MORCHA CLEANS WALLS, GNLF TALKS OF INCLUSIVENESS Bid to scrub stain off politics

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 21 May 2019, Darjeeling: In the intense angd hardfought elections in the Darjeeling hills, there are signs of new beginnin in political civility.

Supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's Binay Tamang camp on Monday scrubbed political posters off the walls here to "keep" the town clear.

A day after the Assembly byelection, the Tamang camp's archrival, Gorkha National Liberation Front, talked about inclusive politics and promised not to "demean" rivals in an event of victories in the Lok Sabha election and the Assembly bypoll.

The hills witnessed hugs and handshakes among candidates and politicians of various hues during the month-long campaign for the Darjeeling Assembly byelection.

Almost all leaders -- Amar Lama and Neeraj Zimba, candidates of the Jana Andolan Party and the BJP, respectively, Swaraj Thapa (Independent), Binay Tamang, GNLF president Maan Ghisingh and the BJP's Darjeeling Lok Sabha nominee Raju Bista -- were seen engaging in warm exchanges whenever they crossed path during the bypoll campaign.

"One must admit political civility did debut in the hills despite an intense battle. It is a good beginning but we have to wait and see whether it can pass the test of time," said an observer. Leaders and workers of the Tamang faction on Monday moved around the town, removing not just their posters but also those of Opposition parties. "I had asked our leaders to immediately remove the posters after the election concludes as it is everyone's responsibility to keep the town clean," said Anit Thapa, the general secretary of the Tamang camp.

The practice of removing festoons and banners had first been started by the JAP in the hills in 2016.

Ajoy Edwards, a steering committee member of the GNLF, also touched on political civility.

"Our party president, Mann Ghisingh, had already said in the event of our (alliance) win, we will go in for a low key celebration. We cannot really celebrate unless we can bring about permanent political solution to the hill issue. We shouldn't demean (the opposition)," said Edwards.

Talking about the inclusive politics, Edwards said: "We heard that Binay daju (Tamang) had said he would quit politics even if they lost one election. We would say, `don't do this daju', we need all stakeholders to come together to find a political solution to the hill issueThe GNLF leader also laid stress on "peace and reconciliation" in the hills..