Morcha says strike to continue | ||||||||||||||||
TT, New Delhi, July 16: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today refused to call off the strike in Darjeeling hills and continued the tirade against the “imperialist” Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government “August 24 is a long date. The strike is continuing against police atrocities,” said Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha. The outfit wants the tripartite talks at the political level and before the end of the budget session of Parliament — a demand that could be fulfilled only through political pressure. The Morcha leadership was even more upbeat today as Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh “nationalised” the issue by releasing a booklet Why Gorkhaland? to spread awareness about the cause. The book release was held at the Constitution Club here in the morning. Therefore, Gorkha leaders found support and encouragement from the presence of several BJP MPs like Rajiv Pratap Rudy, B.S. Koshiyari, Arjun Meghwal, Banka MP Digvijay Singh and others, as they came down on the Left front government. Terming the Communist government “imperialist and colonialists”, senior Morcha leader Tankha Bahadur Chhetri complimented Sushma Swaraj for stalling the “imperial design” of the Left by preventing the passage of the Sixth Schedule Bill in Parliament. The Morcha leaders also made some serious allegations, accusing the Marxists of “conspiring to dilute Gorkha population by settling illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Siliguri and north Bengal”. The Bengal government, the Gorkha leaders said, were the exploiters and oppressors. They thanked the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs led by Swaraj, whose report prevented the passage of the bill that would have included the hills in the Sixth Schedule. Singh said the people had a long-standing demand and Gorkhaland was very much a part of India. Singh said he had met Union home minister P. Chidambaram on several occasions regarding the Gorkhaland issue. The booklet attempts to prove that Darjeeling district was never a part of Bengal. It cites the Government of India Act, 1935 which made the area partially excluded. The booklet has a map of Gorkhaland. Its Payback Time : Darjeeling MP Backs Gorkhaland ENS, Kolkata, 17 July: MP and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Thursday demanded the formation of Gorkhaland state out of West Bengal to give “political and economic rights” to the locals and in keeping with the strategic location of the area. “Gorkhaland is a part of India and the demand (of the locals) is for a small state within India,” Singh said at a function held here to release a booklet, Why Gorkhaland? “The BJP has always been in favour of small states and had specifically mentioned Gorkhaland and Telengana in its election manifesto,” he added. Singh, who contested from Darjeeling as BJP candidate with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha’s support, said the Indian government should realise the strategic importance of the constituency and its adjoining areas as it shares international borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal. The BJP leader said he had met Home Minister P Chidambaram and other Union ministers to discuss the formation of Gorkhaland and problems faced by the people but there was a lack of initiative from the UPA government. “I have met Chidambaram not once but on several occasions (to discuss the issue of Gorkhaland),” he said. Singh said he would raise this demand in the forthcoming tripartite talks between the Centre, West Bengal government and GJM, announced to discuss the issue. Asked if the Left Front government in West Bengal would agree to formation of Gorkhaland, Singh said the Constitution was clear that a state Assembly has the right to be consulted on such an issue but it is the Centre which has the final say. He refuted the argument that small states had failed in India. Speaking on the occasion, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said the demand for Gorkhaland was first made 40 years before Independence. He accused the CPM government in West Bengal of trying to make a “democratic and Gandhian” struggle for formation of Gorkhaland led by GJM leader Bimal Gurung into an “undemocratic and violent” movement. Giri said illegal immigration from Bangladesh was being encouraged by the Left government to turn Gorkhas in the area into a minority and change the demographic profile. The GJM leader regretted that when the locals raised their demand for a separate state, they were branded as