GORKHALAND MOVEMENT: PEOPLE'S OPINION

Kolkata TV organized a live telecast from Chourastha on the opinion of hill people

SILIGURI STRIKES: IN PICTURES

Pictures by Himalaya Darpan

BEACON ONLINE REQUESTED TO RALLY INTERNATIONAL BENGALI COMMUNITY IN THE FAVOUR OF GORKHALAND

By Barun Roy
Dr. Sudip Ghosh, Professor Emeritus, South Carolina, USA has called for all parties in West Bengal to refrain from converting the Gorkhaland Movement into a communal affair. Dr. Ghosh in an interaction with Beacon Online said, “Bengalese all over the world have had a soft corner for Darjeeling Hills and are essentially lovers of the land, people and culture. To portray the fact that Bengalese own Darjeeling Hills is absurd to say the least. It is high time that Gorkhas who predominate in the Hills be given the Right to Self Determination.” Asked about the steps taken by the CPIM lead West Bengal Government, he said, “Buddhadev Bhattacharya must initiate dialogue with the GJM leaders but before that he must give up his ‘Bengal owns Darjeeling Hills’ perspective. In modern day democracy, Colonial attitudes must be shed. CPIM has failed in Nandigram and its policies should not lead to another Nandigram in the tranquil hills of Darjeeling. What is happening in the Dooars Terai is sad. People of both races, Bengalese, Nepalese and Kamtapuris who have lived peacefully for years should not be pitched against each other in armed struggles. The Communist Government at Kolkata might feel that this will weaken the Gorkhaland Movement, yet in reality it will instead break the very fabric of Bengal and indeed the whole of North East. I request all involved including the GJM leadership to calm the people, resolve immediate animosity and concentrate on negotiating with the Union Government at New Delhi. To read more visit: http://beacononline.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/beacon-online-requested-to-rally-international-bengali-community-in-the-favour-of-gorkhaland/#comment-5965

SILIGURI CLASH: ANTI GORKHALAND AND GORKHALAND SUPPORTERS

Clash took place at Siliguri today in the strike called by Amra bangali between Gorkhaland supporters and anti gorkhaland supporters. The scene was exclusively telecast in Kolkata TV

Redrawing the map of Gorkhaland

An indefinite bandh in Darjeeling has fixed the focus once again on the issue of Gorkhaland. Joel Rai explains what’s behind the demand for a separate state and how the current demand differs from previous ones

There is an indefinite bandh in Darjeeling and tourists have been stranded. What is happening there?
The three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling district—Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong—have been closed down for an indefinite period by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) as part of their agitation for the formation of a separate state of Gorkhaland. The GJM, formed late in 2007, has revived the demand for Gorkhaland and has been holding protests and rallies in support of a state that is to be carved out of West Bengal.
•What is the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and who is leading it?
The GJM was formed by Bimal Gurung, earlier a councillor of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. He was a close associate of Subhas Ghising, president of the Gorkha National Liberation Force (GNLF). The two fell out in 2007 over the attempt to extend 6th Schedule status to Darjeeling. Under the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, certain tribal-majority areas are given autonomy in administration. While the GNLF wanted the 6th Schedule status with enhanced powers for the Hill Council, the GJM desired full statehood. The Centre introduced the 6th Schedule to the Constitution Amendment Bills in Parliament in December 2007 but it was shelved.
•So where is Subhas Ghising and what has happened to the GNLF?
While the GNLF exists as a political organisation, almost its entire support base has moved to the GJM. After a visit to Kolkata in March this year, Ghising was barred from entering Darjeeling by the GJM until he resigned as caretaker administrator of the Hill Council. The term of the last Hill Council expired in 2004, and no elections were held thereafter. The West Bengal Government appointed Ghising as caretaker administrator, extending his term every six months until his resignation in March. Thereafter, Ghising has remained confined to his home in Darjeeling.
•What is behind the demand for Gorkhaland?
The demand for a separate administrative set-up for Gorkhas of India was first voiced in 1907, when the premier civil-society body of the Gorkhas, the Hillmen’s Association, asked the British for an administrative set-up separate from Bengal. In 1946, the then undivided Communist Party of India demanded that the Darjeeling areas be constituted in an entity called Gorkhastan. The GNLF took up the issue in a big way from 1986. All these demands considered the ethnic, cultural and linguistic distinctions between the populations of Darjeeling and the rest of West Bengal. Under the West Bengal administration, feel the Gorkhas, Darjeeling has not developed despite being a world-renowned centre for tea, tourism and education.
•What is different from this current demand for Gorkhaland and the one led by the GNLF?
There are two major turns that the current demand for a separate state has taken that distinguishes it from the earlier demand.
First, the map for the current Gorkhaland envisages not only the three hills subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, but also Siliguri and parts of the Dooars that fall in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts in North Bengal, extending up to the River Sunkosh on the border with Bhutan. While the GNLF had included Dooars in its programme, it did not push for their inclusion in their map of Gorkhaland, a result of which was that when the DGHC formed only the hill subdivisions were included in it, leaving out chunks of the plains where large populations of Gorkhas reside. The GJM has managed not only to garner the support of Gorkhas in the plains, but also of the Adivasis, who form a substantial percentage of the population of the Dooars. This has created tensions between the Bengalis of Siliguri and the Gorkhas. The Bengali resistance to Siliguri’s inclusion in the agitation plans of GJM is lead by its local MLA and West Bengal Minister of Municipal Affairs Asok Bhattacharya. The Siliguri Municipality has already passed a resolution that it will fight all attempts to include Siliguri in the proposed state.
Second, unlike earlier, there is an intellectual push to the current demand for Gorkhaland. One of the impetus for a separate state of Gorkhas would be securing of their identity as Indians. Indian Gorkhas have long been misidentified as being citizens of Nepal and they feel that a state of their own will root them to India. The Gorkhaland of their imagination, therefore, does not only secure the economic development of the Darjeeling area but also the political identity of the over one crore Indian Gorkhas across the country.
• So are the Indian Gorkhas migrants from Nepal or where have they come from?
Indian Gorkhas have been residents of India for centuries. Under the Treaty of Sugauli in 1815, Nepal ceded an area of 18,000 sq km to the British. This territory constitutes what are today parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Darjeeling district. A treaty with Bhutan in 1860 brought the current Dooars areas in Bengal and Assam into British possession. The Gorkha population resident in these territories became part of British India then. The Gorkhas participated in the Freedom Movement with Gandhiji and also joined the Azad Hind Fauj in big numbers. The tune of India’s national anthem Jana Gana Mana was taken from an original composition by Captain Ram Singh Thakur, a Gorkha in the INA. Two Gorkhas, Damber Singh Gurung and Ari Bahadur Gurung were members of the Constituent Assembly. Ari Bahadur Gurung was a member of the drafting committee. He is a signatory to the first Constitution of India.
However, there are two groups of Gorkhas in India, the Indian Gorkhas and those who have come to India under the provisions of the 1950 India-Nepal Treaty of Friendship that allows Nepalese citizens to come and work, buy property and settle in India without permits. Their presence in India has led to confusion about the nationality of Indian Gorkhas and they are often misidentified as Nepalese citizens. A separate state of Gorkhaland, they feel, will help seal their identity as Indians.
•What happens now?
West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said that there will be no official talks with the GJM so long as they continue to demand Gorkhaland. On its part, the GJM says it’s a separate state or nothing. The 1980s agitation saw violence that took a toll of 1,200 lives. Dialogue between the political organisations and the state and Centre looks like the only way out. (Indian Express)

ROSHAN GIRI ON GORKHALAND ISSUES

Why Gorkhaland? Since 1917 the issue of separate state and identity has been raised but why India is silent? Rosan Giri on the issue in Kolkata TV where Ashok Bhattachrgee was also a participant

