Morcha not to back BJP strike on Wednesday

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 24 Sep 2018, Darjeeling: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has said it won't support the general strike called by the BJP across Bengal on September 26 against recent violence at Daribhit near Islampur as the saffron party didn't bother to utter a single word when Gorkhaland agitation singed the hills last year.

"Our condolences are with families which lost members (in the Daribhit violence). We will, however, not support the September 26 strike," Morcha spokesman Suraj Sharma said here on Sunday.

He then went on explaining the reason.

"During last year's agitation, lives were lost in the hills. The BJP did not even utter a word then let alone hold condolence meetings. Does the BJP think people of the hills are not humans? That is why we have decided not to support the BJP strike and our party's president Binay Tamang had already announced that the hills would be a strike-free zone," said Sharma.

He was speaking after a six-hour meeting of the Morcha's 21-member core-committee, which is the policy making body of the party.

The core committee has demanded elections to the GTA Sabha and the two-tier panchayat system in the hills.

"We are now ready to face any election," said Sharma. Asked if the Morcha was talking of the GTA polls, Tshering Dahal, a core committee member, said: "We want all elections to be held as it is part of a democratic process. We also want panchayat elections to take place." "Elections to three tiers are not possible now. In 2000, elections were held only to gram panchayats. However, we have realised that the onetier system is toothless and we are of the opinion that elections should be held to both gram panchayats and panchayat samitis," added Dahal.

The Morcha's ready-toface election narrative clearly reflects the party's confidence about its support base.

Elections cannot be held to the zilla parishad in the hills unless the Constitution is amended. An exemption had been made for the hills after the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) was formed in 1988.

Although the hills have panchayat samitis, elections to the second tier were not held in the past 18 years because of opposition from the GNLF.

At the core committee meeting, the Morcha decided to extend support to people who were facing legal problems because of last year's agitation. "Still, 17 of our people are languishing in jails," said Dahal.

The party has also decided to focus on the demand to grant land rights to hill people and form a committee to look into the cry for land rights to people living on plots land under the Darjeeling Improvement Fund.