foreigners, and said the nation owed it to the Gorkhas to grant them “equal rights” by granting them statehood. Asked if the on-going agitation in Darjeeling for Gorkhaland would continue after the announcement of tripartite talks by the Centre, Giri said the talks will be held on August 24, which is a long way off, and GJM would carry on the agitation. Darjeeling, meanwhile, remained shut down as the GJM’s indefinite bandh entered the fourth day. District administration said all shops and business establishments remained closed and attendance in offices was minimal. GJM lets Sikkim CM convoy pass The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) on Thursday lifted the blockade on the arterial section of NH-31A for a brief period to allow Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling’s convoy to pass. Officials in Chamling’s office said the chief minister was headed for Delhi to take up issue of GJM’s blockade of the national highway, which is the sole road link of the hill state with the rest of the country. Chamling is also expected to tell the Centre that the GJM’s blockade will soon give rise to shortage of essential commodities in the hill state. The GJM did not allow West Bengal Police to escort the Chamling’s convoy to Bagdogra airport. The chief minister was escorted by a team of Sikkim Police. Sources in the Sikkim government said that Chamling will urge the Centre for speedy execution of an alternative highway project so that the state does not get cut-off from the rest of the country. TT, Darjeeling, July 16: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to give a 12-hour relaxation to vehicles to and from Sikkim on Saturday. Bimal Gurung, the president of the Morcha, said: “We will allow vehicles with Sikkim numberplates to ply between 6am and 6pm along NH31A. After the relaxation, we will again close down the roads.” Vehicles bearing the Bengal numberplates will not, however, be allowed on that day along the highway. The Morcha leader said they would continue giving such relaxation to the people of Sikkim on a regular basis. The effort is seen as a move to seek the Himalayan state’s support to the ongoing agitation as chief minister Pawan Chamling has always been vocal for Gorkhaland. Darjeeling police today tried to bring out a vehicle in town in an attempt to make their presence felt. However, the Morcha supporters stopped it as soon as it came out of the Sadar police station. The Morcha has decided to provide relaxation to some police vehicles from tomorrow. Earlier, the party had said only the vehicles of the district magistrate, superintendent of police, and the subdivisional officer would be allowed during the strike. “We have decided to allow the vehicles of the inspectors in-charge of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong and the deputy superintendent of police (town) to ply,” said Gurung. The Morcha will also allow the relief department in the district magistrate’s office to remain open. “We will allow the vehicles of (deputy) magistrates to move in the hills,” said Gurung. Asked about the reason behind the relaxation, Gurung said: “During a meeting with the district magistrate soon after calling the strike, some of our leaders had told him that we would relax the shutdown after four-five days.” On the demand for relief for tea gardens, Gurung said the party would look into the matter in the days to come so that ration could be sent to the gardens. “I will sit with the leaders of the tea union soon,” he said. GJM bandh cripples life in Darjeeling for 4th Day Siliguri, July 16 (PTI) Normal life remained paralysed in the Darjeeling Hills today as the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM)-sponsored indefinite bandh entered the fourth day. All shops and business establishments were closed and attendance in government offices remained very thin with vehicles keeping off roads in most of the areas, official sources said. Functioning of all 78 tea gardens in the hills and cinchona plantation in Kalimpong also came to a halt.The shutdown also crippled road communication to the neighbouring Himalayan state of Sikkim as the arterial NH 31A, passing through Kalimpong sub-division, was blocked by bandh activists. Demanding that political talks be held early in next month, GJM press secretary Benoy Tamang told PTI his organisation is yet to get any clarification about the real status of third round tripartite talks proposed by the Centre. Shops and offices were closed starting Monday and schools will be closed beginning Tuesday. Tourists and students have moved down to the plains as a result of the strike.
