Morcha on Modi rally

SNS, 8 February 2019, Darjeeling: Leader of the Gorkha Mukti Morcha, Anit Thapa, today said that the entire Gorkha community feels let down by the BJP as PM Narendra Modi did not make a single comment on the Gorkhas and Gorkhaland as he addressed a rally in Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri.

According to Mr Thapa, the entire Hills, the Terai and the Dooars today marked 'Balidan Diwas' to remember the three Gorkhas killed in police firing in Sipchu in Jalpaiguri in 2011.  It may be mentioned here that Mr Modi addressed the rally just an hour's drive away from Sipchu.

"The Prime Minister, who had visited Madarihat in 2016 had promised that 11 Gorkha communities would be given the ST (Scheduled Tribe) status, but till date, there has been no positive result on this, and there is still no sign of a Bill being tabled in the ongoing budget session (of Parliament) which will get over by next week," Mr Thapa said in a press statement.

Ahead of the 2014 general elections, the BJP had said in its election manifesto that it would" appropriately consider the long-pending demand of the Gorkhas."

Modi also spoke in Siliguri in April 2014 and one famous line of his speech among the Gorkhas was 'Gorkha ka Sapna, Mera Sapna' (Gorkhas' dream is my dream). This assurance had indeed made Gorkhas believe that this person, if elected to the highest office, would definitely fulfill the only dream of the Gorkhas, a Gorkha state, but sadly, this is the biggest mistake that the Gorkhas have made and we have to give a befitting reply to the BJP in the upcoming elections," Mr Thapa, who is also the vice-chairman of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Board of Administrators, added.