GJMM has managed to be different and yet has failed to be the differenceDarjeeling, Fall, 2009: For a second year in a row, a cultural pantomime (read compulsory ethnic wear) was enacted in the Darjeeling Hills. Only this year, the response was not as resounding as the previous one and apart from a few, most people chose to go about with clothes they have grown up wearing and are most comfortable with: Pants, shirts, sarees and kurtas. When the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM) made it mandatory for all hill people to wear ethnic wear for a month last year, with a majority of the population being Gorkha, the daura suruwal and the gunyeu cholo became hot import items and subjects of much-heated discussion.
With the history of the Darjeeling Hills itself mired in controversy, mostly written by outsiders, and conveniently amended, to suit narrow selfish interests, and the Gorkha community comprising many ethnicities and classes, the term ‘ethnic’ can have many connotations, none very clear. History is a double-edged sword and sadly in the Asian subcontinent, particularly for the Gorkha community in India, it has often proved a liability than an asset. Experts quote lines from the Mahabharata that refer to the Kiratas to prove that the Gorkha community is autochthonous to the region and not recent settlers as suggested by certain vested interest groups. Thus, the history of the Gorkhas go back thousands of years and yet, sadly, the community’s present identity is based on annals written, and narrow boundaries drawn, by a selfish colonial administration barely a 100 or so years ago.
The drive has to continue, the goal of Gorkhaland has to be achieved, but the spirit of the land should not be strangled to death as collateral damage.
The Gorkha community being a heterogeneous one, the term ethnic can not only be confusing, but more importantly, divisive. So, the cultural oneness intended by the GJMM through its ethnic wear diktat may have in fact proved sectarian, showcasing what otherwise is a big homogenous whole as separate distinct ethnic factions. This possible divide apart, the bigger question is about what comprises ethnic wear in the Hills? The Kiratas in the primitive past, as mentioned in the Mahabharata, were forest dwellers. If anyone from that community were to draw into that glorious past to choose an ethnic wear today, it would put many into a quandary. With a history that spans multiple millennia, how far back can one go to decide where one’s roots are, and what truly is ethnic? Trousers may be a comparatively recent adoption, but even the more acceptable daura suruwal has in recent times been seen in neighboring Nepal as an attire propagated and imposed by the Khas community and not truly representative of the Nepali people.
There may be no clear answer to what comprises ethnic wear in the Hills, and each may choose her/his own if s/he decides to wear one. The biggest issue however is the ‘diktat’. For an average Indian, there isn’t very much mahan about her/his Bharat except the rights promised by the constitution. Take away a person’s right to choose and the idea of ‘mera Bharat mahan’ swiftly dissipates. Giving in to the arbitrary diktats being issued by the GJMM in the name of Gorkhaland, the Hill people are essentially giving up what constitutes the basis of being an Indian citizen and the essence of living in the world’s biggest democracy: Freedom.
With diktats, the thin line between right and wrong, logical and illogical often fade away. It was amply demonstrated this year when the Gorkhaland Police (GLP) intervened into normal, accepted gestures like couples holding hands, and intruded into personal space by stopping people from smoking at Chowrastha. The very people who wore their ethnic attires with pride last year, heeding the GJMM’s diktat, then raised wary eyes. Most people then had refused to see and accept the fact that the voices of dissent raised were not expressing their ire based on looks or culture, but because it was an infringement of a person’s right to choose, guaranteed by the Indian constitution. What is happening now, to the consternation of many, is a fallout of having meekly bowed down to a diktat that had no logical connection to, nor has had any noticeable impact on, the ongoing agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland within the Indian union. People now seem to be taking notice of the infringement only because their own personal spaces appear under threat.
Morality and culture reside in a deep grey realm, and it is accepted in general, in this part of the world, that they do not mix well with politics. Realistically speaking, there are no Gandhis around in current political line-ups, with each being forced to compromise due to political compulsions and considerations, and the so-called swachchha-chhabi is only a mirage. Movements and agitations are thus conducted much better without a social or moral tinge to them. An outfit like the GJMM may try and fight the rot in the prevalent political and administrative system, but a society is best left to evolve and adapt rather than have ‘cultural revolutions’ imposed on it. Moral and cultural diktats very often have a darker shadow that what meets the eye: Far-reaching repercussions that can decay the very fiber holding a community and society together.
