Seminar on statehood

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, April 6: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to bring those who fought for the creation of Telangana and Uttarkhand to talk about their struggles for statehood at a seminar organised by the party's study forum in Darjeeling on April 13 and 14.

The Morcha's study forum will be organising a "National Seminar on Gorkhaland 2015" at the Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan here. Apart from the leaders of Telangana Rastriya Samiti and Uttarkhand Kranti Dal, the organisers have also invited leaders' from Assam, Dooars and Sikkim.

Swaraj Thapa, the convenor of the seminar, said: "The party is now concentrating on a Delhi-centric movement but we also felt that it was time to bring in leaders from Delhi and other states to Darjeeling so that they can feel the aspirations of the people. We also expect to learn from the experiences of other movements."

The TRS will be represented by Keshav Rao, a Rajya Sabha member, and Vinod Kumar, a Lok Sabha member. Kashi Singh Airy, the president of Uttarkhand Kranti Dal, will also be present. The BJP will be represented by Subramanian Swamy, R.K. Singh, an MP from Bihar, and R.P. Sharma, an MP from Assam. Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia, Mahesh Chadha, national general secretary of Bharat Tibet Sahyog Manch, Nar Bahadur Bhandari, former chief minister of Sikkim, and Ashok Chaurasia, international convener of Nepali Sanskriti Parishad, will also be present.

"We invite leaders of other political parties in the hills to be present at the seminar so that they can understand the perspectives of other national leaders on the statehood movement," said Binay Tamang, the assistant general secretary of the Morcha.