Darjeeling waits for another indefinite bandh spell 28 Jul 2009, ET Bureau, SILIGURI: After the temporary withdrawal of the indefinite bandh called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, life in Darjeeling hills is returning to normal. "It is not a total withdrawal of the bandh. A temporary phase only. We shall wait to see the outcome of the next tripartite meet on August 11 and decide the future course of action by August 17," said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri. It is clear that the tripartite meet is not going to yield anything positive in favour of Gorkhaland. So, the future course will definitely include another bandh spell. Undoubtedly, that is going to be more aggressive and decide the fate of the party itself in hills. We cannot allow the state to get divided, Union finance ministerPranab Mukherjee had clarified the Centre’s stand on the issue earlier. So, it is obvious the GJM will have to come back from Delhi without anything specific on Gorkhaland. With the central and state governments against the demand and the BJP being of little help, the GJM has now developed bitter enmity with the Adivasis too. GJM's only pillar of support are the hills people. If Mr Gurung and his colleagues return empty-handed from Delhi, it would definitely wean away many supporters. This would jeopardise the very existence of GJM. The only alternative for them is yet another long, aggressive bandh to mark their own presence by shattering lives of others, exactly the way things used to be during the Subash Ghising era, said political observers. GORKHAS CALL OFF STRIKE IN HILLS Reuters, July 28 - The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, an organisation of ethnic Gorkhas, called off their strike till August 17 on Tuesday in Sukna, West Bengal. The step comes ahead of a proposed tripartite meeting among Gorkhas, West Bengal and the central government, which is scheduled on August 11. HILL RETURNS TO NORMAL TNN, DARJEELING 29 July: Life returned to normal in the Darjeeling hills on Tuesday following the withdrawal of GJM's indefinite bandh that began on July13. The pro-Gorkhaland party announced the withdrawal of the strike on Monday, citing "the need for creating a suitable atmosphere for the August 11 talks between GJM, the Centre and the state government". Markets, offices and educational institutions were opened but revenue offices and electricity and telephone bill counters remained closed as part of GJM's non-cooperation movement that started in April 2008. The party has asked people not to pay taxes and to protest the government's opposition to its statehood demand. The strike had been called in support of GJM's demand for a separate Gorkhaland, transfer of IG (North Bengal) K L Tamta and two other senior police officers and an inquiry into the July 10 clashes between police and GJM supporters at Panighatta. Cops arrested for ‘misfire’ death VIVEK SINGH, TT, Kurseong, July 28: Four constables have been arrested in connection with the death of a 27-year-old man when a service revolver went off at a house in Nayabazar last night. The fifth accused is yet to be picked up. The four have been booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (criminal act with a common intention) of the IPC. The fifth, Tezendra Ghalay, is a sub-inspector of police. All of them are posted at the Kurseong police station. Dilip Chettri, Shanta Rai, Vijay Pradhan and Saroj Chettri were produced in the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate in Kurseong today and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. “Ghalay will surrender soon,” said Rakesh Singh, the subdivisional police officer of Kurseong. Pratibha Pradhan said Barun Sharma, her cousin, had brought the five policemen to her house around 9.30pm yesterday. “He said they wanted to drink water. I was in the kitchen, when a shot rang out. I hurried back to the room where they were sitting and saw Barun lying in a pool of blood. The policemen took him to the hospital where he was declared brought dead,” she said. The bullet had struck Barun, a day labourer who stayed in the house next to Pratibha’s, on the back. He is survived by two sisters who are married. Singh confirmed that the five policemen were on duty at the time of the incident. “Ghalay had a sore on his hip and since the revolver was hurting him, he had taken it off the holster and kept it on the table. At that time Pradhan started fiddling with the revolver. By chance he pressed the trigger button and the bullet went off and hit Sharma,” Singh said. Last night around 200 residents of Nayabazar surrounded the Kurseong police station for three-and-a-half hours, demanding the arrest of the accused. The mob also burnt down a police booth at Kurseong Motor Stand. A poster signed by “Kurseong Public” and put up at the motor stand this morning, demanded Ghalay’s arrest within 24 hours. “Otherwise the public will take to the streets and call a bandh in the subdivision,” the poster read. Bagan in Kalimpong RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Kalimpong, July 28: Mohun Bagan will play an exhibition match against the Kalimpong Sports Association (KSA) XI at Mela Ground on August 5 as part of the Calcutta giant’s pre-season training that starts here on Friday. The National League runners-up will arrive here on Thursday for the week-long camp that will be held at the football ground of Dr Graham’s Homes. The team will be staying at the Deolo Tourist Lodge of the DGHC. The players will also be using the swimming pool at Pudung during their stay here. Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra said over the phone from Calcutta that the proceeds from the exhibition match would go towards the KSA-run non-residential football-training programme for local talents. “The match will be organised by the KSA. The pricing of tickets will also be decided by them,” he said. The president of KSA, Urgen ‘Mini’ Lama, said the match would give his boys an opportunity to test their skills against a top-notch team like Bagan. “We will finalise our team within the next few days.” Prior to the 1999 SAF Games, the Indian football team had trained here. KEEP THE FINGERS CROSSED (opinion - The Telegraph, 29 July 09) Sumanta Sen The Centre, the state and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will meet in New Delhi on August 11 to discuss the situation in the Darjeeling hills. Earlier, there had been another meeting but all that it had achieved was an agreement to meet again. If the Centre and the state had hoped that the GJM would put a halt to its agitation because talks were in progress, they were mistaken. Next month’s meeting has been forced upon them by Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri, who imposed an indefinite bandh in the hills from July 13 to July 28. The agitators may consider the Centre’s call for a meeting a victory of sorts but that is all they may have in their bank. Unless, of course, the Congress in West Bengal and the Trinamul Congress decide to go along partly with the GJM’ s demand for a separate state. It is on them that the Centre’s decision depends. Such a possibility does exist. Although the Left Front in West Bengal is dead against the claim, the home ministry may well seek to persuade Writers’ Buildings that making a partial concession to the demand will relieve the government of much of its worries. The Morcha wants the proposed Gorkhaland to include Siliguri and parts of the Dooars. It may be offered just the three hill sub-divisions as a compromise. The Morcha, of course, will spurn such an offer. But for how long? After all, it is also under pressure from the people who are getting restless with a life of agitation and economic uncertainty. New Delhi is also under some pressure as adjoining Sikkim has to bear the brunt of the GJM bandhs though the issue does not concern that state. Wits’ end Politically, the Congress and the TMC do not lose anything if they support the cause of Gorkhaland. In the hills, they have no presence. In the plains, they will tell Bengalis that the creation of a small Gorkhaland cannot be compared to the Partition of 1947 because it will not lead to any uprooting of people. On the other hand, if the agitation is put to an end, tourists will have no further problems in going to Darjeeling. The trading community in Siliguri will say that call the hills by whatever name, its business will remain unaffected. These are arguments that the Marxists will find difficult to refute, particularly since it has become clear that the state government’s writ no longer runs in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. The problem, however, lies elsewhere. Opposition to Gorkhaland is essentially emotive. Bengalis cutting across party lines cannot be expected to accept life without the hills. It may be a partition without tears but it will be a partition still — the taking away of Darjeeling where Chittaranjan Das had breathed his last, and Mangpu and Kalimpong, places associated with Rabindranath Tagore. As things stand, the August 11 meeting is unlikely to yield any result. The Morcha leaders also know this and hence are insisting on an immediate face-saver — the transfer of some senior police officers. If the state government agrees to do this, the Morcha will have something to show to the people. Actually, the Morcha is also at its wits’ end as it does not know which way to turn. At the same time, it is aware of its promise that Gorkhaland will become a reality by 2010. Will reality make the GJM compromise and accept a truncated Gorkhaland, if at all? Will the Marxists and Bengalis in general accept this as the best of a bad job? Or, will things be allowed to drift and the hills continue to suffer from the lack of an administrative system? With answers to such questions elusive, next month’s meeting holds out no promise. Except, perhaps, that non-issues like transfer of officials may be resolved. As for the central concern, it has now come to the stage of who blinks first — the state government or the GJM. Tourism hit in Hills as bandhs go on and off IE, Kolkata,29 July: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) may have recoiled from their bandh decision for the time being, but the uncertainties in the hills have taken a heavy toll on the tourism market of West Bengal. While many foreign and domestic tourists are keeping away from the Queen of Hills, both the state tourism department and private travel agencies are concerned about the depleting revenue in this sector. While 80 per cent of the flow comprises domestic tourists, the rest are foreigners coming to Eastern India all through the year, specially during the Durga Puja. “Now is the time when people start their bookings. If the political turmoil in Darjeeling comes back then we might have to face a big challenge in the tourism sector in the long run. Foreign tourists who head for the hills usually plan their journey in advance and in the midst of such tension, they may be averse to traveling to this part of the state. We hope that since the crisis has died down for the time being, the domestic tourist flow would recover but we are concerned that there might be a long term effect on foreign tourist flow,” said TVN Rao, Chairman of the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. For Racheal Kovensky and Gracie Per of USA, such bandhs have spoilt their year long plan of visiting Darjeeling. Both the students had to cancel their trip and head for Nepal as an alternative. “We had heard about Tiger Hill back home. We were looking forward to going to Darjeeling. But then we came to know that we cannot go there since some political party has called for a bandh. Now we believe that things are ok but we do not want to take a risk,” said Racheal. Another student from UK, Frank Michigan, who came to Kolkata especially to visit Darjeeling, was left with no alternative but to cut his trip short and return home. “I was dying to go Darjeeling and had everything planned. But now I will cut short my trip to the city. It is really unfortunate,” he said. According to Devendra Parekh, Managing Director, Travels and Rentals Pvt Ltd, almost all travel catalogues of Eastern India feature Darjeeling. Thus a constant crisis in the hills would mean huge losses for the industry. “Usually we carry 300 to 400 people during peak season every day. However, if things continue like this, then we will incur a loss of Rs 10 lakh per day from Darjeeling. Besides foreign tourists, we also have NRIs. With the crisis reappearing time and again, there has already been a decline in the foreign and NRI clientele, resulting in a Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh revenue loss per day. We are thinking of sending our deputation to the GJM requesting them to keep politics away from tourism in future,” said Anil Punjabi, Chairman, Travel Agents Federation of India. Even the North Bengal State Transport Corporation, which has two bus depots in Kalimpong and Darjeling each, has incurred a loss of about Rs 5 lakh per month, in the last few months.