Hollow ring to Delhi promise

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Mar 18, 2018, Darjeeling: An RTI reply suggests the Centre did precious little after promising a meeting on Darjeeling in September that Bimal Gurung had seized upon to call off the 104-day hills strike last year.

On September 26, 2017, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had issued a direct appeal to Gurung to lift the strike and said he had asked the Union home secretary to convene an official-level meeting in the home ministry "within a fortnight to discuss all related issues".

Within hours of the appeal, Gurung had asked for the bandh to be lifted in the hills.

In November, a Darjeeling resident who does not want to be identified had sought information under the RTI Act "on the official-level meeting that was proposed to take place by the Honb'le HM while appealing to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to withdraw the bandh in Darjeeling hills".

On January 2 this year, the Darjeeling resident received the reply: "It is informed that CPIO (central public relations officer) can furnish already created information as defined in Section 2(f) of the Act."

A hand-written note added: "Hence, information from this CPIO may please be treated as nil."

Asked on Sunday, home ministry sources in Delhi said "all stakeholders" were not available, indirectly blaming the Bengal government.

The suggestion that little or no effort has been made after the promise is expected to further queer the pitch for the BJP in the hills, which had sent the party's candidate to the Lok Sabha.

Gurung's standing, already on thin ice, is likely to be further undermined by the disclosure.

Gurung, after having failed to get relief from the Supreme Court on his possible arrest, appeared to be clutching at the straw of the central promise even now.

In a video message released on Saturday from an undisclosed location, Gurung referred to Rajnath's appeal and stressed the need to hold talks involving him, the Centre and the Bengal government.

The camp of Binay Tamang, the new power centre in the hills, said the RTI reply had exposed the BJP's insincerity. "The most important issue is that even the Union home minister seems to have made a hollow promise to Gurung. It is clear that the BJP was not sincere in solving the problem," a leader said.