Anit Thapa and the art of real politik

As Chief Executive Officer of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, this stand of Anit Thapa makes sense. 

Editorial, EOI, 11 February 2024 : President of Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha Anit Thapa has announced his party will launch an agitation with the demand that the Centre grant tribal status to the 11 left-out Gorkha communities.

He has also gone on record on occasions that Gorkhaland is not one of his immediate priorities; the development of the hills and taking care of the pressing needs of the hill people are. 

As Chief Executive Officer of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, this stand of Anit Thapa makes sense. 

The West Bengal Government and the ruling Trinamool Congress in the State have always supported him. 

Now with the recent announcement from Delhi that the GTA will have the powers of the zilla parishad, the indications that the ruling BJP at the Centre is also willing to back him. For Anit Thapa, the most sensible course now open is to ask for more powers for the GTA.

If the Centre includes the 11 left-out Gorkha communities in Darjeeling in the list of scheduled tribe, it will pave the way for the GTA to come under the sixth schedule of the Constitution. This in turn will pave the way for more funds for the hill council and more power for it to function autonomously. 

This does not necessarily mean that it will also pave the way for the formation of a separate state comprising the hill areas of West Bengal. 

Unless the large majority of the people belonging to the Gorkha community is brought under the purview of the list of scheduled tribes, sixth schedule status for the hills is unlikely to be accepted; as Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung has correctly pointed out. Darjeeling has much to learn from the experiments with the autonomous council for the Bodo people in neighbouring Assam have proved this point. 

When the Bodoland Autonomous Council used to function under an act of the Assam Government, there was hardly any development in the Bodo-inhabited areas of Assam. The demand fora separate state of Bodoland was strong and several armed underground groups were active in this part of Assam. 

Things started changing for the better in this belt of Assam on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in 2003 when the Bodoland Territorial Council was formed under the sixth schedule of the Constitution. Funds started flowing to the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District area and development also started. 

With the Narendra Modi government signing yet another agreement with different groups representing the Bodo people, peace has been firmly established in the BTAD area and the Bodo people are now a part of the larger Asomiya society. There is one difference, however, between the situation in the BTAD area and that in Darjeeling.
The Bodos being listed as a plains tribe in Assam, the transition of the autonomous council from BAC to BTC was a smooth one. In Darjeeling, it is essential to include first the 11 left-out Gorkha communities in the scheduled tribe list.

Significantly, the Gorkha National Liberation Front had been demanding since the days of Subash Ghisingh that the former Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council be brought under the sixth schedule. 

The move had backfired as only a minority of the Gorkha people were listed as scheduled tribe. This situation remains unchanged even today. Now if the GNLF, too, becomes vocal with the demand for inclusion of the 11 left-out communities in the scheduled tribe list, it may in the coming days the BGPM and the GNLF together. GJM leader Bimal Gurung has also indicated that he may support sixth schedule status for the GTA provided all the Gorkha communities are included in the scheduled tribe list first. 

With neighbouring Sikkim also demanding that 12 left-out communities be included in the scheduled tribe list, this may turn into a rallying point in the entire hill region of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim. One will have to watch how the next government at the Centre will tackle this issue which has many dimensions