GNLF revives cells for protection of cadres - Boost for voluntary force in backdrop of alleged threats from Morcha

Darjeeling, June 10: The GNLF has started reviving its village protection cells at a time the party, in a bid to make a comeback, is allegedly facing threats from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. “We have started reviving the party’s village protection cells (VPC) and have so far issued 300 identity cards to our cadres in Mirik alone. The process of forming the VPCs has started across the hills,” Laadup Ghising, the spokesman for the GNLF, said over the phone from Mirik. The GNLF had started forming the VPCs in 2009 when the party had lost popular support in the hills. However, the cells were not proactive till now. The VPC is seen as the GNLF’s answer to the Morcha’s Gorkhaland Personnel, which, too, was purportedly formed for crowd control and traffic management during the Morcha’s political programmes. However, the GLP also started moral-policing in the hills. The lathi-wielding GLP members tried to stop the flow of illegal liquor from Sikkim to the hills and launched a crackdown on drug peddlers. There was an instance when two couples were allegedly hauled up in Darjeeling by the GLP for allegedly holding hands in public. The GLP cadres were trained by the members of the Morcha’s ex-servicemen association and were kept in camps similar to army barracks. Ghising, however, said the GNLF would not be imparting any such training to the VPC members. “Our primary objective of forming the VPC is to ensure protection for our supporters, especially during political programmes,” he said. The GNLF’s decision to revive the cells comes in the wake of an attack on its workers allegedly by Morcha supporters at Soureni on May 5. Besides, hundreds of people have joined the GNLF in the hills and the Terai recently. Eight persons were injured when GNLF supporters were attacked while on their way to Soureni from the Terai to attend the inauguration of a party office on May 5. Soureni is about 45km from Darjeeling. After the formation of the GLP, the CPRM also stitched together a similar volunteers’ force called the Swyam Sevak Bahini, which consisted of volunteers donning red caps. The CPRM volunteers had taken out a parade on the May Day in Darjeeling in 2011 and they have been inactive since then. Unlike the CPRM and the GNLF, the Morcha is known to pay the cadres of its voluntary force between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500 a month. Phoebe Rai, the Morcha’s convener from Mirik and also a GTA Sabha member from the area, refused to attach much importance to the GNLF’s initiative. “Of late, I have stopped commenting on their activities as they have no support left. Their latest announcement is not something we are worried about. The youths of the hills are with us.”