Nov. 2: The state leadership of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad today show-caused its top five leaders in the Terai and the Dooars for agreeing to these plains areas to be included in the Gorkhaland Territorial Authority, the new set-up for the hills.
At a meeting held in Calcutta today, the five leaders, including John Barla, the president of the Dooars-Terai regional unit, were asked to reply to the showcause within six days. Barla was also removed from his post as the president of the regional unit of the party.
The state leadership of the Parishad, which is against any areas of the Dooars and the Terai forming a part of the autonomous hill body or the GTA, said it would not ratify the agreement forged by the north Bengal leaders with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Sunday “under any circumstances”.
The executive committee of the Parishad, a tribal outfit that has considerable influence over the Adivasis in north Bengal, has the authority to even expel all five leaders if they refuse to fall in line.
Birsa Tirkey, the state president of the Parishad, told The Telegraph: “They do not have the authority to sign a pact with the Morcha, neither do they have any endorsement from the state committee. These are gross violations of the laid down rules of our organisation.”
Other than Barla, state committee member Joseph Hembram, secretary of the Parishad’s Terai unit Nicotin Minz and a state general secretary Tejkumar Toppo have been showcaused. Sukra Munda, the chairperson of the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, which is affiliated to the Parishad, too has been sent a notice.
Although Barla said the regional unit’s decision had the “full backing” of the Adivasis of the Dooars and the Terai, the state leadership is hoping that he will buckle under pressure and back out of the agreement with the Morcha.
In August last year, too, Barla had written to Morcha chief Bimal Gurung saying that the regional unit of the Parishad was willing to join the statehood movement provided he changed the nomenclature from Gorkhaland to Gorkha Adivasi Pradesh.
However, after the state leadership threatened action against him, Barla had backed off and turned against the Morcha’s movement. “We are hoping that this time, too, the threat of action will make Barla and the four others see reason,” a state leader said. “They have no business joining hands with the Morcha.”
The state government, too, is hoping that the Parishad’s regional unit backs out of the deal with Morcha.
The government has formed a committee to examine the Morcha’s demand for inclusion of parts of the Dooars and the Terai in the GTA. “But if the Dooars-Terai unit of the Parishad backs this demand, then the committee’s findings are likely to go in favour of the Morcha since the five leaders who have been showcaused are popular and have a good support base,” said a Trinamul leader from north Bengal. This, the Trinamul leader, said may not be a “happy scenario” for chief minister Mamata Banerjee as the inclusion of any part of the Dooars-Terai region in the new hill set-up would not go down well with the large Bengali population of the plains.
Reacting to the showcause, Barla said: “If the state leaders decide to take action against us, we will assemble the common people of the Terai and the Dooars in a meeting on November 6 in the Dooars to drive home our point that the entire tribal populace of the region favours our decision.”
Toppo, however, admitted that the state leadership should have been consulted, “We have committed a mistake,” he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment