Amit Shah – GNLF meeting opens Pandora’s box in Darjeeling: GJM will oppose Sixth Schedule in hills: Bimal Gurung

It is understood that the talks between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and alliance partner of BJP the Gorkha National Liberation Front in Delhi on Wednesday had centred round the proposal of Sixth Schedule

.EOI, DARJEELING, JANUARY 12, 2024 : The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said on Friday it would oppose any attempt by the BJP to bring the hills under the ambit of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, asserting such a step would create divisions among the Gorkha community. 

It is understood that the talks between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and alliance partner of BJP the Gorkha National Liberation Front in Delhi on Wednesday had centred round the proposal of Sixth Schedule. 

GNLF supremo Subash Ghisingh had been the first to raise the Sixth Schedule demand and had then even got the UPA government led by the Congress to bring a Bill in Parliament in 2005. 

However, with the support of the BJP, the GJM led by Bimal Gurung had managed to put the Sixth Schedule Bill on the backburner. In fact, riding the wave of anti-Sixth Schedule sentiment, Gurung displaced Ghisingh and took over control of the hills in 2008. 

"Sixth schedule will never be accepted by the hill people. We had opposed it before and will do so again, if any attempt is made to implement it," said Gurung on Friday. 

Before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP had promised to find a permanent political solution for the hills and grant tribal status to the 11 left-out Gorkha communities. This had also been incorporated in the poll manifesto of the saffron party. 

The BJP has not yet spelt out what their version of a PPS is. People of the hills, however, consider a separate Gorkhaland state to be their ultimate aspiration. 

This uncertainty has created an air of confusion among people and put the GNLF in a quandary to clarify their stand which has always been the demand to implement the constitutionally guaranteed Sixth Schedule in the hills. 

The GJM however has a different view of the sixth schedule and has instead demanded that the 11 left- out Gorkha communities must first be included in the list of scheduled tribes. 

"The sixth schedule will politically only benefit a few communities.

 The majority of nearly 60 to 65 percent of the people will stand to lose. We are not completely averse to the Sixth Schedule, but we first want the 11 left out Gorkha communities to be included under the scheduled tribe list," said Gurung.

The political atmosphere of the hills continues to be enveloped in uncertainty and mistrust as issues like Sixth Schedule, Union Territory and a separate north Bengal state gather momentum every now and then ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. 

"We have to work for the greater cause of the people. Political parties should not indulge in vested interests. I am thinking and working on the benefits of the Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars regions. All the hill parties should also work for the people because the 2024 election is very crucial for us," said Gurung. 

The GJM leader said the party has not yet taken up discussion on the 2024 general election, asserting strategies would be worked out later by the central committee of the party