By Vivek Chhetri
New Delhi: A political party fighting for a separate state for Gorkhas says Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his “commitment” to start the process to meet its demand.
The leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gorkha people’s liberation front) made the claim on March 23 after meeting the prime minister in New Delhi.
However, there was no confirmation from the federal government on the front’s claim, reports The Telegraph of Kolkata.
The party leaders said they are “extremely satisfied” with the outcome of the meeting.
“We met Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the demand of creating a separate state of Gorkhaland. The Prime Minister reiterated that he has not forgotten the word given to the Gorkhas and he gave us a commitment to start the process of forming Gorkhaland in the near future,” Morcha chief Bimal Gurung said in a statement.
Gurung was accompanied by senior Morcha leaders Roshan Giri and Binay Tamang, and Darjeeling BJP MP S S Ahluwalia.
Gurung’s statement is an indication that the morcha would use the claimed “commitment” to bolster its image in the run-up to panchayat and civic elections in the Darjeeling hills and also in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).
The morcha has faced pressure within and outside the party, with many accusing it of “forgetting” the Gorkhaland demand. Its decision to join hands with the BJP has also been criticized. To add to the morcha’s worries, the Trinamul Congress, which currently rules West Bengal, has made rapid inroads into the Darjeeling hills.
While addressing an election rally in Siliguri on April 10, 2014, Modi had said the “dream of Gorkhas is my dream.”
Gurung said the morcha delegation reminded the prime minister about his statement and told him “it was time to fulfill the dreams of the Gorkhas.”
“We also told the Prime Minister that the Darjeeling hills and the Dooars were a ‘chicken’s neck’ for the country and that creating Gorkhaland would be in the interest of national security,” the morcha chief said.
N.B. Khawash, the Trinamul working president in the Darjeeling hill,s said the people had “seen through what he termed as the morcha’s lies.
“Earlier, they had claimed a committee would examine the Gorkhaland demand, but nothing happened. On several occasions earlier, the Morcha had claimed after meetings that they had raised only the statehood issue. But official communications from the Centre later suggested the talks had centred around funds for the GTA. Today’s claim, too, is hollow. People have seen through their lies. Their claim is election-centric,” Khawash said.
The morcha recently joined an umbrella organization demanding separate states of Bodoland, Bundelkhand, Vidarbha, Purbanchal and Twipra Land. The National Federation of Smaller States decided on March 17 that it would hold a series of protests, including the submission of a memorandum to Modi, and hold dharnas and bandhs in the six areas simultaneously.
The morcha’s youth wing has pressurized the party to re-start the statehood agitation. Prakash Gurung, the youth president of the Morcha, has resigned from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to “work for statehood.”
The morcha said at March 24 meeting, the leaders also demanded the granting of Scheduled Tribe status to 11 hill communities and setting up a central university in the Darjeeling hills.
“The Prime Minister assured us that the process of granting tribal status to the 11 communities would also be started once the report is placed to the Centre,” Gurung said.
Granting of tribal status to the Bhujel, Gurung, Mangar, Newar, Jogi, Khas, Rai, Sunuwar, Thami, Yakka (Dewan) and Dhimal communities has been a long-standing demand in the hills.