The Darjeeling Hills of late have gone dry. The GJMM has issued yet another diktat banning the sale of liquor in the Hills. Liquor sales being a major source of excise revenue, it was a logical move at arm-twisting the Central and State governments prior to the tripartite talks scheduled for December 21, 2009 at Darjeeling. What made the move a questionable one was the social justification offered of the move being motivated by ‘samaj sudhar’. Gorkhaland being a critical and up-hill battle ahead, why this social distraction at this important juncture? The GJMM leadership has been insisting on talks at a political level, so, why does it meddle with morality and culture when admittedly it is a political movement?
Gorkhaland is a legitimate demand and the GJMM to its credit has managed to rouse up the Hills for yet another movement despite the disappointment and let down of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. It has made admirable progress in furthering the cause of the Indian Gorkha, but instances like a senior leader, and a member of the Bar, defending arbitrary GLP manifests, and others, threatening against any criticism or dissent from public platforms, show that something is amiss.
People in the Darjeeling Hills take pride in their education, their music, their fashion, their secular nature, their hospitality and their liberal upbringing. This is the Hill Culture that has driven an endless horde of admirers to the Hills each year. This is the culture worth saving, showcasing, emulating and propagating. Brand Darjeeling is facing extermination today and the current leadership with its myopic vision is to blame. The drive has to continue, the goal of Gorkhaland has to be achieved, but the spirit of the land should not be strangled to death as collateral damage.
The GJMM with its so-called ‘Gandhigiri’ is very different from the Gorkha National Liberation Front. The Hill towns sport a different color, the cadres have a different bearing and the leaders speak a different rhetoric. The Darjeeling Hills are indeed different today. It is a pity though, despite the initial promise, the GJMM has managed to be different and yet has failed to be the difference.
Vikash Pradhan cash0612@yahoo.com source-myrepublica.com
GJMM has managed to be different and yet has failed to be the differenceDarjeeling, Fall, 2009: For a second year in a row, a cultural pantomime (read compulsory ethnic wear) was enacted in the Darjeeling Hills. Only this year, the response was not as resounding as the previous one and apart from a few, most people chose to go about with clothes they have grown up wearing and are most comfortable with: Pants, shirts, sarees and kurtas. When the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM) made it mandatory for all hill people to wear ethnic wear for a month last year, with a majority of the population being Gorkha, the daura suruwal and the gunyeu cholo became hot import items and subjects of much-heated discussion.
With the history of the Darjeeling Hills itself mired in controversy, mostly written by outsiders, and conveniently amended, to suit narrow selfish interests, and the Gorkha community comprising many ethnicities and classes, the term ‘ethnic’ can have many connotations, none very clear. History is a double-edged sword and sadly in the Asian subcontinent, particularly for the Gorkha community in India, it has often proved a liability than an asset. Experts quote lines from the Mahabharata that refer to the Kiratas to prove that the Gorkha community is autochthonous to the region and not recent settlers as suggested by certain vested interest groups. Thus, the history of the Gorkhas go back thousands of years and yet, sadly, the community’s present identity is based on annals written, and narrow boundaries drawn, by a selfish colonial administration barely a 100 or so years ago.
The drive has to continue, the goal of Gorkhaland has to be achieved, but the spirit of the land should not be strangled to death as collateral damage.
The Gorkha community being a heterogeneous one, the term ethnic can not only be confusing, but more importantly, divisive. So, the cultural oneness intended by the GJMM through its ethnic wear diktat may have in fact proved sectarian, showcasing what otherwise is a big homogenous whole as separate distinct ethnic factions. This possible divide apart, the bigger question is about what comprises ethnic wear in the Hills? The Kiratas in the primitive past, as mentioned in the Mahabharata, were forest dwellers. If anyone from that community were to draw into that glorious past to choose an ethnic wear today, it would put many into a quandary. With a history that spans multiple millennia, how far back can one go to decide where one’s roots are, and what truly is ethnic? Trousers may be a comparatively recent adoption, but even the more acceptable daura suruwal has in recent times been seen in neighboring Nepal as an attire propagated and imposed by the Khas community and not truly representative of the Nepali people.
There may be no clear answer to what comprises ethnic wear in the Hills, and each may choose her/his own if s/he decides to wear one. The biggest issue however is the ‘diktat’. For an average Indian, there isn’t very much mahan about her/his Bharat except the rights promised by the constitution. Take away a person’s right to choose and the idea of ‘mera Bharat mahan’ swiftly dissipates. Giving in to the arbitrary diktats being issued by the GJMM in the name of Gorkhaland, the Hill people are essentially giving up what constitutes the basis of being an Indian citizen and the essence of living in the world’s biggest democracy: Freedom.
