Home Minister appeals to Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to withdraw strike,Centre offer to discuss issues
NEW DELHI : The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Tuesday announced to withdraw their indefinite strike in Darjeeling after more than 100 days after the Centre promised to discuss all contentious issues, media reports said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier in the day urged the GJM chief Bimal Gurung to end the protests and invited him for talks.
“In a democracy, dialogue is the only way out to resolve any problem. Solution can be found through restraint, mutual dialogue and within the legal ambit,” he said. Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba has been directed to hold an official level meeting within a fortnight to discuss all related issues.
“I have been pained immensely by what has happened in Darjeeling Hills. I appeal to the GJM and its leader Bimal Gurung to withdraw the ongoing bandh and to help create a conducive atmosphere for allowing normalcy to return to the area, particularly in view of the festive season,” Singh said. At least 11 protesters have lost their lives and many others have been injured during clashes with the police at the peak of the turmoil.
According to reports things may have started to look a little different in Darjeeling, with stores opening and workers returning to some tea gardens, but people still fear reprisals from hardliners in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) for undermining the indefinite general strike.
Conflicting claims over normalcy are abound. The district administration of Darjeeling claimed 80% of stores in the town’s main markets had opened on Sunday. Joyoshi Dasgupta, the district magistrate, went out urging traders to open their stores. But on Monday, traders were again reluctant to open their stores for fear of retribution.
Hardliners owing allegiance to fugitive GJM president Bimal Gurung claim only a handful of stores had resumed business and that a vast majority of Gorkhas still support the indefinite strike, called to press for a separate Gorkhaland state. But moderate leaders such as Anit Thapa, who was recently expelled from the GJM, said the first step toward restoring normalcy had already been taken, and that popular support for the strike had dissipated.
“But yes, people are still scared of Gurung,” said Thapa. “His reign of terror has run for at least 10 years. What else do you expect?” He has reared a youth wing of the GJM, which is violent, and it acts only at his command, he said. People will take some more time to emerge from Gurung’s shadow, according to Thapa.
The state government has started several criminal cases against Gurung, forcing him to flee his home in Darjeeling. The district administration is of the view that he is hiding in neighbouring Sikkim. The last known meeting of the GJM that Gurung had convened was in Sikkim.
“It is almost impossible to restore normalcy without taking Gurung into detention,” said a key police officer, who asked not to be identified. Gurung has secured refuge in Sikkim, and it is almost impossible to get to him immediately, he added.
The state is following intelligence inputs that Gurung continues to receive funding from outside the state, and that money is being routed to his followers in Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts through a handful of traders, said the police officer. “I have asked the home secretary to convene an official level meeting in the home ministry within a fortnight to discuss all related issues. Darjeeling is facing a shutdown for over 100 days.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has spurned the demand for Gorkhaland, saying that it wasn’t within the state’s jurisdiction to decide on creating a separate state. Instead, she last week tried to revive the defunct Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), an autonomous body helmed by moderate leaders to end the standoff.
Meanwhile, Darjeeling Tea Association secretary general Kaushik Basu said on Tuesday that only nine to 10 of Darjeeling’s 87 tea estates had managed to resume operations, contradicting Thapa’s claim that workers had reported for work at almost all the gardens. (With Agency Inputs ).
