Bimal gesture on Ghisingh

Ghisingh’s hearse leaves Bagdogra airport, surrounded by GNLF supporters on
Friday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Jan. 30: Bimal Gurung may be wanting to opt out of Bengal but he is upholding one Bengali tradition: declaring holidays.

Displaying magnanimity after the death of Subash Ghisingh, whom he disallowed from coming to the Darjeeling hills, Gurung today declared that tomorrow would be a holiday.

"As a mark of respect for the late Gorkha leader, Shri Subash Ghisingh, all offices under the GTA will remain closed on Saturday, January 31st, 2015," Gurung said.

Gurung had not only ousted Ghisingh from the hills, but also banished the GNLF chief, who was once called " pahar ko raja (the king of the hills)" to the plains.

The Morcha president said he would be unable to attend Ghisingh's cremation on Sunday. "I will not be able to go but I will send my people. We will also call a session of the GTA in the near future to express our condolences," Gurung said.

Gurung was Ghisingh's lieutenant before forming the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on October 7, 2007.

Ghisingh was forced to leave Darjeeling on July 26, 2008, a day after a Morcha activist was shot dead. The bullet was allegedly fired from the house of a GNLF leader in Darjeeling.

When Ghisingh's wife Dhanmaya died on August 16, 2008, the GNLF leader's family could not bring her body to Darjeeling for her last rites. Her body had to be taken back from Kurseong after word spread that Morcha supporters had blocked the road. The last rites were done at a crematorium in Siliguri.

Ghisingh returned to the hills on April 8, 2011, to campaign for GNLF-supported candidates in the Assembly elections but decided to leave Darjeeling in May after alleged GNLF supporters killed a Morcha activist in Sonada.

Ghisingh visited his home in the hills on March 19, 2014, just before the Lok Sabha polls. The GNLF supported Trinamul in the general elections.

Given the perception among the Morcha leadership that Ghisingh could no longer be a political threat because of his failing health and dwindling base, Gurung seemed to have softened his stance towards the GNLF chief.

Gurung and other senior Morcha leaders turned up at a hospital in Delhi on November 15 last year to see Ghisingh. But the Morcha chief could not meet him. He spoke to Mohan, Ghisingh's son.