GNLF musters 5000 for foundation day

Simulbari (Kurseong), April 5: The GNLF today managed to gather nearly 5,000 supporters at Simulbari, located at the border of the hills and plains, for a show of strength on its foundation day. The rally at Simulbari, 20km from Siliguri, is not the GNLF’s first in the last three years since its leader Subhash Ghisingh was driven out of the hills but today’s supporter presence was the largest the GNLF managed since 2010. The rally has happened at a time the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the ruling force in the hills, has fallen out with the state government. Of late, a trickle of Morcha activists in the hills and the Dooars has started moving towards the GNLF and the state’s ruling party, Trinamul Congress. Ghisingh, who was banished from the hills in 2010 and has since being living in Jalpaiguri, did not attend today’s meeting. His party today demanded Sixth Schedule status for the Darjeeling hills that allows autonomy to a specific geographic area with constitutional validation. “We observed the foundation day of our party as the Gorkhaland Namkaran Sthapna Diwas to remind people that it was the GNLF and its chief Subash Ghisingh who had raised the demand of statehood on April 5, 1980, that is 33 years back,” said Mahendra Chhetri, president of the Terai regional unit of the GNLF and a central committee leader of the party. “We wanted to make sure that people understand the superiority of the Sixth Schedule, which if conferred would have constitutional validation,” Chhetri said. “The meeting is a part of the exercises taken up at the preparatory phase. Our principal leader (Ghisingh) will soon address people in public and will also go to the hills within next four to six weeks.” The Rohini and Pankhabari roads were supposed to have been shut to traffic from 9am to 3pm today but police did allow vehicles to pass. Police said around 5,000 people came to the rally. Since morning, GNLF supporters assembled from different corners of Terai and Kurseong, where Simulbari is located. Though in the hill subdivision, Simulbari is at the border of the plains, the last point before vehicles enter the hills. Chhetri said the state government and the administration were “maintaining the law and order in a proactive manner” in the hills. “We also appreciate the announcements made by the chief minister to form development boards for Lepchas and Buddhists in the hills,” he said. The Morcha staunchly opposed the formation of the Lepcha board under the state government. “Forming such councils or bodies for conservation and promotion of different tribes and their cultures dwelling in hills has been mentioned in the Sixth Schedule…. We thus appreciate the decision,” Chettri added. Chhetri, Tshering Dahal, a woman GNLF leader from Sukna, and other leaders termed the GTA illegal. Some supporters of the Morcha and the CPM today joined the GNLF, which put their number at 650. The veracity of the GNLF claim could not be confirmed independently. The GNLF also managed to mobilise about 500 supporters for a rally in Mirik. Around 2,000 Morcha supporters, too, brought out a rally in Mirik. The attendance of GNLF supporters in Mirik, observers believe, was significant given the fact that the party has not been able to function freely. In Darjeeling, nine Morcha supporters also joined the GNLF at a party meeting organised at Barbotey, about 15km from Darjeeling town. The meeting was attended by more than 100 GNLF supporters. Morcha meeting In Darjeeling town, the Morcha held a march at almost the same time. Except for one incident of vandalism about 50km from Darjeeling — alleged Morcha supporters threw away household items of a GNLF supporter — there were no reports of violence. According to Morcha sources, 8,000 people attended the march from Darjeeling station to Chowk Bazar. In Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik, too, the Morcha held rallies. The entire town was shut for the duration of the march between 10am to 1pm. In Kalimpong, about 5,000 supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha took out a rally through the streets of the town.