A GJM group left for Delhi for talks with MP Jaswant Singh who represents Darjeeling in Parliament. Talks held last year in Delhi failed to achieve any kind of compromise. MRINALINI SHARMA, TT: Siliguri, July 16: Nearly 1,000 people and just 10 buses to take them to Sikkim. That was the situation today at the Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) bus terminus off Hill Cart Road here during the hours of relaxation. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has granted relief for SNT buses to take the stranded people of the Himalayan state back home. “The relief came after senior officials of the SNT had approached the Morcha leadership,” said Buddha Rai, the public relations officer of the SNT. Patients, students, tourists, traders and common people of Sikkim formed the major part of the crowd that swarmed the terminus campus, either standing in a queue in front of the closed counters or squatting inside the shed since dawn, hoping for tickets. They got ecstatic when the ticket counters opened around 12:30pm, nearly seven hours after standing in the queue under the sun. “I have been standing here since 5am to get tickets for myself and my ailing daughter,” said D.M. Gautam of Rabong, the first woman in the queue at the counter. “I had taken her to Calcutta for treatment but got stuck here on my way back.” The situation is not unique today. The stranded people have been thronging the terminus since Tuesday when the Morcha began its indefinite strike, blocking NH31A, Sikkim’s lifeline with rest of the country. A group of eight students from Nepal, who arrived in Siliguri yesterday, were among the stranded passengers. But they are afraid of missing the admission deadline at Sikkim Manipal University (SMU). “We have come all the way from Dharan to get admitted to SMU. It will be bad if we get stuck here and miss the deadline,” Ranjeeta Limbu said. Two students of Sikkim Government College, Tadong were desperate to reach home as the institution will reopen tomorrow after a vacation. “We have to reach Gangtok today because God knows when they will give the next relaxation. It’s a matter of attendance. If we run short of it, there will be a problem during the exams,” one of them said. Many have lamented that Sikkim suffers unnecessarily every time the Morcha calls a strike. “We have our moral support for their demand but there is no logic in closing NH31A which happens to be our only link with the rest of India. Moreover, they stone and damage our vehicles if we try to pass through the highway, which is bad,” said Tenzing Lama, a social worker from Singtam. “The Morcha should give relaxation at least twice or thrice a week. Some of us need to travel to Siliguri and other places on a regular basis. Strikes like this cause a lot of inconveniences,” said L.P. Chhetri, also from Singtam. For Vicky Grove and two of her friends from the UK, the strike has spoiled their plans to visit Darjeeling and Sikkim. “We could not visit Darjeeling but hope to visit Sikkim if we get the tickets,” Vicky said. However, with 10 buses with a seating capacity of 30 each, SNT officials are finding it hard to accommodate all the people stranded in Siliguri. “We can accommodate a maximum of 35 people in a bus. We are giving preference to students, patients and residents of the state. As for the tourists, we are not taking them as it will be a problem for them to leave Sikkim when they want,” said Rai. VIVEK CHHETRI, TT: Darjeeling, July 16: Many educational institutions in the hills are looking at curtailing vacations and scrapping other extra-curricular activities to make up for the loss of school days because of the strike. With the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha refusing to budge from its stand, there are possibilities of the strikes lingering on for quite sometime. “If the strike prolongs, we have to think of some contingency plans such as curtailing our vacations and cancelling some of our extra curricular activities to ensure that the syllabus is covered,” said Fr Kinley Tshering, general secretary, All Heads of Educational Institutes of Darjeeling. If the strike carries on for sometime, the schools are thinking of holding classes well into December. Normally, the hill schools close for the three-month winter vacation from December 1 only to reopen in the middle of March. “We could think of holding classes in December also,” said Fr Kinley. The other option of curtailing extra-curricular activities will not, however, be welcomed by the students as the hill schools have a very strong traditional of inter-school activities in which even the teachers get involved. Other schools were of the opinion that they would start holding classes on Saturday — which normally is either a half holiday or a full holiday— once the strike ends. The educational institutions still believe that they are not unduly worried over the strike at the moment. “Parents are definitely worried but we have assured them that things are fine with us. In fact, a guardian from Bhutan managed to come yesterday despite the strike and after seeing that all the boarders were together, he left,” he added. Even though there has been no major exodus of students as of now, a few schools did mention that some students had left the hills for good. “Two students from England did leave because of the unrest,” said a teacher of a school. Most school heads said food items had not been a problem for them. “We usually have our stocks to last us through most part of the monsoon as during this time, the hills could get cut off because of landslides anytime. This way food is not a problem,” said Fr Kinley. Meanwhile, the Congress has also urged the Trinamool Congress