Bista seeks talks for `permanent solution'

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 19 Nov 2019, Darjeeling: BJP MP Raju Bista raised the issue of finding "a permanent solution to the long pending political demand" in the Lok Sabha on Monday and asked the Centre to initiate tripartite talks on the matter.

"I got the opportunity to raise the issue twice -- once in Zero Hour and also under Rule 377 which permits the members to raise issues of `urgent public importance'," said the Darjeeling MP.

Bista said he had reminded Parliament of the statehood movements in the Darjeeling hills since 1986 and "highlighted" that the experiment of setting up two semi-autonomous bodies of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration had failed.

"Through the Parliament, I requested the Government to intervene in the matter and initiate tripartite talks involving Union Government, West Bengal Government, and Local representatives to find a permanent political solution……..at the earliest," Bista's written statement reads.

The BJP's manifesto for the 2019 general election reads: "We are committed to work towards finding a permanent political solution to the issue of Darjeeling Hills, Siliguri, Terai and Dooars regionBista's statement was immediately seized on by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang who termed it a "jugglery of words" and asked the Darjeeling MP to table a bill on Gorkhaland in the Lok Sabha.

"The Darjeeling MP who spoke on the Darjeeling issue for about two minutes laid stress on the permanent solution for Darjeeling, Terai and the Dooars but failed to echo the century-old demand of the Gorkhas, which is Gorkhaland," said Tamang.

The Morcha leader said the ministry of tribal affairs department's reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday to Bista's question on Scheduled Tribal status for 11 Gorkha communities hinted that the Centre had not taken any concrete decision on the matter.

Referring to Bista raising the issue of finding "a permanent solution" in the Lok Sabha, Trinamul Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri said: "In the next five years, our honest and simple Gorkha people will realise how deeply their emotion has been played withThe National Gorkhaland Committee, an apolitical organisation of Gorkhas in India, however, expressed happiness over the BJP MP's move as the issue had been "raised in Parliament under `matters of urgent public importance'".

"The MP raised the matter in keeping with the all-party resolution passed at a meeting convened by the NGC in Siliguri on November 10," said Munish Tamang, the general secretary of the NGC.

He said the first priority was to "stabilise the chicken neck region" "in the interest of our national security".

Mann Ghisingh, the president of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), also hailed Bista's statement in the Lok Sabha.

Bista's statement and the flurry of responses from different quarters have warmed up the political atmosphere in the Darjeeling hills.

Mann Ghisingh started his Jan Sampark Abhiyan from Rimbick in Darjeeling on Sunday to connect with rural masses.