Darjeeling, June 10: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has lined up a staggered programme of engagement and protest, giving the state government time to work on measures that can help the party offset the dismay the territory report has spread among its supporters.
The agitation plan was announced a day after the Justice Shyamal Sen committee recommended the addition of five mouzas to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) area. The Morcha had demanded 396 mouzas (not 398 as reported on Sunday because the organisation had duplicated two clusters.)
The sequence of the Morcha programme shows chronological preference is being given to engagement with the chief minister (see chart). However, pressure will be kept up through traditional means of protest.
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The agitation is spread over more than a month, culminating in a public meeting on the Gorkhaland martyrs’ day on July 27. The time frame indicates the government is being given time to take some steps that will help the Morcha turn around its disheartened supporters.
Although the Morcha did not spell it out, the party leadership’s repeated references to specific mouzas that apparently met the Sen committee’s parameters but were still left out suggest it would like some assurance on inclusion of these clusters in the GTA area.
“We believe the chairman of the committee was bent on omission rather than inclusion. In his report, he omitted places like Manabari, Pathajhora, Thaljhora and Bagrakote only because the people from these areas shop at Oodlabari which is not Gorkha-dominated. By this argument, even Darjeeling and Kalimpong should not be within the GTA as the hill people shop in Siliguri and procure their foodgrain from the plains,” said Morcha spokesperson and MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri.
“More than 100 mouzas from the eastern Dooars and about three mouzas dominated by Gorkhas from the Terai were not included because they border Bhutan and Nepal, respectively. We see no logic to this argument as places like Pashupati in Darjeeling and Jholung in Kalimpong sub-division also border Nepal and Bhutan,” he added.
The threat to burn copies of the GTA agreement is being seen as a sign that the Morcha would not accept the autonomous set-up and would consider renewing the Gorkhaland agitation after reading the signals during the month-plus-long programme. The scheduled date of burning — July 17 — is also the birthday of Morcha president Bimal Gurung.
The Morcha said if the state government decided to hold the GTA elections, scheduled for next month, the party would oppose the plan. “We will oppose any move to conduct elections in the hills,” said Giri.
“Our four Morcha representatives in the committee were not consulted before the final report was compiled. We also had our data and the chairman could have easily tallied the data. The committee functioned as a one-man commission, not as a 10-member committee and we are against the committee’s functioning,” said Giri.
In Calcutta, home secretary Basudev Banerjee said: “The chief secretary is going through the (Sen committee ) report. It is a 330-page document. I am also going through it. We wish to upload it on the state government’s website by Tuesday.”
“We are keeping a close watch on the situation. We are in constant touch with the officials of the districts and additional deployment will be made as soon as the situation so demands,” Banerjee added.(TT)
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