The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Wednesday reiterated its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state comprising Darjeeling and its adjoining areas in a meeting with the minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy and Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla.
A tripartite meeting was called by the Union home ministry (MHA), with GJM and the West Bengal government, to discuss issues related to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). However, the West Bengal government skipped the meeting, which was attended by a seven-member GJM delegation at North Block.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, GJM working president Lopsang Lama said that they submitted a memorandum saying that their only demand is for a separate Gorkhaland state.
“We have not discussed anything about GTA. We have submitted a memorandum on how and why GTA has failed… Our only demand is a Gorkhaland state, and we have raised that,” Lama said, adding that the minister assured them he would take up the matter with Union home minister Amit Shah.
The BJP won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat three times since 2009 by forging an alliance with GJM. In 2019, the BJP’s alliance was with the GJM (Gurung faction), the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), and other small political parties in the Darjeeling hills. Its candidate, Raju Bista, beat the TMC candidate by over 300,000 votes. The BJP has promised to find a permanent political solution to the demand for a Gorkhaland, which has been raised by the Nepali-speaking Gorkhas living in the Darjeeling hills and adjoining Siliguri, the Terai and the Dooars region in north Bengal, and has mentioned this in its election manifestos in 2014 and 2019.
The demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland in the hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kursegaon, ethnically dominated by the Gorkhas, has been made since 1980s.
Welcoming the Wednesday’s development, Mahendra Chhetri, the GNLF spokesperson said “The Centre should start dialogues to find a permanent political solution as promised by the BJP in the last Lok Sabha election manifesto.”
The West Bengal government has repeatedly claimed that the Centre is trying to divide the state, which is not acceptable to Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led government.
Lama said in a statement after meeting that the delegation raised the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland and grant of Scheduled Tribe status to 11 Gorkha sub-communities.
“When the issue of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was raised, GJM delegation submitted that the delegation was there to discuss the statehood demand and grant of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and not GTA since the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed between the Union of India, government of West Bengal and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in 2011 was not honoured by the state of West Bengal,” the statement said.
The TMC accused the BJP government of playing mischief. “There was no compulsion to call a meeting on GTA now. This is mischief making by the Centre…,” said TMC Lok Sabha member and spokesperson Saugata Roy.
“The GTA was an outcome of a tripartite agreement. The state and the Centre are equal stakeholders in it. Legally, the GJM cannot even raise the Gorkhaland issue at a meeting called on GTA. Politically, the BJP will lose the ground it gained in Bengal in 2019 if splits Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars from the state. Bengalis will not accept that,” said Kolkata-based political science professor Udayan Bandopadhyay.