With diktats, the thin line between right and wrong, logical and illogical often fade away. It was amply demonstrated this year when the Gorkhaland Police (GLP) intervened into normal, accepted gestures like couples holding hands, and intruded into personal space by stopping people from smoking at Chowrastha. The very people who wore their ethnic attires with pride last year, heeding the GJMM’s diktat, then raised wary eyes. Most people then had refused to see and accept the fact that the voices of dissent raised were not expressing their ire based on looks or culture, but because it was an infringement of a person’s right to choose, guaranteed by the Indian constitution. What is happening now, to the consternation of many, is a fallout of having meekly bowed down to a diktat that had no logical connection to, nor has had any noticeable impact on, the ongoing agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland within the Indian union. People now seem to be taking notice of the infringement only because their own personal spaces appear under threat.
Morality and culture reside in a deep grey realm, and it is accepted in general, in this part of the world, that they do not mix well with politics. Realistically speaking, there are no Gandhis around in current political line-ups, with each being forced to compromise due to political compulsions and considerations, and the so-called swachchha-chhabi is only a mirage. Movements and agitations are thus conducted much better without a social or moral tinge to them. An outfit like the GJMM may try and fight the rot in the prevalent political and administrative system, but a society is best left to evolve and adapt rather than have ‘cultural revolutions’ imposed on it. Moral and cultural diktats very often have a darker shadow that what meets the eye: Far-reaching repercussions that can decay the very fiber holding a community and society together.
The Darjeeling Hills of late have gone dry. The GJMM has issued yet another diktat banning the sale of liquor in the Hills. Liquor sales being a major source of excise revenue, it was a logical move at arm-twisting the Central and State governments prior to the tripartite talks scheduled for December 21, 2009 at Darjeeling. What made the move a questionable one was the social justification offered of the move being motivated by ‘samaj sudhar’. Gorkhaland being a critical and up-hill battle ahead, why this social distraction at this important juncture? The GJMM leadership has been insisting on talks at a political level, so, why does it meddle with morality and culture when admittedly it is a political movement?
Gorkhaland is a legitimate demand and the GJMM to its credit has managed to rouse up the Hills for yet another movement despite the disappointment and let down of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. It has made admirable progress in furthering the cause of the Indian Gorkha, but instances like a senior leader, and a member of the Bar, defending arbitrary GLP manifests, and others, threatening against any criticism or dissent from public platforms, show that something is amiss.
People in the Darjeeling Hills take pride in their education, their music, their fashion, their secular nature, their hospitality and their liberal upbringing. This is the Hill Culture that has driven an endless horde of admirers to the Hills each year. This is the culture worth saving, showcasing, emulating and propagating. Brand Darjeeling is facing extermination today and the current leadership with its myopic vision is to blame. The drive has to continue, the goal of Gorkhaland has to be achieved, but the spirit of the land should not be strangled to death as collateral damage.
The GJMM with its so-called ‘Gandhigiri’ is very different from the Gorkha National Liberation Front. The Hill towns sport a different color, the cadres have a different bearing and the leaders speak a different rhetoric. The Darjeeling Hills are indeed different today. It is a pity though, despite the initial promise, the GJMM has managed to be different and yet has failed to be the difference.
Vikash Pradhan cash0612@yahoo.com source-myrepublica.com
Rajaji knew before moving to Calcutta of the special position The Statesman then occupied in Indian life, and of the prowess of the editor who favoured singlet, shorts and sandals. He probably also knew he had caused some discomfort between Stephens and Lord Linlithgow after Stephens called the viceroy’s rejection of Rajaji’s request to meet Mahatma Gandhi in jail soon after August 1942 “a mistake”. Two or three months later, Linlithgow asked Stephens if he still maintained that view. Disconcerted, fearing that candour might spoil his interview, yet unable to equivocate, Stephens replied “flatly” that he did. Linlithgow liked honesty even when it went against him. “The stony face for a moment lit with a genial smile … The interview went well.”
Stephens’s sturdy integrity may have inspired Rajaji’s inscription on the photograph. “A Government is protected by the vigilant care of the press. But who can look after the press except the conscience of the editor.” There is no question mark at the end of that arresting sentence. Though phrased as a query, Rajaji was making a statement, expressing his profound conviction that it’s the press that protects the government, not the other way round. Nehru eulogized press freedom as he did secularism and other idealistic principles of State policy.
