Talks bell ends hill strike after 104 days- Meeting in a fortnight to discuss all issues: Delhi

TT, Calcutta, Sept. 26: The 104-day-old strike in the hills will be called off at 6 am on Wednesday, Bimal Gurung said today a few hours after Union home minister Rajnath Singh announced a meeting within a fortnight to "discuss all related issues".

Rajnath also appealed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership to withdraw the shutdown. Singh's promise to convene a meeting within a fortnight, sources said, provided Gurung with the reason to announce the decision to lift the strike.

"We have decided to keep the hills open from 6am tomorrow," Gurung told The Telegraph in the evening.

The flurry of action came on a day Internet services were resumed in the hills and more shops opened in Darjeeling with the start of one of the most important festivals, Dashain, in the region.  

Issuing an appeal from New Delhi, Rajnath said in the afternoon: "In a democracy, dialogue is the only way out to resolve any problem. Solutions can be found through restraint, mutual dialogue and within the legal ambit. I have asked the home secretary to convene an official-level meeting in the home ministry within a fortnight to discuss all related issues."

The Union home minister made a specific appeal to Gurung. "I also appeal to the GJM and its leader Bimal Gurung to withdraw the ongoing bandh and to help create a conducive atmosphere for allowing normalcy to return to the area, particularly in view of the festive season."

Rajnath said he was pained immensely by what had happened in the hills. "Eleven precious lives have been lost so far, several have been injured and the entire people of Darjeeling hills have suffered a lot since the strike," the Union home minister said.

According to sources in Calcutta, the Bengal government is not averse to the idea of tripartite talks but it has not yet dropped its opposition to Gurung attending the meeting.

The state government feels that Binay Tamang, the dissident Morcha leader who has been named the chief of a board to run the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, should take part in the talks, the sources added.

Gurung said the sacrifices made by "11 martyrs" had brought the Centre to the talks table, adding that the strike was being withdrawn because the Morcha was going to the tripartite meeting.

"Eleven people have been martyred for the land, for the community and it is because of their sacrifices that the Union home minister has thought of sitting for talks. We are now going for talks because of the sacrifices of our martyrs.... We are suspending the strike from tomorrow to go for talks and will wait for the outcome of the talks," Gurung said.

However, Anit Thapa, another rebel Morcha leader and the vice-chairman of the board of GTA administrators, said: "Even if the strike withdrawal announcement had not been made today, the people would have withdrawn it on their own."

"There was no concrete announcement from Rajnath Singh apart from a face saver for Gurung. He (Gurung) has only played with the emotions of the hill people. Gorkhaland can be achieved only through the politics of reality," Thapa added. "The people of the hills were made to suffer for so long for nothing and this is the kind of politics we are opposing."