Hills gear up for tough times again as GJM calls bandh on Sept 28

Pramod Giri , HT, 26 Sep 2016, SILIGURI: The hard-earned peace in Darjeeling seems to be heading for a rude jolt after three years with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), on Sunday, calling a 12-hour strike on Wednesday and threatening to extend its duration for an indefinite period if the government chooses to crack down on its protests to demand a separate state.

The move came within days of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the Hills where she not only inaugurated and took stock of a string of development projects but also warned “all those trying to disturb the peace and destabilise the Hills”. Mamata was in Kalimpong for three days last week during which she addressed two public programmes and dared the GJM to enforce a bandh. “There will be no bandhs. We will not allow negative and disruptive politics,” she had said. The chief minister also said that over Rs 4,000 crores had been given to the GTA over the last four years. Accusing Mamata of telling “blatant lies”, GJM president and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration’s (GTA) chief, Bimal Gurung, warned the state government on using force to foil the bandh. He had earlier said that he would relinquish his GTA post to renew the movement for a state.

Addressing a meeting of GJM’s women’s wing in Kalimpong’s Delo, Gurung asked the people to get ready for a prolonged agitation. “I am just waiting for the school examinations to be over. The state government should restrain itself from interfering in the functioning of the GTA and dividing the Hills people,” he said.

He had earlier threatened to call a bandh if Mamata did not provide the details of the Rs 4,000 crore that she claimed to have given to the GTA. However, on Saturday, the Trinamool Congress unit of Kalimpong held a rally where party leaders announced the details of the funds given and alleged that a major chunk of the money made its way to the pockets of a few GJM leaders. The Trinamool, the Jan Andolan Party (JAP) led by former Kalimpong MP Harka Bahadur Chhetri and Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) have decided to actively oppose the bandh on Wednesday. Observers feel that the latest round of stand-off is a bad omen for the Hills and may well plunge all the three Hills sub-divisions — Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong — into uncertainty and create a law and order situation.

Darjeeling had last seen a long-drawn stir in 2013 when the GJM led a shutdown for a month in August-September.