Shutdown lifted to “honour” home minister’s request

Darjeeling

10 Sep 2013

After 41 days of observing a shutdown interspersed with a few days of respite, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today finally relented and called off its agitation to “honour” the request made by Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in New Delhi on September 3.

The GJM’s decision to lift the strike also came following some degree of influence by constituents of the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee of which the Morcha is a member.

The GJAC announced of suspending the ongoing strike this afternoon following prolonged discussions at the GJM party office in Singamari.

“We had an elaborate meeting of member constituents today and we decided to honour the request of the union home minister and suspend the strike till October 20,” said GJAC chairman Enos Das Pradhan after the meet in the evening.

The decision was also based on the feedback from the team of former and present legislators who had called on Shinde in Delhi.

“Our decision is based on the assurance given to our delegation by the central government to arrange a tripartite soon to study the issues of the Gorkhas living in the country,” said Pradhan.

However, the GJAC also said it would meet again on October 19 after observing the attitude of the central government during the bandh suspension period and chalk out the future roadmap.

The GJM called an indefinite strike on July 29 after the central government gave its nod to the creation of a Telangana state. The following day, GJM president Bimal Gurung resigned from the post of

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration chief executive to take the statehood movement forward. 

The movement was subsequently handed over to the GJAC, a conglomeration of six political and non-political bodies, to counter the state government’s retaliation and a high court order terming the strike as illegal.

The shutdown was then tweaked into a people’s movement with changes in nomenclature [‘ghar bhitra janta’ (people remaining indoors) and ‘sadak ma janta’ (people outside their homes)].

The GJAC meeting today also passed a resolution to file a PIL in the Calcutta High Court against the state government for violating the July 18, 2011 GTA agreement.

“The state government is violating clause 29 of the GTA agreement wherein it says all police cases, except those relating to murder, against GJM leaders and activists would be withdrawn. The police, on the behest of the state government, have arrested hundreds of GJM activists and leaders including elected GTA sabhasads,” said the GJAC chairman.

The number of arrests since July 29 has so far crossed the 2,000 mark with the detained languishing in various correctional homes in the Darjeeling hills and Siliguri.

Although the strike has been lifted, the GJAC said it would continue organising rallies, public meetings and cultural gatherings in the hills from September 13, the day when all schools and colleges will reopen.

“We have only suspended the strike and our agitation will continue in different forms. The cultural gathering is to apprise the government of the demand of the diverse communities of the hills and to show we are different from Bengal,” said GJM spokesperson and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri.

The gatherings will be organised every day from 11am to 5pm at Chowrastha in Darjeeling, Mela Ground in Kalimpong, the

Football Ground in Kurseong and near the Mirik Lake in Mirik where members of various communities will be dressed in their traditional attire and sport black arm bands as a mark of protest to the state government’s actions.

“We will wear black arm bands and protest state government atrocities and express solidarity to those arrested. We also condemn the imposition of pay cuts of government employees,” added Chhetri.

Meanwhile, the GJAC, which was working on an ad-hoc basis since its inception on August 16, will now function in a full-fledged manner with Bimal Gurung as its president, CPRM president RB Rai the general secretary and GJAC chairman Pradhan as chief advisor. The committee has also set up a legal advisory cell and opened a bank account to receive donations from Gorkhas spread across the length and breadth of the country.