No parting with land for Gorkhaland: Deb

 Addressing the press in his office here, he said that the decision of the central government to call a tripartite meeting and issue letters to officials directly without informing the state government is totally against the system of parliamentary democracy, the country’s federal structure and as such, objectionable.

SNS, Siliguri, 5 October 2020:  State Tourism Minister Gautam Deb today said that his party, Trinamul Congress, will “give blood” but will never part with an inch of Bengal’s land to carve out Gorkhaland.

“We will give blood, but will not allow the mutilation of Mother Bengal,” he told reporters.

Addressing the press in his office here, he said that the decision of the central government to call a tripartite meeting and issue letters to officials directly without informing the state government is totally against the system of parliamentary democracy, the country’s federal structure and as such, objectionable.

While the Union Home Affairs Ministry had invited state government officials and the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha for a meeting to discuss “issues related to Gorkhaland” in Delhi on 7 October under the chairmanship of G Kishan Reddy, the Union Minister of state for Home Affairs, the ministry today issued a corrigendum, stating that the talks would be held for “issues related to Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.”

The ministry has invited the Home Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Darjeeling District Magistrate, Principal Secretary of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and the president of Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (Bimal Gurung camp) to the meeting.

Talking to reporters, Mr Deb also said: “When the state is totally peaceful and the chief minister is trying hard to bring in development in the Hills by allotting funds of Rs 175 crore to the GTA, more funds of Rs 5 to 10 crore per year to development boards and setting up a university and other infrastructural set-ups, a group is trying to disturb the peace.””The central government is not observing ‘Rajdharma,'” Mr Deb added.

“It is unfortunate that they mentioned the word Gorkhaland. Whenever election comes, the BJP banks on very small and narrow political agenda to disturb peace, break unity and solidarity. They even create division in society, community and between the Hills and the plains,” Minister Deb said, adding that the state government and people across the state will not accept any changes in the map of Bengal. “They will protest and prevent them and we are ready to give blood to prevent them from dividing Bengal,” he said earlier today.

“BJP always plays a dual role,” Mr Deb said, reacting to a statement from the Press that a section of BJP leaders are against the idea of a separate state of Gorkhaland.

Notably, Rantidev Sengupta, who had contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Howrah, in his recent Facebook post, had expressed his views against Gorkhaland and pointed out to some valid reasons when Darjeeling MP Raju Bista raised the issue of Gorkha people’s demand for Gorkhaland.

A political observer, quoting Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent public statement, on the other hand, said: “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave (the word) Gorkhaland to Bimal Gurung based on her political commitment as GTA was set up after she came to power in 2011.”

On the word ‘Gorkhaland,’ Mr Shah had recently said: “Didi you have given them Gorkhaland (GTA), we did not give them anything.”

Mr Gurung, a fugitive ever since the Gorkhaland agitation in 2017, was against former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and former urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya as they did not agree to use the word Gorkhaland while setting up an ‘interim board’ by replacing the constitutionally-guaranteed Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), which was set up under the leadership of the late GNLF leader, Subash Ghisingh.