GJMM quits Assembly

Editorial , SNS, 16 September, 2015: The autonomous functioning of the Gorkha Territorial Authority, at best a tenuous experiment in self-rule short of statehood for Darjeeling, is bound to be hobbled further with the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha’s decision to withdraw three of its members from the West Bengal Assembly. The announcement is a reaction to what the GJMM considers to be the Trinamul government’s interventionist attitude towards the GTA. More fundamentally, the GTA, which was a year ago hailed as a watershed development in the Hills, has not been given the independence it seeks.

In the net, the perceived gains of Mamata Banerjee’s initiative have been frittered away. In effect, the GJMM has snapped its links with the legislature and the executive as well, if morcha leader Bimal Gurung’s directive is any indication. It is a directive that has reinforced the Assembly resignations; GTA sabha members have been asked not to attend any meeting with the state government on civic issues, indeed a segment of public policy that is close to the bone for the Hills people. Most importantly because haphazard development under the un-elected GNLF has resulted in considerable ecological imbalance, when not tectonic shifts. Apart from what the GJMM calls “meddling in hill affairs”, its leadership has bared its angst over the government’s reluctance to effect the transfer of several departments to the GTA, notably the schools and colleges that are still under the state’s control.

Furthermore, in a swathe of the state that has contended with sub-regional jingoism since the mid-1980s, the Chief Minister was arguably tactless in her dealings with ethnic groups. This explains why the constitution of a separate development board for the Bhutias has been vehemently resented by the Gorkhas, let alone the other hill tribes such as the Lepchas - the original settlers. The GJMM feels particularly alienated with the government’s decision to demolish a floor of a “model” school being constructed by the GTA. It is direly imperative for the state to realise that playing the ethnic card - during the Chief Minister’s periodic visits to Darjeeling - shall not bandage the festering wound.

If prevarication had marked the policy of the Left, the present dispensation appears to have opted for selective redressal of intractable grievances. In the event, the Hills are faced with the worst of both worlds. Miss Banerjee’s announcement that an umbrella development entity will soon be in place to take care of the other tribes has struck an ethnic chord. There is no one size-fits all formula on ethnicity and sub-regionalism, which historically have been at the core of the crisis in Darjeeling - a turbulent past and an uncertain present. From Jyoti Basu to Mamata Banerjee, the Hills have defied an agreeable solution. Leaving the legislature is merely a symptom.