Patel proclaimed that since press support is only expected when the government is in the right, it’s when the government is in the wrong that it needs loyal support. But Rajaji implied a detached corrective force whose vigilance and wise counsel saves the government from its own follies.
Harold Evans, the distinguished former editor of Britain’s The Times and Sunday Times, backs that assessment in his recently published memoirs. “Government just cannot govern well without reliable independent reporting and criticism,” he writes. “No intelligence system, no bureaucracy, can offer the information provided by free competitive reporting; the cleverest agents of the secret police are inferior to the plodding reporter of the democracy.”
Rajaji rose above Nehru’s abstraction, Patel’s demand that the press should be authority’s handmaiden and the unthinking mouthing of American jargon about an adversary role. His definition rules out trivia (Britain’s press is now cogitating over Queen Elizabeth’s plea to leave her family alone over Christmas) as well as publish-and-be-damned bravado. There is no scope either for the dependence of journalists in New Delhi or state capitals who, living in free or subsidized official accommodation, are as firmly embedded as any Fox News reporter accompanying the American invaders in Iraq.
Indebtedness does not end with accommodation. Not surprisingly, the long and lanky colleague who turned up in London on a government junket when I was based here produced a shopping list. What did surprise me was that it included a double-breasted suit for someone half his height and twice his breadth. He explained it was for the finance ministry official who had sanctioned the foreign exchange entitlement of a higher grade of journalist on the understanding that half the difference would be spent on a suit for him. The paper, of course, unknowingly paid the money.
Much bigger robberies are committed beyond my ken but it’s through these small acts of collusive deception that the media are perverted, the soul of India corrupted and the ground prepared for the major crimes that are undermining the system. Lee Kuan Yew told the International Press Institute that it’s a myth that a free press curbs corruption since “the media itself is corrupted” in many democracies. He exploded at my suggestion that Indian papers were exciting in their outspokenness. He had not found them “exciting in the sense of a vision of a new India and how to get there”.
Apart from a multitude of obvious inducements, an American journalist — Tom Wicker of The New York Times — wrote that Henry Kissinger’s practice of calling journalists by their first names (could the courtesy be reciprocated?) suborned their independence more surely than any bribe. Stephens obviously made an exception of Rajaji when he warned against getting too close to people in power because of the “peril in confidences”.
He wrote in 1945, “A journalist must guard against accepting any (confidences) that seem designed to curtail his scope for comment. Great men are not always scrupulous. Of late a publicity technique has developed for nobbling writers of integrity and conscience, by deliberately divulging secrets to them, reckoning that this will stop their writing about or around that subject.” To quote H.L. Mencken,
“Reporters come in as newspaper men trained to get the news; they end as tin-horn statesmen full of dark secrets and unable to write the truth if they tried.” That’s why so many senior (in years that is, not necessarily wisdom) political correspondents look so self-important and write so little of any consequence. They see themselves as officers of State.
A signboard in the film, War, Inc., reading “Coke presents the Implanted Journalist Experience” takes embedding a stage farther. This spoof on the Iraq invasion replaces the Lone Superpower with Coca-Cola because “in the 21st century great corporations will bestride the earth, replacing nations as the true creators of history, amassing powerful private armies to do their bidding”. Remembering Chile, corporate imperialism is not quite such a novel idea but implanting — a jab behind the ear such as my farming friends in Cornwall inflict on their miniature ouessant sheep for bird flu — holds grim echoes of Huxley, Wells and Orwell.
Rajaji’s thesis of inter-dependence means restraint and a consideration of consequences. “Every newspaper now asks itself with respect to every story: Is it news?” John F. Kennedy said after the Bay of Pigs fiasco: “All I suggest is that you add the question ‘Is it in the interests of national security?’” In India, communal harmony is tantamount to national security. Haunted by childhood memory of Direct Action Day, I have twice as editor felt it necessary to temper editorial freedom with circumspection. I argued indignantly with the BBC interviewer who called me “craven” but without the benefit then of Rajaji’s ultimate trust, though Dalmias and Goenkas stalked the horizon, in “the conscience of the editor”. His grandson’s incumbency in Raj Bhavan rekindled my interest in the twinkling old man with a wicked sense of fun who asked my age at our first meeting. “Twenty-eight,” I replied. “It’s a good age,” Rajaji said. “You stick to it!”
sunandadr@yahoo.co.in
Morcha fast on hold for talksA Morcha Protestor in Darjeeling being carried away after the fast was called off. (Suman Tamang)
Dec. 19: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today suspended its indefinite fast till the tripartite talks on December 21 and the Bengal government reciprocated by saying Gorkhaland would be among the demands to be discussed, two days after the state home secretary had almost ruled it out. “It’s good that they (the Morcha) have suspended the fast…. It is a positive step,” chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said, adding: “They have their demand for Gorkhaland. The Centre and the state are discussing all issues. But first we have to strengthen the DGHC (Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council) to speed up development work.”
