GTA and its controversial run : Another several rounds of controversies are sure to follow with the Lok Sabha elections fast approaching

SANDIP C JAIN, EOI, 6 February 2023: Why has the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration court so much controversy rights from its formation to its running to the GTA elections and to the movement for a separate state? Why are allegations of corruption, inefficiency and dirty politics levelled against it? It is as if the GTA and controversies are synonyms. For a political and administrative unit which had been formed over the bodies of several martyrs and at a heavy economical and emotional cost on the lay population living in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, GTA should have definitely had larger acceptance amongst the public.

In my opinion, the very fact that the hapless common people of the hills had sacrificed so much before the formation of the GTA contributes towards making it so controversial and disliked. Why? Well frankly it is because the public went through years of struggle, strife, pain, sacrifice, terror, deprivation and economic hardship not for the creation of GTA but for a separate state.

The fact that a section of the leaders of the statehood agitation had been smooth-talked into accepting the GTA has contributed largely towards the common people adopting an antagonistic view towards the GTA. A sense of betrayal had crept into the minds of the general masses, both against the GTA as well as towards those who had accepted it.

The controversies had started even before the GTA actually came into existence after rumours of the gupti (secret) proposal sent by the statehood demand leadership to the Centre surfaced. It was felt that there was no need for so  much secrecy when the agitating public had just one agenda on the table, which was the creation of a separate state. This of course had gone unanswered on the part of the leadership. 

Later when the formation of the GTA was announced, the hill people grudgingly accepted its formation, firstly because their energy to sustain the agitation had all but sapped and secondly because they were led to believe that the GTA was just the stepping stone for greater and bigger things to come. 

The promises for greater and bigger things turned out to be a toothless tiger-well actually it wasn’t even a tiger and more like a huge Anaconda which drew in government funds in hundreds of crores which literally disappeared into its huge under belly. 

Even at the GTA Accord signing ceremony at the Pintail Village on the outskirts of Siliguri, supporters of Bimal Gurung’s party, who had till just very recently been open advocates of separation from West Bengal, were observed dancing and cheering even as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, thundered “Bangal-e bibhajan hobey na” (There will be no division of Bengal). There couldn’t have been amore controversial and ominous beginning to the GTA. Then of course in 2012 the Bimal Gurung led GJM swept the first GTA elections, securing all 45 seats with it, winning 28 seats uncontested.

With such an emphatic victory and with the firm supporting hands of the State Government and Centre over them, it was finally felt that all the narrow winding roads in the Darjeeling hills would lead to peace, prosperity, development and progress. For the next few years, peace, prosperity, development and progress did take place but the common people only got to enjoy peace while a section of the leadership of the ruling party enjoyed prosperity, development and progress for themselves and their camp followers.

Bimal Gurung resigned in between as Chief Executive of GTA and later got himself reinstated. Controversies and problems hounded the GTA, like the issues of transfer of departments, release of funds, permanent jobs of contract workers, appointment of teachers or the investigation into the Madan Tamang murder. 

Then arrived 2017 and the souring of relations between the ruling State Government and the GJM came to its climax. With the State Government making announcements of a “physical audit” of all the projects undertaken by the GTA, panic was visible. The GJM, desperate to wriggle out of this sticky circumstance, was presented with a platform by the State Government which announced a revised language policy in the schools which made learning Bengali compulsory in all schools across West Bengal.

This was the perfect opportunity that the GJM needed and it resigned from the GTA and  renewed its agitation for a separate state once again. The violence, chaos, mass uprising, killings, police firings, bomb blasts and of course the 104-day strike brought the hills to a standstill. This provided the State Government with the excuse to clamp down on the agitation as well as on the common people.

The mysterious killing of a police officer in the Sirubari forest provided the State Government with the opportunity to remove its gloves and start punching bare fisted. With brute force the entire agitation was brought to its knees. Bimal Gurung and all his close supporters preferred taking to their heels rather than to stand and fight; leaving the hapless public to face the brunt of the police stick. The tenure of the GJM in the GTA, ended as it had started, in controversy.

The often used ‘divide and rule’ policy once again surfaced; with the cloak and dagger moves, the State Government weaned away the former lieutenants of Bimal Gurung --- Anit Thapa and Binay Tamang --- and installed them as the new kings on the thorny GTA throne. Another  controversy ensued but the masses, partly out of fear of reprisal by the state machinery and partly out of fatigue arising out of the 104- day strikes, accepted this as fait accompli.

Binay Tamang and later Anit Thapa were nominated as GTA Administrators and in the absence of Bimal Gurung they managed to sway almost the entire rank and file of the GJM. Another controversy was just around the corner with Binay Tamang, the State Government appointed GTA Administrator, resigning to contest the MLA elections from Darjeeling in2021. His place was filled by Anit Thapa.

Unfortunately for Binay Tamang, he lost the elections to Neeraj Zimba, the candidate of theBJP-Gorkha National Liberation Front alliance, thereby losing out on his earlier position too. He later quit the Anit Thapa camp and joined the Trinamool Congress which again he has quit recently.

The long due GTA elections were finally held in 2022, with the Anit Thapa-led Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha winning a comfortable majority and Anit Thapa, this time taking over as the elected Chairman of the GTA.

This election was the first genuinely democratic election that was held in the GTA area for long, with Hamro Party, Trinamool Congress as well as GJM (masked as Independent candidates)winning seats too. Controversy, being the second name of GTA, reared its head up again with BGPM luring away GTA councillors belonging to the Hamro Party. The long innings of the GJM in the GTA seems to be finally over though with their announcement of having unilaterally withdrawn from the GTA accord. Whether this has any relevance after 12 long years is another matter though of course it does sound controversial once again.

So amongst all these controversies where does Gorkhaland stand? The buzz word now is PPS but what PPS exactly is, no one knows. Another several rounds of controversies are sure to follow with the Lok Sabha elections fast approaching. The public can stay tuned for much drama and controversies in the coming  months. 

(The author of this article is the Editor of Himalayan Times, Kalimpong)