MHA’s 'Back-Out' On ‘Gorkhaland’ Meeting Triggers Disquiet In Northern Bengal

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has, once again, back-tracked on a meeting it had convened to discuss the ‘Gorkhaland’ issue on Wednesday (7 October).

The MHA had convened the tripartite talks with the state government and representatives of the dominant Bimal Gurung faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in presence of junior home minister G. Kishan Reddy to discuss the ‘Gorkhaland’ issue.

The demand for a separate state of ‘Gorkhaland’ comprising the Darjeeling Hills and large parts of the Dooars area of northern Bengal predates Independence. The Darjeeling Hills have witnessed tumultuous agitations and long shutdowns since the mid-1980s in support of the statehood demand.

The GJM under Gurung spearheaded this statehood demand since 2004 and led long spells of agitations in 2013 and 2017. The Bengal government cracked down on the GJM leadership and slapped many cases on Gurung and other leaders, who are all in hiding now.

The GJM split in 2017 with Binay Tamang heading a breakaway faction. Tamang was put in charge of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a semi-autonomous council with limited administrative and financial powers and jurisdiction over the Darjeeling Hills.

The MHA’s letter issued last week invited the Bengal home secretary, the GTA principal secretary (a state government bureaucrat), the Darjeeling district magistrate and GJM chief Bimal Gurung to the 7 October meeting.

The invitation letter clearly stated that the meeting was being convened to “discuss issues related to Gorkhaland”. That set alarm bells ringing within the Bengal unit of the BJP.

The Gorkhaland statehood demand is a sensitive issue and while an overwhelming majority of the people of the Hills and a large section of residents of Dooars are in favour of it, the demand elicits vehement opposition in the rest of Bengal.

The BJP had, initially, supported the statehood demand and BJP candidates won handsomely from the Hills in the 2016 Assembly polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Gorkhas form a significant chunk of the electorate in 15 Assembly seats in North Bengal and can swing the results in these seats.

However, any suggestion of a ‘division of Bengal’ by carving out a separate state of Gorkhaland triggers an emotive reaction among Bengalis. The Trinamool, in a bid to win support of Bengalis, has often accused the BJP of being sympathetic to the Gorkhaland demand.

BJP leaders in the state were alarmed over the MHA’s invite to discuss ‘Gorkhaland’. Though the Trinamool initially dismissed the move as a “pre-election stunt”, BJP leaders in the state feared that the Trinamool would make this a major issue.

Thus, the Bengal BJP leadership conveyed to the party’s central leadership the pitfalls in convening a meeting to discuss the emotive issue in the run-up to the Assembly polls next year.

The MHA accordingly issued a corrigendum on Monday, clarifying that Wednesday’s meeting was being called to “discuss issues relating to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration”.

This volte-face has left the people of the Hills and Dooars disappointed. The MHA had convened a meeting to discuss the GTA issue on 7 August as well, but had to cancel it since none of the invitees showed any interest in attending it.

“There is nothing to discuss about the GTA. We have rejected the GTA as a toothless body. The GTA cannot fulfil the aspirations of the people of the Hills and Dooars. Our demand is for Gorkhaland and the Union Government should live up to its promise of finding a political solution to this long-standing demand of the Gorkas,” said a senior leader of the Bimal Gurung faction of the GJM.