ST status and Darjeeling Hills

Hillman the Analyst, KalimNews, 12 March 2014: In response to Telegraph 27 Feb 2014 the item “Nod despite faults bares state game” citing the state having initialed a move to grant ST status to various named ten tribes of Darjeeling District is no question of a doubt a ploy targeted to attract the hill peoples vote bank and transferring it into supporting the TMC MP candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections 2014. 
It is sound politics on part of TMC to use all means at its disposal to hoodwink the broad spectrum of hill peoples who have been demanding ST status for some time more particularly since the appointment of the Roy Burman Commission (CRESP) in Sikkim during 2005-08. The final report of CRESP has recommended a list of six hill communities for ST listing viz. the following, Magar, Gurung, Rai, Thami, Bhujel and Sunuwar.

A question is being raised alarmingly as to what is the present status of this report and suspicions are rumoured whether if at all the Govt. of Sikkim has forwarded it to the Registrar General of India (RGI). Until and when this report is identified and its status investigated it is most doubtful the recommendation of the Govt. of West Bengal has any role to play in identifying the list of hill communities for ST recognition. This conclusion is arrived from the bearing that Sikkim would have the primary function of raising the issue of listing ST for the simple reason that ethnographically as well as geographically Darjeeling District falls under Sikkim/Bhutan than the plains of West Bengal.

As a result of this probability it is gaged that in 2002 when the Limbus &Tamangs hill communities were conferred ST status, which precedent only was transferred to the Limbus & Tamangs in Darjeeling District West Bengal in being listed as ST. Hence with this antecedent in mind it is highly improbable that the recommendations of West Bengal only without the concurrence from state of Sikkim will not find any trajectory in placing the other non STs into the ST list. Therefore on all accounts this writer supports the view of Pranesh Sarkar and Vivek Chhetri who have reported in their newspaper, that the West Bengal govt. is only raising the issue and pretending to forward to the Centre knowing full well its acceptability is questionable, and therefore the issue is only a ploy to gain political brownie points to promote the chances of TMC MP candidate support in the forthcoming elections only.

It is also to be realised that Census 2011 is already out and following are the ST population of the Districts of Darjeeling ST: (21.5%)/ 3,97,389 (total pop.18,46,823) & Jalpaiguri ST: (18.89%)/ 7,31,704 (total pop.38,72,846). The Scheduled Caste pop. in Darjeeling District stands at 17.17%. The total pop of SC & ST combined is 21.5% + 17.17% = 38.68%. Since these figures is already published the question of listing nearly a dozen hill communities in the ST list seems highly improbable to be accepted at this very late stage. Therefore taking the face value of the govt. stated program to recommend an ST list from West Bengal smacks of ulterior motives than genuinely aimed at delivery. However although the Dhimal community is not mentioned with the hill list in seeking the ST status, reading the Statesman news by Sanka Ghosh, 22 Feb 2013, “Dhimals inch closer to ST status” seems more plausible if at all the Cultural Research Institute (CRI) and the State cabinet has recommended the case to the RGI. However this case too is more uncertain than certain considering the time factor as well as Census 2011 is already out and that the ST list in West Bengal is already documented.

There is a distinct possibility that West Bengal has to put up a viable replacement of plains STs in order to replace the hill STs on basis of which account (Darjeeling District as a Partially Excluded Area) was the legal basis required for international understanding (as indigenous people), to create the West Bengal. Therefore the argument if Darjeeling District hill tribes exit from West Bengal, certainly the state has to replace the former deficit by introducing another group/s of indigenous people to back the legality of the state. The question is 1. When the state /UT of Darjeeling & Dooars is finally created 2. Which STs will fill the place in replacement of the Darjeeling hill tribes? These are problematic questions which have afflicted all and sundry, as the issues to be treated and the questions asked are not only legal but matters of constitutional and international understanding.

Freelance writer Karma T. Pempahishey popularly known as Hillman the Analyst is writer of books on separate statehood and others.