ABGL sets May 21 test - Anti-Morcha meet plan

VIVEK CHHETRI

Bharati Tamang sits near the portrait of her husband Madan Tamang at the ABGL office in Darjeeling on Tuesday. Picture by Suman Tamang Darjeeling, May 15: The ABGL has decided to observe the second death anniversary of Madan Tamang here on May 21 with a memorial meeting to which major leaders opposed to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, including Subash Ghisingh and Chhatrey Subba, have been invited. The May 21 event will be a test for not only the ABGL but also for other parties which are trying to challenge the Morcha’s might in the hills. “We have decided to organise an event to mark the second death anniversary of our leader. All anti-Morcha leaders like Subash Ghisingh, Chhatrey Subba, Ajay Dahal (United Gorkha Revolutionary Front), Enos Das Pradhan (chairperson of the Gorkhaland Task Force), Munish Tamang (the GTF secretary), Dawa Pakhrin (Gorkhaland Rajya Nirman Morcha) and R.B. Rai (CPRM) among others will be present at the meeting,” Chewang Bhutia, the president of Tarun Gorkha, the youth wing of the ABGL, told journalists here today. While Chhatrey Subba, said he wouldn’t attend the meeting, there was no last word on Ghisingh’s participation. “They had invited me, but I am not going. I have quit politics,” Subba said when contacted in Kalimpong. In Jalpaiguri, Ghisingh’s aide Mani Gurung said: “I don’t know if he (Ghisingh) has received any invitation. But as far as I know, he doesn’t plan to go to Darjeeling.” The GNLF’s last major public meeting in the hills was in Mirik on April 9, 2011. The meeting, organised to drum up support for the party candidates contesting the Assembly polls in the three hill seats, was addressed by Ghisingh. The party also organised picnic like gatherings in Darjeeling and Mirik on December 6, 2011, to mark the signing of an agreement that sought to grant special status to the hills under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Today, the ABGL celebrated its 67th foundation day at the party office on Ladenla Road here. At the programme, the party accused the Trinamul Congress government of delaying the arrest of all those involved in the murder of Madan Tamang. “We have learnt that a digital file containing telephonic conversations of hill leaders named in the FIR is in the custody of the chief minister and she is refusing to hand it over to the CBI. If the CBI gets hold of the file, senior Morcha leaders can be arrested,” said Pratap Khati, the general secretary of the ABGL. Madan Tamang was killed by a khukuri-wielding mob in broad daylight in Darjeeling on May 21, 2010. Khati alleged that absconders in the Madan Tamang murder case were roaming in the hills. “They are active on Facebook and their whereabouts are known to the state police who are not co-operating with the CBI.” The ABGL also demanded that a judicial inquiry be conducted into the fire that destroyed a market in Darjeeling on April 20 as foul play couldn’t be ruled out.(TT)