Bodo accord ripples in Binay camp posters

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 6 February 2020, Darjeeling: The Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Wednesday plastered posters across the Darjeeling hills, asking the BJP to explain what it meant by "finding a permanent political solution to the issue" of the region.

The hill party has stepped up pressure on the BJP apparently because of signing of the third Bodo Accord by Bodo leaders and the central and Assam governments in Delhi on January 27 for creation of Bodoland Territorial Region.

In its manifesto for the 2019 general elections, the BJP had promised: "We are committed to work towards finding a permanent political solution to the issue of Darjeeling Hills, Siliguri, Terai and Dooars region." 

Even though the BJP didn't explicitly clarify the "permanent political solution", many in the hills felt it would be the region's separation from Bengal. But the central BJP government's decision to upgrade the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) to the BTR within Assam triggered concerns in the hills that the promise of the :permanent political solution" would be on similar lines.

Puran Thami, the general secretary of the Morcha's Tamang camp, said: "Following A supporter of the Tamang faction plasters a poster in Darjeeling on Wednesday the recent Bodo agreement, we are worried that the permanent solution could be on the lines of the Bodo agreement and we would be confined to a council." 

"The aspirations of the Gorkhas can be fulfilled only through Gorkhaland and this is why we have raised questions before Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bista," he added.

Certain sections in the hills had earlier lamented that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was far weaker than the Bodoland Territorial Council.

Unlike the GTA, the BTC has legislative powers.

"The Centre has only upgraded the existing council for the Bodos, but we don't want any more of these councils," said Thami.

The Centre didn't upgrade the BTC as claimed by Thami but brought more areas under the BTAD which was renamed as the BTR. 

The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council was formed in 1988, followed by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in 2011.

While the agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland intensified in 1986, the Bodoland movement gathered momentum a year later.

Many maintain that the demand to safeguard Bodo's right had started in 1929 when Bodo leader Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma had submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission asking for a separate political entity and the community's recognition.

The genesis of the Gorkhaland agitation can be traced to a 1907 memorandum to the British by Darjeeling leaders who had wanted a separate administrative unit for the region.

"Given the similarity of the Bodo and Gorkhaland movements and the way the BJP has worked out a solution, we now doubt if the party will fulfil the demand for the hills' separation from Bengal," said Thami.

An observer said: "The BJP has always been in a tight situation on the Gorkhaland issue as the statehood for the hills would antagonise the larger Bengal population while working out a Bodo style agreement would alienate the party from Gorkhas."