to support the shutdown. Congress party workers accused CPM cadres of attacking Congress leaders across the state since the Lok Sabha polls and said that their protests would continue until the Communist government comes down from power. - ANI COP-OUT IN HILLS, GJM BOYS RULE STREETS IE, Kokata, July 16: Even as the indefinite shutdown of the Darjeeling Hills called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha entered its third day, police continued to stay off the streets while Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP), a special cadre raised by the GJM as part of its youth wing, patrolled the streets to enforce the bandh. Raised during the latter part of 2008, the GLP's strength, according to sources in the district administration, is around 6,000. The GJM sources put the figure at 11,000. Comprising youths of both sexes, the GLP is trained in unarmed combat by ex-servicemen affiliated to the GJM, and given rigorous physical training, mostly by former jawans and officers of Gorkha regiments. The GJM, as part of its bandh call to press for its demands that include shifting our of IG (North Bengal) K L Tamta, has demanded that except for the SP, the state police should not venture out during the bandh. Senior police officers said the police in Darjeeling were doing just that. "It's not that we're obeying their diktat. We don't want to give them another excuse for agitation. If our men venture out in official vehicles and are stopped by bandh enforcers, including the GLP, we will not listen to them. It could lead to a confrontation and a fresh flashpoint. We don't want that. It's better to wait and watch," police sources said, adding that in case any untoward incidents take place, the police will be deployed immediately. Sources said GLP inductees were being trained openly in many places, including Garubathan on the Darjeeling-Jalpaiguri district border where the GJM leadership had camped for several weeks in a bid to hold pro-Gorkhaland rallies in the Dooars. "From a simple security point of view, so many trained cadres could pose a law and order problem if there is a confrontation with the police," a senior police officer said. However, senior GJM leader Amar Lama sought to play down any threat posed by the GLP. "They are part of our youth wing. It is a voluntary service. There are many ex-Army officers involved in their training, which has nothing to do with arms. They don't carry any weapons. There is no need for the state police to venture out or patrol the bandh-affected areas as our agitation is democratic and non-violent," Lama said. Police sources said the decision to deploy police personnel during the bandh was for the state government to make. "As of now, we have had no indication from the top brass to take any action against the GLP. Had they called it a police force, we would have cracked down immediately," sources said. District Magistrate Surendra Gupta admitted the GLP was out on the streets but refused to say further. Kartyk Venkatraman |
GJM spurns Centre’s talks offer, wants Buddha, PC on table
Kartyk Venkatraman,IE, Kolkata:Jul 16, 2009 : Snubbing the Centre’s offer of holding the third round of tripartite talks on August 24 in Delhi, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha said further talks should be held at the political level, and should be “fruitful”.On Wednesday, the Union home secretary had requested the GJM to call off the ongoing indefinite bandh. The two rounds of talks held in September and December last year involved the Union home secretary and the Bengal chief secretary, besides the Morcha representatives.
“We don’t want secretary-level talks anymore. We have received a letter specifying the date for the next round of talks. The dialogue henceforth should be political and involve the West Bengal Chief Minister and the Union Home Minister. We feel the secretary-level talks have not produced any favourable results,” senior GJM leader Amar Lama said, adding that general secretary Roshan Giri and leader Harka Bahadur Chettri were in Delhi and would likely be meeting Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday.
“The Darjeeling MP, Jaswant Singh, is facilitating our endeavour. In fact, a lot of what is going on in Delhi is at his initiative,” Lama said while ruling out calling off the ongoing bandh.
Lama said there was no need for guardians of students of residential hill schools to worry.
All schools and colleges in the Hills have closed down since the bandh began. “There is no problem with schools. We have not asked guardians to take their wards out of Darjeeling. We know there are many reputed schools here with students coming from even Thailand. They (parents) have nothing to worry about,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sikkim continued to be cut off from the rest of the country due to the blockade imposed on the NH-31A, the state’s only link with the plains. Reports from Gangtok said the administration had begun rationing fuel in a bid to avoid hoarding. They also mentioned that the Sikkim government had approached the GJM to relax the highway blockade for a few hours everyday to enable vehicles bearing essential commodities to pass through. However, Lama said relaxing the highway blockade was not being considered at the moment.
District Magistrate Surendra Gupta said Darjeeling wore a deserted look with most of the shops and business establishments shut. He said most of the tea gardens in the Hills were also closed while presence of employees at state and central government offices remained low. “All vehicles remained off the roads, but the bandh so far has been peaceful with no untoward incidents or clashes reported,” Gupta said.
