Morcha tries to spoil meeting: GNLF Shops shut during rally: Hill party

GNLF members in Badamtam tea garden during the public meeting on Sunday

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Aug 06, 2018, Darjeeling: The Gorkha National Liberation Front alleged that supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha had closed shops in Badamtam tea garden near here to inconvenience GNLF supporters attending a public meeting on Sunday.

This development and the trend of GNLF and Morcha leaders spitting venom against each other could be an indication that political atmosphere in the hills might be vitiated, observers believe.

Sandip Limbu, a GNLF leader, who addressed the crowd in Badamtam tea garden, said: "Shops at Chowrasta (a village square in Badamtam) and also other shops in the tea garden were closed. We were told that Morcha supporters of Binay Tamang had yesterday (Saturday) directed shopkeepers to keep shutters down today."

The GNLF, which is trying to revive the party's support base in the hills, is holding public meetings in different nook and corners of the hills every Sunday - a day when tea gardens remain closed and workers are at home.

Badamtam is 12km from here.

The trade union of the GNLF has also been holding gate meeting since August 1 drumming up support for fixation of minimum wages for tea gardens workers in Bengal.

Limbu said: "Binay Tamang talks about adopting a policy of zero enmity and talks about democracy having been restored in the hills but one does not feel nice when such incidents take place."

This is not the first time that such an incident is unfolding in Badamtam. During the last Lok Sabha elections, shops at Chowrasta in Badamtam had remained closed when TMC candidate from Darjeeling, Bhaichung Bhutia and Gautam Deb had gone to address a public meeting there.

The GNLF on Sunday batted for implementation of Sixth Schedule status in the hills.

"Sixth Schedule is not an expired tablet (medicine), it is a sanjivini butti (life saving herb)," said Neeraj Zimba, GNLF leader.

During the last phase of the Gorkhaland agitation, Zimba had said that Sixth Schedule was an "expired tablet" and that the GNLF would continue with the statehood agenda.

Limbu also alleged that during the course of the meeting, some people had tried to disrupt their speeches at Badamtam by playing loudspeakers nearby.

"The administration, however, told them not to play the loudspeakers," said Limbu.

Asked about the GNLF's allegation, Suraj Sharma, the spokesman for the Morcha, said: "I do not even know that the GNLF had a public meeting organised there today (Sunday). Our leaders are not aware of their meeting."