Attire loyalty is not identity: Harka - Jaswant Singh to speak today

Ex-servicemen at the seminar on Gorkhaland on Sunday. Picture by Suman Tamang TT, Darjeeling, Nov. 8: At a time many overzealous Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters are showing a tendency to go overboard agitating for Gorkhaland, a senior leader has called for tolerance and urged supporters to take a holistic view of the party’s protest programmes. While addressing a seminar on Gorkhaland here today, Morcha media and publicity secretary Harka Bahadur Chhetri denounced extremism in implementing agitation programmes and urged the people to stop bracketing their identity with the daura sural — the traditional attire of the Gorkhas. “Wearing traditional dress is just a strategy to show that we are different from the rest of Bengal. People must understand this significance and not think that wearing the traditional dress is tantamount to identity. The issue of identity is complex. If we understand the significance of the strategy, wearing the dress will be more enjoyable. After all, daura sural is merely another dress,” he said. Even though his message was not directed at anyone in particular, many believe that it was an oblique reference to some party workers who tend to walk the path of extremism while implementing the party’s agitation. Last year, some Morcha supporters had gone to the extent of smearing black paint on the faces of those who did not wear the traditional dress in Darjeeling. This year, the Morcha had not made the traditional attire compulsory but after the end of the month-long dress code on October 25, various frontal organisations urged school teachers and students to continue wearing daura sural for three days a week. The contractual workers of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council have been asked to wear the dress at least two days a week. Speaking to The Telegraph on the sidelines of the seminar, Chhetri stressed that it was time for society to be more liberal. “We must be liberal as a society. I have personally noticed that our society is getting intolerant and restless. We have to come across as a tolerant society,” he said. Observers believe that Chhetri was trying to send a message to those party activists who believe that non-adherence to party diktats should be viewed as being a non-supporter for the Gorkhaland demand. In the past two years, supporters of other political outfits and especially those of the GNLF have been virtually chased out of the hills while Opposition parties have not been able to hold public meetings. Asked about the people he had in mind while addressing the seminar today, Chhetri, said: “It is for all those who care to listen.” The three-day seminar has been organised by the ex-serviceman association. The speakers tomorrow will be Morcha president Bimal Gurung, Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh and Sikkim MP Dil Kumari Bhandari. Tolerance plea, hand in hand with ‘ban’ Liquor off shelves in ‘state Gorkhaland’  Darjeeling, Nov. 8: Liquor has disappeared from shop shelves and panchayat offices have shut down in the “state of Gorkhaland”. Not only that, some owners of offshops have sat down to chalk out new business plans, not sure how long the ban on IMFL and country liquor will continue. In the new phase of the agitation launched by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha yesterday, shop keepers and business establishments have started repainting their signboards, wiping off “West Bengal” and replacing it with “Gorkhaland”. The wipe-out-Bengal (from signboards) movement had started early last year. With most of the signboards which had “Gorkhaland” written on paper stuck on them coming off, the party has once again asked the hill residents to sport new signboards. This time many were seen scribbling the word “state” before “Gorkhaland” with oil paint. Morcha president Bimal Gurung has also called for a closure of gram panchayat offices as part of the agitation. “The block development offices will only be allowed to carry out the 100 days’ work schemes, issue old age pension, maternity allowances and register and issue death and birth certificates,” said Gurung. While addressing a public meeting at Takdah, about 30km from Darjeeling, after laying the foundation stone of a private engineering college yesterday, Gurung said: “This is our last battle (for Gorkhaland) and we must come out victorious.” The leader also reminded the people that there would be no ban on the sale of locally brewed liquor likethongba and rakshi. “No one should disturb the sale of local liquor. Our objective is merely to stop revenue inflow to the state exchequer,” he added. Many of the restaurants have started stocking up on the local brew, planning to serve it although it is illegal. However, they do not expect much administrative hassles, as there is little writ of law in the hills. Under the Morcha instruction, the hills have already stopped paying electricity bills — outstanding amount have run up to Rs 42 crore from 2008 — land revenue and motor vehicle taxes since last year. The state government is expected to lose around Rs 3 crore on revenue if the 19 offshops and 54 licensed bars in the hill remain shut for a month. Many businessmen who own offshops said they had started thinking of different business ventures. “But doing that is not easy. Nevertheless, we have to think of an alternative business as no one is sure how long the ban will be in place,” said an offshop owner. Maoists kill 4 Jawans  PTI, Kolkata,09 Nov:In a surprise attack by the Maoists, four security personnel were killed and their arms looted in Jhargram sub-division of Naxal affected West Midnapore district on Sunday. Kuldip Singh, IG (Western Range), said the jawans of the Eastern Frontier Rifles were attacked when they were patrolling near a police camp close to a school in Gidhni Bazaar area under Jamboni police station. The bodies of all the four jawans were lying at the bazaar area. The Maoists escaped with