The last tripartite meeting, in Delhi on August 11, had decided to repeal the DGHC act and arrange an alternative administrative set-up for the hills.
“There are some faults in the functioning of the DGHC and we have to correct them. A thorough discussion is necessary to expedite development projects in the hills by amending existing laws,” the chief secretary said today.
The Morcha, however, has insisted that it is neither interested in the DGHC nor an alternative set-up.
“We will only discuss Gorkhaland at the tripartite talks. We might walk out of the meeting if Gorkhaland does not figure in it,” Morcha president Bimal Gurung said in Darjeeling.
If the Morcha is unhappy with the talks, it will “restart the fast” from 11.19am on December 22. “Depending on the outcome of the talks, we will also think of other forms of protest,” Gurung added.
Sources said the Morcha leader considered 11.19am “an auspicious moment” for the launch of his protests.
However, the Morcha leader was hopeful that “the talks would be fruitful” and refused to elaborate on the “other forms of protest” in the event of a deadlock.
He said the fast was called off because of appeals from Union home minister P. Chidambaram and BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj. “Keeping in mind the upcoming tripartite meeting, we decided to suspend the hunger strike,” Gurung told a news conference.
The home minister had yesterday appealed to the Morcha to call off its fast-unto-death to ensure “a cordial and conducive atmosphere… on the eve of the talks”.
In Calcutta, Chakrabarti said: “It would have been better had the Morcha called off the hunger strike without qualification at a time the talks process is on….”
He also appealed to the Morcha to call off its shutdown in government offices across the hills.
Since the Centre promised on December 9 to set the ball rolling for a separate Telangana, the Morcha has vowed not to discuss anything but statehood. It started the fast on December 11 with the demand that Gorkhaland be treated on a par with Telangana.
The Morcha has appealed to hill residents to wear their traditional dresses on December 20 and 21 to show the “visiting delegates that the hill people are different from the rest of Bengal”.
GJMM relaxes hunger strike
SNS & PTI, Kolkata, 19 DeC: Responding to the appeal by Union home minister Mr P Chidambaram, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha today decided to “relax” the indefinite hunger strike in Darjeeling, for creating a conducive atmosphere for Monday's tripartite talks on its demand for Gorkhaland.
“The hunger strike will be relaxed from 4:30 pm today in deference to the appeal by the home minister yesterday and be resumed from December 22,” GJMM General Secretary Roshan Giri said.
This was decided at a marathon meeting, presided over by GJMM supremo Mr Bimal Gurung. Altogether 105 GJM supporters went on hunger-strike since 11 December in the Darjeeling Hills and Siliguri and the Dooars in the plains.
Some of the participants had to be hospitalised after they fell ill. Yesterday, in a statement Mr Chidamabaram had said “the deteriorating health of some who are fasting is a matter of concern to all of us. Hence, I would appeal to the GJM to call off the fast-unto-death stir immediately and utilise its time and energy to prepare for the tripartite talks.”
Meanwhile, security has been tightened in Darjeeling in view of the fourth round of tripartite talks even as some organisations here in the plains opposed to the talks have called a bandh on that day. The Bangla o Bangla Bhasa Bhaon Samiti, Amra Bangali and some other organisations here in the plains have called for a 'bandh' on the day of talks in protest against the talks and opposing further division of Bengal West Bengal Urban development minister and Siliguri MLA Mr Asok Bhattacharya yesterday said he was hopeful about the outcome of talks but alleged that GJMM had violated the resolution of third round of tripartite talks where it had promised not not to go for any agitation before the fourth round of talks of 21 December.
“The hunger strike will be relaxed from 4:30 pm today in deference to the appeal by the home minister yesterday and be resumed from December 22,” GJMM General Secretary Roshan Giri said.