Sikkim to take up highway blockade issue with Centre
PTI,Gangtok , July 16 Perturbed by frequent blockades of the NH-31A that connects Sikkim & aposs state capital with Siliguri in West Bengal , Chief Minister Pawan kumar Chamling today said he will take up the matter with the Centre.
Chamling, who left for New Delhi today, said he would explain to the Centre about the acute problems faced by the people of the border state due to frequent shutdown of the highway by agitators in West Bengal in spite of a Supreme Court directive, official sources told PTI here.
The chief minister will try to convince the Centre for speedy execution of an alternative highway project so that the state does not get cut off in terms of communication and connectivity for any reason, they said.
Besides the highway issue, Chamling would take out time to fine tune his reply to a writ petition filed in the Delhi High Court challenging his nationality by BJP leader Padam Bahadur Sharma which is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow, the sources said.
Hills bandh is against people: Kanu Sanyal
Statesman News Service, SILIGURI, 15 JULY: The veteran Naxalite leader, Mr Kanu Sanyal today said that the indefinite Darjeeling bandh convened by the GJMM was anti-people. “The shutdown is an exercise in self-deception on the part of the GJMM leadership and moreover, it would wreak havoc with the already doddering hill economy,” he said. Reaffirming his moral support to the cause of a separate homeland for the Gorkha settlers, Mr Sanyal said that he was in favour of settling the issue in course of a tripartite dialogue. “Disruptive agitation can not always serve its cherished objective. On the contrary, if the agitation affects the life of the poor it cannot sustain long. Bringing economic activities in the tea industry and the tourism sector to a halt in a fledgling hill economy must prove anathema for the hills as a whole in the long term perspectives,” the Naxalite legend warned. Taking a dig at the GJMM leadership, Mr Sanyal said that they seemed to have become prisoners of an ethnic hellhole. “They have never cared to take persons who have long standing sympathy with the statehood cause into confidence. Exchanging views with others and listening to divergent views with patience and understanding, especially when a people's movement is in full swing, broadens outlook and helps bring out new and interesting angles. I, for one, am frustrated with the stubborn arrogance of the GJMM leadership,” he said. Slamming the Centre for its “irritatingly long spell of procrastination,” Mr Sanyal said it should convey its stand in categorical terms. “The Centre must inform the agitators unambiguously whether the fulfillment of the statehood aspirations is feasible or not and if not, it should suggest alternative means to mitigate grievances,” the Naxalite leader said.
Governments everywhere find it hard to deal with separatist politics. But the West Bengal government has long lost the will or ability to even try to tackle it in the Darjeeling hills. The result is a dangerous drift that is allowed to continue in a sensitive border region. The latest call for another indefinite bandh in Darjeeling shows once again the total collapse of the administration in the area. The people there are left at the mercy of the agitators, and normal life is completely disrupted. The government has abdicated all its responsibilities to enforce the rule of law. The only concern of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government seems to be to avoid the use of force and bloodshed at all costs. This can hardly be the mandate for governance anywhere. But then, both New Delhi and Calcutta have long sought to buy peace in Darjeeling by surrendering to the violent tactics of “Gorkhaland” movements. The withdrawal of the State from Darjeeling today is actually an old story that began with the violent stir by Subash Ghisingh’s Gorkha National Liberation Front in the mid-1980s. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which leads the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland state now, moved into the vacuum created as much by the fall of Mr Ghisingh as by the collapse of the State. True, it would be politically and administratively wrong to treat the agitation in Darjeeling as only a law and order problem. The demand for a separate administrative arrangement for Darjeeling predates India’s independence. Ironically, it was the communists who first voiced the demand for “self-determination” for the people of Darjeeling in 1946. No matter which party led such an agitation in different times, the demand had always had the support of an overwhelming majority of the people in Darjeeling. The issue, therefore, needs a political solution that would respect the popular sentiment. The problem is that almost all major political parties used it over the past 20 years only to further their narrow partisan interests. It is time leaders of these parties, both in West Bengal and at the national level, realized the importance of a durable solution to the problem. After all, the way the Centre and a state government deal with a statehood demand will have its impact in other parts of the country where such demands exist. But letting Darjeeling drift is a sure recipe for worse problems.
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