The hills need both,development andpolitical solution

Gopal Lama was reported to have said that the agenda of Trinamool Congress and its ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha was development, and once the hills were developed the Gorkhaland demand would no longer be a relevant issue

Editorial, EOI, 16 March 2024 : A comment by Trinamool Congress candidate for Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat Gopal Lama has rekindled the debate if the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland is really all about lack of development in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong. 

Answering questions of reporters at Bagdogra airport earlier this week, Gopal Lama was reported to have said that the agenda of Trinamool Congress and its ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha was development, and once the hills were developed the Gorkhaland demand would no longer be a relevant issue. This is not a new debate. 

Ever since the Gorkhaland agitation was launched by Subash Ghisingh in the 1980s, the real grievance of the people of the hills is lack of development. 

 The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council had been formed with the aim of ensuring development for the hills through a measure of autonomy. Subash Ghisingh has continued to emphasize, however, that the real reason why the Gorkha people want a separate state is to settle the problem of their identity. The same argument has been advanced by Bimal Gurug, heading the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and many other leaders from the hills. \

As a means to settle the problem of identity of the Gorkha community, Subash Ghisingh had wanted some clauses of the Indo – Nepal Treaty of 1950 abrogated. 

That BGPM leader Anit Thapa, then with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, could manage to bring the situation in the hills under control after the Gorkhaland agitation of 2017 with the promise to restore peace and ensure development is an indication that peace and development are also important issues with the common people of the hills. There is nothing surprising about this. 

After a bandh lasting for 104 days at a stretch, it was of more immediate importance for the people of the hills to get back to normal life. It goes to the credit of Anit Thapa, in his capacity as Chairman of GTA to preserve peace in the hills all these years since 2017.He had been assisted in this by his compatriot Binoy Tamang who is now in Congress. In the past seven years, tourism has increased by leaps and bounds in the hills; the disruption caused by the pandemic notwithstanding. 

The footfall of tourists, and in particular the growth of homestay tourism, has helped the people of the hills economically. Like a true statesman, Anit Thapa has also issued the call for ending the division between Bengalis and Gorkhas.

It needs to be emphasized, however, that the Gorkhaland movement had never turned communal. Gorkhaland is an emotive issue that will not be forgotten. For a community, development is necessary, but so also is the protection of its identity and culture. Thanks to the efforts of Nar Bahadur Bhandari of Sikkim, the Nepali language is already protected under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. 

Appreciating the practical difficulties in the way to the formation of a separate state of Gorkhaland, the people of the hills have offered to the Centre that they can now also settle for a permanent political solution of the problems of the hills. \

Now it is a challenge and a responsibility for the Centre and the West Bengal government to ensure that something in the nature of a permanent political solution is offered while keeping the hills peaceful and keeping the wheels of development moving.

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