
3.Thereby allowing the Governor of the State to furnish the new ST population of the District to the President of India; 
4. Which statistics would able the President of India to declare the District/s as Scheduled Area; 
5. The Declaration of Scheduled Area would complete the entire provision of the Fifth Schedule (Scheduled Tribes & Scheduled Areas); 
6. This being completed provides the legal implications of the Fifth Schedule, the right to self-determination for the District/s concerned, translated to mean the demand for a state or Gorkhaland if you will. 
Therefore it is quite allegeable to consider that the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, having pressed for scuttling the Ordinance to the parliamentary standing committee, has in no measure of uncertain terms in suspecting that the intent in the objection directly related to the advantage to the ruling party MPs (Trinamul Congress) of the State, who are opposing the separate state demand. It is interesting to discover, in the internet page describing the ST Ordinance Bill, there is no mention of the TMC, who may have imposed it in composition, but not singularly. 
The last but not the least consideration for enquiry concerns the BJP MP Jaswant Singh of Lok Sabha, though, was not directly responsible for the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha where his own party stalwarts seem to have opposed the Bill for a more clear understanding and diverted it to the standing committee. No matter what the party may say but the MP concerned has a responsibility to reply to prove the allegation that infact it was the govt. who was truly interested in passing the Bill on that date so that on the declared date of the tripartite meeting on 23 Oct ’13, some indication from the Home Ministry was expected to confirm the statehood demand. 
This presumably is the deduction of the logics that had the ST Bill been passed as expected by the govt. on the date of its introduction in the Rajya Sabha, considering thereby the immediate possibility of the Scheduled Area confirmation by the additional population of new STs by the Ordinance, the Central govt. recognising this factor (perception of Scheduled Area) in the immediate future, would have been a position to at least agree, to the demand of creating a new state of Gorkhaland, as recently resolved in a meeting of the GTA, which infact is seen to have been undertaken deliberately as an expectation of an item in the Tripartite meeting on 23 Oct’ 13. This however was not to be, as expected as the ST Bill was perceived to be intentionally delayed, to benefit all the parties, in the state as well as the national, opposing the creation of Gorkhaland. 
That the West Bengal political parties opposing the statehood demand consisting of the ruling TMC and the Left Front group led by the CPM, have been vehemently opposing it and therefore their stance are clearly predictive. However what is most amazing is the fact that the national party BJP was the principle proponent in deflecting the ST Bill to the standing committee and thereby delaying, directly or indirectly, the demand for Gorkhaland is seen as supporting the opponents of Gorkhaland. As so it seems as an individual perception. For the simple reason that had the bill been passed on that uneventful day in the Rajya Sabha , as per the above indications, some declarations towards the separate state of Gorkhaland would surely have been declared on the Tripartite talks on 23 Oct 13, which now seems to be relegated to a postponement like situation for a later date. 
Therefore is it wrong to imagine that GJM supporting the BJP MP Jaswant Singh was a wise decision is for the GJM and the electorate to decide. The question can be raised had the GJM supported the election of a Congress MP, would not the present scenario be otherwise more conducive to the statehood demand, particularly considering the fact that the space limited for Gorkhaland is day by day decreasing and constrained within time on account of the proximity of the date of the forthcoming general elections. Therefore by converse logics the BJP, by scuttling the ST Bill 2013 to the standing committee, is seemingly advantaged to gain the support of the political parties of West Bengal, opposing the statehood demand, in anticipation of garnering the fairly large number of MP votes of West Bengal in support of the BJP candidate Narendra Modi for the Prime Minister’s post. 
The concern for the moment and time being is to consider whether, now with the delay imposed by the ST Bill having been to the standing committee, will delay the process of affirmation of the demand of Gorkhaland precariously near to the election date may even go overboard to post election considerations. Whereas had the Bill not been delayed the possibility existed that the demand could have seen the light of day even before the elections in 2014. Even considering this factorally if the ST Bill is passed in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament, assuming it is not further delayed for some rhyme or reason, and hopefully supported by the BJP, the present misunderstanding will equivocally be cleared without any bitterness remaining in the mouth. However if the event turns otherwise then surely the wrath of the people of the District will fall entirely on all the opposition parties in Parliament. 
Therefore with this consideration in mind the BJP MP Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling require to undertake settling the issue with party echelons to decide on which side of the fence BJP intends to remain. Of course the decision is very challenging and critical to the national party, but nonetheless a decision requires to be made at this critical juncture. While coming to a final decision, surely since the statehood demand is more a constitutional implied event (Scheduled Area aspect of the Fifth Schedule) than otherwise, relayed to the public as a political decision, it is felt the BJP party require to be convinced by the BJP sitting MP to retract the Rajya Sabha event and come out clearly supporting the statehood demand as a constitutional duty overriding political considerations – which is recognisable across the board including the political dispensation from West Bengal. 
Simply put that the State has now reached to such a climax that both the larger national parties as well as others in the fray require to comply with the constitutional considerations by clearly expressing their opinions in support of the statehood demand – and not find themselves on the opposite camp of the Constitution which eventually will be exposed in passage of time – when the statehood demand comes to a conclusive constitutional end. That is, either the State of Gorkhaland or State of Darjeeling & Dooars. It is quite possible in lieu of a state a UT seems more the probability as per law (the Fifth Schedule).