This was decided at a marathon meeting, presided over by GJMM supremo Mr Bimal Gurung. Altogether 105 GJM supporters went on hunger-strike since 11 December in the Darjeeling Hills and Siliguri and the Dooars in the plains.
Some of the participants had to be hospitalised after they fell ill. Yesterday, in a statement Mr Chidamabaram had said “the deteriorating health of some who are fasting is a matter of concern to all of us. Hence, I would appeal to the GJM to call off the fast-unto-death stir immediately and utilise its time and energy to prepare for the tripartite talks.”
Meanwhile, security has been tightened in Darjeeling in view of the fourth round of tripartite talks even as some organisations here in the plains opposed to the talks have called a bandh on that day. The Bangla o Bangla Bhasa Bhaon Samiti, Amra Bangali and some other organisations here in the plains have called for a 'bandh' on the day of talks in protest against the talks and opposing further division of Bengal West Bengal Urban development minister and Siliguri MLA Mr Asok Bhattacharya yesterday said he was hopeful about the outcome of talks but alleged that GJMM had violated the resolution of third round of tripartite talks where it had promised not not to go for any agitation before the fourth round of talks of 21 December.
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SWARM OF GORKHA JANMUKTI MORCHA SUPPORTERS RALLY THROUGH THE STREETS OF KALIMPONG FOR SOLIDARITY TO THE DEMAND OF GORKHALAND
Pix: Samiran Paul and Samten Kabo
Hill meet to decide on PC plea- Chidambaram appeals to Gurung’s party to withdraw fast-One hospitalised in Kalimpong
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Dec.18: Union home minister P. Chidambaram today appealed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to call off the fast-unto-death in the Darjeeling hills.
Chidambaram in his appeal — the third in two weeks — said the deteriorating health of some of those who are on fast was a matter of concern.
“A delegation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha called on me on December 11. The delegation conveyed to me their intention to call a general strike as well as to launch a fast-unto-death programme… I impressed upon them that the tripartite talks were scheduled to be held on December 21 and hence there was no need to adopt an agitational approach on the eve of such talks,” Chidambaram said in a statement.
“I am saddened to learn that several hunger strikers are suffering from dehydration and some have been hospitalised,” the statement read.
The indefinite hunger strike is meant to keep up pressure on the Centre and the state — two of the three parties to the talks, the third being the Morcha — before the December 21 meeting.
In Darjeeling, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said the party had received Chidambaram’s appeal. “We will sit at 11am tomorrow and decide on our response to the appeal,” Giri said.
Home secretary Ardhendu Sen, who had earlier announced that Gorkhaland would not exactly figure in the fourth round of tripartite talks, today said at Writers’ Buildings that in the face of protests and fasts, the condition was not favourable for the December 21 discussion.
“There’s no doubt that the talks will take place though the situation is not ideal for it. But it is difficult to say whether these talks will prove successful under the circumstances,” said Sen.
Asked what the talks would focus on since the Morcha has said it would not discuss anything other than statehood, Sen said: “They had said the same things before the three tripartite talks earlier. But discussions on other issues did take place then and if the government so thinks, it will take place this time too.”
Last night in Kalimpong, Morcha president Bimal Gurung ruled out taking the States Reorganisation Commission route to the creation of Gorkhaland.
Gorkhaland must be created in the same manner in which the Centre has set in motion the process of forming Telangana by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, Gurung said.
“We are not interested whether or not the SRC is set up. If the 60-year demand for Telangana can be created overnight, why can’t our 102-year demand for Gorkhaland be formed in the same manner?” asked Gurung.
The Morcha president was in Kalimpong to visit those on fast in front of the sub-divisional office.
PTI, Kolkata,18 Dec:Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday night said it has called for an emergency meeting tomorrow to take a stand on Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram's appeal to call off the indefinite fast by its activists before the December 21 tripartite talks.
"Since Darjeeling is very cold at night we could not hold a meeting. An emergency meeting of central committee of the GJM will be held tomorrow to discuss the Union Minister's appeal and take a stand," GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri said over phone from Darjeeling.
Earlier, party spokesman Harkabadur Chetri said had the Centre not "committed on Telengana" matters would have been different in Darjeeling.
He also said chances of calling of the indefinite fast before the tripartite talks were "slim".
West Bengal Home Secretary Ardhendhu Sen told reporters, "if the Gorkhaland issue comes up at the tripartite talks, we shall discuss it along with other related issues, as we did during three earlier talks."
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