BJP MLAs from Darjeeling trade barbs: Duo divided on Sixth Schedule status

B.P. Sharma (Bajgain), BJP Kurseong MLA, in a Facebook post on Tuesday hit out at his Darjeeling counterpart Neeraj Zimba without naming him, for trying to push Sixth Schedule status in the Darjeeling hills

BP Sharma (Bajgain) and Neeraj Zimba: The Telegraph

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, 22.12.23 :  Two BJP legislators from Darjeeling hills seem to be at loggerheads over the Sixth Schedule status, but without naming names.

B.P. Sharma (Bajgain), BJP Kurseong MLA, in a Facebook post on Tuesday hit out at his Darjeeling counterpart Neeraj Zimba without naming him, for trying to push Sixth Schedule status in the Darjeeling hills. On Wednesday, Zimba wrote back, countering the Kurseong MLA's views and indicating the latter was "homeless in his own party". However, Zimba also refrained from taking Bajgain's name in the post.

“The poison of an expired capsule is trying to run in the veins of Darjeeling hills. I will not support an exercise that will kill the unity of the (Gorkha) community,” Bajgain wrote on Tuesday, directed against Darjeeling BJP MLA Zimba.

Zimba’s party, the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), wants the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling hills. In fact, the party observed the Sixth Schedule day on Monday. Zimba, the general secretary of GNLF, had contested and won the 2021 Assembly elections on a BJP ticket.

Bajgain’s post was accompanied by green-coloured medicine capsules. The GNLF’s party colour is green.

On Wednesday, Zimba countered Bajgain through his Facebook page.

“The green capsule is Sanjivini buti (a medicinal herb) and it has no expiry date,” wrote Zimba and indicated that Bajgain was a “lone monkey” who is “homeless even in his own party (the BJP).”

Sanjivini buti is the lifesaving herb in the Ramayana that lord Hanuman got for the injured Lakshman.

Zimba further indicated that the Kurseong MLA was trying to mislead the community, but did not name him. Also, the homeless reference, sources said, was to the sour relations that Bajgain apparently shares with Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bista and other BJP district leaders.

Zimba, on the other hand, shares a comfortable relationship with Bista.

On Thursday, Bajgain defended his opposition to the Sixth Schedule status.

“If the entire Gorkha community is granted tribal status, I have no reason to oppose the Sixth Schedule. Until that happens, this status will only divide the Gorkha community among tribals and non-tribals as the tribal population in Darjeeling district is only 22.8 per cent,” Bajgain told The Telegraph.

The Sixth Schedule is a special provision for certain states of the Northeast for the administration of tribal areas. The Centre and state had agreed to grant Sixth Schedule status to Darjeeling hills as demanded by the GNLF in 2005. However, the status was put on the back burner after Bimal Gurung started the Gorkhaland agitation in 2007.

“Apart from creating an ethnic division, the Sixth Schedule for Darjeeling hills will also leave the Gorkhas of the Dooars and the Terai (the plains) in the lurch,” Bajgain added, stressing that unless the entire Gorkha community was granted tribal status, the status should not be accepted by anyone.

The Kurseong MLA also batted for a Union territory even if it was without an Assembly for the region.

Bajgain had, on November 8, stated that he would contest against the official BJP candidate if the party nominated an “outsider” for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Bajgain had hinted that he considered sitting Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bista and former foreign secretary Harshvardhan Shringla as “outsiders”.

Bista was born in 1986 to a Gorkha family in Manipur.

Retired bureaucrat Shringla, who was chief coordinator in India's G20 presidency, has roots in the region.

The name of Shringla as a probable BJP candidate for Darjeeling for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections has been doing the rounds for some months now.

Zimba did not take calls from this newspaper.

Courtesy & source- The Telegraph