arms looted from the slain jawans. The incident took place at around 5.30 pm after the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and senior state government officials left West Midnapore district for Kolkata after a two-day visit, police said. PTI:Claiming responsibility for the gunning down of four Eastern Frontier Rifle jawans, the CPI (Maoists) tonight dared the West Bengal and Central governments to deploy as much forces as they wanted in the trouble-torn West Midnapore district. "We have killed the four jawans as they tortured innocent school children who had taken out a rally in the area yesterday demanding the educational institutions be vacated by joint security forces and their classes resume at the earliest," Maoist leader Koteshar Rao alias Kishanji told PTI from an undisclosed destination. "We will win the war. Let the Centre deploy as much forces as they want," the top Maoist leader shot back. To a question if the attack was a challenge posed by the Maoists to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who left the district just two hours back, Kishanji retorted "But we have long before challenged the central and state governments, and as I have just said, the war is on." Four EFR jawans were killed in a surprise assault by Maoists while they were patrolling near Gidhni Bazaar in the Jhargram sub-division of West Midnapore district today, barely hours after Bhattacharjee left after a two-day visit. The ultras also took away the arms of the four slain jawans. I'm not encouraging separatist movement in China - Dalai Lama IANS, HT,Nov 8: The Dalai Lama, who arrived in this strategic Indian border state on a much-watched visit on Sunday to a rousing welcome by hundreds of monks, rejected Beijing's charges that he was spearheading a separatist movement. He said he would never return to China until the Tibetans there were treated properly. "It's quite usual for China to step up campaign against me wherever I go. It's totally baseless on the part of Chinese Communist government to say that I am encouraging a separatist movement," the Tibetan spiritual leader told journalists here after inaugurating a museum at the historic Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh state. The Dalai Lama, a highly venerated religious figure with thousands of followers around the world, arrived at this picture-perfect town perched at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, close to the Chinese border, on a weeklong visit. "My visit to Tawang is non-political and aimed at promoting universal brotherhood and nothing else," the Dalai Lama stressed. "Unless the Chinese government addresses the basic problems of the Tibetans in Tibet seriously, there is no question of my return (to China)," he said. Beijing had opposed the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh as it lays claim on the territory. India and China fought a border war in 1962, with Chinese troops advancing deep into Arunachal Pradesh and inflicting heavy casualties on Indian troops. China has never recognised the 1914 McMahon Line agreed between the British and the then Tibetan rulers and claims 90,000 sq km of territory, that includes nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh. Asked about his stand on China's claims over Arunachal Pradesh, he said, "everybody knows the position and I have also made my stand very clear several times", implying that the state is an integral part of India that he has reiterated on earlier occasions. "When I escaped China in 1959, I was mentally and physically very weak as I was down with dysentery," the spiritual leader recalled. "Now I am very happy to be here in Tawang as there are lots of emotions involved. This is my fifth visit to Tawang." It was through Tawang, a revered seat of Buddhism, that the Dalai Lama escaped the Chinese to enter India where he set up base in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. Tawang is also spiritually important for the Tibetans as the sixth Dalai Lama was born in the 17th century at the Urgelling Monastery near here. "The Chinese didn't pursue us in 1959, but when I reached India they started speaking against me," the Buddhist leader said. "Today China is taking a very hard approach towards me and the people of Tibet." "Tibetan Buddhism and culture is passing through a very difficult period. But there is hope of the religion and culture surviving in this 'free area' (outside Tibet), particularly in India. So there is lot of responsibilities for people here and in south India to keep the flag flying," he said.Earlier, thousands of locals in traditional costumes and monks in maroon robes, waiting on either side of the eight-kilometre road leading from the helipad to the Tawang monastery, waved at the Dalai Lama as his motorcade snaked past them. The spiritual leader looked jovial as he was seen waving back at the crowd. At the monastery, about 800 monks, including scores of child monks, welcomed their leader amid chants of Buddhist hymns as the smell of burning incense wafted through the air. Giant gongs were played by monks while monastery priests prostrated as the Dalai Lama alighted from the vehicle. Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and other high priests then led the spiritual leader inside the monastery. Indian and Tibetan prayer flags fluttered, while life-size posters of the Dalai Lama adorned the streets of Tawang, home to about 35,000 people. "It was a lifetime experience to have seen the Dalai Lama from so close. He waved back at us and I consider this to be a blessing for me and the people here," an excited child monk who identified himself as Sherbu told this IANS correspondent. The Dalai Lama will hold a prayer session at a school playground near the monastery Monday. He would then visit the adjoining town of Bomdilla and Dirang Nov 12, before leaving for state capital Itanagar Nov 14. The visit ends Nov 15. A total of 140,000 Tibetans live in exile -- over 100,000 of them in India. Over six million Tibetans live in Tibet.