Bajgain is right: if the entire Gorkha community is granted tribal status there is no reason to oppose the sixth schedule for the hills.

The poison of an expired capsule is trying to run in the veins in the Darjeeling hills.

EOI, Editorial, 23 December 2023 : The recent spat in social media between two BJP MLAs of Darjeeling hills --- B. P. Sharma, known as Bajgain, of Kurseong and Neeraj Zimba of Darjeeling --- over sixth schedule status to the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong has rekindled the memory of the collapse of the mighty Subash Ghisingh and the Gorkha National Liberation Front in 2007 and the rise of Bimal Gurung and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

Bajgain has hit out in a Facebook post at the Darjeeling MLA, without naming him, for arguing in favour of sixth schedule status in the hills. 

“The poison of an expired capsule is trying to run in the veins in the Darjeeling hills,” Bajgain has observed. “I will not support an exercise that will kill the unity of the community.” Zimba has retorted in his Facebook page: “Green capsule is a Sanjivani buti and has no expiry date.
”On hind sight, Bajgain is right that such a move will bring about a division in the Gorkha community. Chairman of the former Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Subash Ghisingh had tried to bring the DGHC under the sixth schedule of the Constitution so that the hill council could get access to more power and funds and be largely free from the control of Kolkata. 

Large sections of the people in the hills had opposed the move in those days. Bimal Gurung and his GJM had seized the opportunity to remove Subash Ghisingh from power in the hills and form the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

The reason for this grievance among the hill people was simple. Only about 23 percent of the people in the hills are scheduled tribes. Had the DGHC been brought under the sixth schedule, only this section would have got the benefits of reservation; in job, in education and in the West Bengal state legislature and in Parliament. 

The majority of the hill people would have been left out. Even the then Left Front Government in Bengal had not understood this reality. 

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was in favour of sixth schedule for the DGHC. His lieutenant Ashok Bhattacharya who was in charge of the hills in the CPI (M) used to draw comparison with the Bodoland Territorial Council. Bodo speaking people were not in majority in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District area, yet the BTC, which was under the sixth schedule, was functioning well; he would argue. 

There is, however, a difference between the BTAD area in Assam and the Darjeeling hills in Bengal. All the Bodo-speaking people in the BTAD area are a scheduled tribe, so when an autonomous council was formed under the sixth schedule one among them was left out. Among the Gorkha-speaking people, the large majority are not scheduled tribes. 

\In this scenario, a hill council under the sixth schedule will bring no benefit to them; only a small section will benefit.

Herein lies the importance of the demand for scheduled tribe status for the 11 left-out communities in the hills. Among them are communities which are numerically the largest. If all the Gorkha-speaking people are included in the list of scheduled tribes, they will benefit equally. The GTA will have more powers, financial and otherwise, if it is under the sixth schedule. 

Bajgain has said if the entire Gorkha community is granted tribal status he will have no reason to oppose the sixth schedule for the hills. Bajgain is right.

Courtesy & source: Echo of India

http://echoofindia.com/ePaper/index.aspx?page=VEVPSQ==