Assam Gorkhas accuse Kalimpong MLA of indulging in opportunistic politics

EOI, Darjeeling 22 Jan 2016: Asserting that a separate state was the birth right of the Gorkhas of the country, the All Assam Gorkha Students’ Union (AAGSU) today appealed to Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri to stop indulging in opportunistic politics and instead support the Gorkhaland demand. 

A four-member AAGSU delegation led by Prem Tamang, the outfit’s president, is in Darjeeling to meet Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung and lend its support for the statehood demand. On Wednesday, the delegation, comprising Rohit Lamsal, the organisational secretary, Raj Newar, the publicity secretary and Santosh Chhetri, an executive member of the body, held a press conference in Darjeeling and announced that AAGSU would even organise rallies against the Kalimpong MLA in Assam in the coming days. “In Darjeeling certain people like Chhetri are indulging in opportunistic politics in the name of development. It must however, be remembered that the statehood demand is not only of the Darjeeling hills, but of the entire Gorkha community of the country,” Tamang said. “The Kalimpong MLA is also a son of the soil. But he is trying to divide the people with development issues. Our identity and not development is our priority at the moment,” he added. Chhetri, after severing ties with the GJM, has announced he would float a political party on January 27. But he has refused to prioritise the statehood demand and instead is banking on development issues to garner people’s support.

The AAGSU president reiterated that Gorkhas living in Assam and the Northeast had always supported the statehood cause and would continue to do so in future, the reason being for identity. “We (Gorkhas) have always been labelled as ‘outsiders’ and ‘foreigners’ even though we have and continue to sacrifice our lives for the nation. Therefore, for the sake of the 35 lakh Gorkhas in Assam and over 1 crore in the country, a separate Gorkha state becomes imperative. On the question of the apparent need of development of the region for the welfare of the hill people being more important than that of a separate state which needs to get the nod of the state government and parliament and which could take a while, the AAGSU president said,

“Development and rights are two different issues. Once our right is achieved things like development will follow. In fact, we fail to fathom why the Bengal government talks of development only when the statehood issue gets positive response,” Tamang pointed out.

The AAGSU members also questioned the Kalimpong MLA’s claim to taking credit for a new district saying it was only to confuse the people.

“In Assam five new districts and 12 sub-divisions were formed without any demand for them. So why is Chhetri claiming credit for a separate Kalimpong district? We feel once a state is achieved, the leaders and administrators can always work on it according to the needs,” Tamang reasoned.