Dist wing of All-India Students Association to start agitation...Demand for withdrawal of Central Reserve Police Force from Rabindra Bhavan at Mongpo

SNS, Siliguri, 24 December : The Darjeeling district wing of the All-India Students Association is planning to launch a large-scale agitation to press for the withdrawal of Central Reserve Police Force from Rabindra Bhavan at Mongpo, where Nobel laureate and poet Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore stayed towards the end of his life.

Mr Bishnupada Singha, secretary, Darjeeling district committee, AISA, who informed this today, said they were vehemently against the deployment of paramilitary forces in the Hills by the West Bengal government to control the Gorkhaland agitation and would soon launch a movement in Siliguri to demand the removal of the CRPF camp at the Rabindra Bhavan. “We were always against the state government’s decision to deploy CRPF in the Darjeeling hills to help the district police. We have been regularly protesting against the highhandedness of the paramilitary forces, who in order to terrorise the Gorkhas in the Hills have unleashed a reign of terror there. We strongly condemn the decision of the local administration to convert the house, where Rabindranath Tagore penned some of his memorable poems, into a paramilitary camp,” he said.

Mr Singha lashed out at the government for hurting the sentiments of the Bengalis by spoiling the sanctity of one of the most precious symbols of Bengali culture. “First the authorities used the CRPF to suppress the Gorkhas, and now, in total disregard of Bengali sentiments, they have converted the house, which has a number of items used by Tagore inside it, into a paramilitary camp. It was a popular tourist attraction but tourists have stopped visiting the place since a CRPF camp was set up there in March this year,” he said.

The AISA’s Darjeeling district secretary informed that they had already begun a drive to mobilise public opinion in the plains to press for the removal of the CRPF camp from Rabindra Bhavan. “Our objective is to mobilise students, intellectuals and cultural activists in Siliguri to protest against the government’s decision to set up a paramilitary camp at the house. We distributed pamphlets among students in the Siliguri College, Surya Sen College, Siliguri Law College and North Bengal University yesterday urging them to join the protest. We shall soon meet the members of the major theatre groups in the town and appeal to them to support our demand for the removal of the CRPF camp at the Rabindra Bhavan,” he said.