Strike halted in India tea region

A strike called by a regional political party which paralysed life in India's tea-producing Darjeeling area has been postponed, officials say.
They say the strike - called by the regional Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) political party - has been halted for 60 hours to allow tourists to leave.
They say that the delay will also help shopkeepers to stock up on essentials.
The GJM is demanding a separate state and fairer treatment for Darjeeling's Nepali-speaking Gorkha community.
It has warned that the strike will resume indefinitely from Saturday.
The GJM has also asked employees from the West Bengal state government to leave Darjeeling. On Tuesday, they asked all tourists to quit the area.
Officials say that at least 15 people were wounded when Gorkhas and Bengali and Hindi-speakers clashed on Tuesday.
At the beginning of the week the GJM alleged that its supporters were attacked by activists of the state's ruling Marxists on Sunday.
The communists have denied the charge.
Darjeeling is in the north of the eastern state of West Bengal.
The region is home to hundreds of tea gardens and produces Darjeeling tea which is coveted for its flavour.
The Gorkhas fought for a separate state through the 1980s but they later settled for regional autonomy.
The recently-formed GJM has revived the struggle for a separate state.
The foothills are dominated by Bengali and Hindi speakers, while the Darjeeling hills are dominated by Nepali-speaking Gorkhas. (BBC)

Gorkha unrest cuts, tears & curls Darjeeling crop

Demand for Gorkhaland state leads to losses of Rs 4 crore per day across 87 estates
KOLKATA: Dhanraj Thapa, Biresh Bahadur, Rohit Gurung and Sonali Pawn are among the 80,000 labourers working in the 87 lush tea estates across Darjeeling.
But their livelihood has taken a backseat to their need for a separate Gorkhaland state. Their demand has hit the world’s ‘muscatel-flavoured finest teas’ hard. In the last few days, Darjeeling’s tea industry has suffered badly due to the agitation, losing an estimated Rs 4 crore a day.
Making matters worse is the fact that the best of Darjeeling-summer and second-flush tea —are produced in June. They command high prices in both domestic and global markets and comprise almost 25-30% of the total production of Darjeeling tea, 90% of which is exported.
Planters across Darjeeling, Dooars and the entire North Bengal belt, which churns out about 25% of the total tea produced in India, are a worried lot.
A planter from Darjeeling, who did not wish to be named, said the call for indefinite closure has sparked panic. “There seems to be no solution in sight. We anticipate huge losses... We are at the mercy of the government.”
Industry estimates say the Darjeeling tea industry would lose 25% of its best produce and 40-45% of revenues because of the current strife.
Ashok Lohia, chairman of Chamong Group, the largest planter in Darjeeling owning 14 gardens, finds the situation untenable. “Business is badly hit. Indefinite closure of the district means dispatches would be impossible. There would be no rations and we can’t send samples to auctions.” (DNA)

GJM crumbles on popular pressure calls off Indefinite strike until Saturday evening

BREAKING STORY!
Darjeeling: After a marathon meeting, the Central Committee of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to call off the Indefinite Strike starting today 6pm until Saturday 6 pm. The decision was taken over mounting pressure from people and citizen’s group requesting Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership to allow people to prepare themselves for the long strikes and shut downs. Hotel Owners have lamented that if the Strike was to be as suddenly called off as it was called for, why had the tourists been forced to leave the hills. There were no clarifications from the leadership. However, Bimal Gurung, GJM President lamented on the hardship the Tourists had to suffer.lamented on the hardship the Tourists had to suffer. (Beacononline)

GJM relaxes indefinite bandh in Darjeeling for few hours

Siliguri, Jun 11 (PTI) As the indefinite bandh in the Darjeeling hills entered its second day today, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha declared a 15-hour relaxation to enable locals to stock food and essential commodities.
The relaxation, from 0300 pm onwards today, was announced by GJM President Bimal Gurung at a public meeting at Mal in Darjeeling town.
A GJM source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the relaxation period might be extended further as a crisis in food and essential commodities was already being felt in the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling district — Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong.
If the bandh was resumed from tomorrow, the spontaneous support that the GJM enjoyed, might be affected, the source said.
A meeting of the GJM central committee would meet in the evening to evaluate the situation and take “practical decisions”, the source said.
Gurung, meanwhile, said that a memorandum had been faxed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing deployment of the CRPF in Darjeeling, “which will lead to panic” among the locals.
GJM General Secretary, Roshan Giri told PTI that his party had rejected the call of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to give up its demand for creation of a separate state of Gorkhland.
“Gorkhaland is our demand. There is no question of giving it up. We are open for talks provided Gorkhaland is on the agenda for discussion,” he said over telephone from Darjeeling.
Darjeeling District Magistrate Rajesh Pandey said around 10,000 tourists had departed from the hill station yesterday and only 100 to 150 visitors were left. Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police, North Bengal, K L Tamta said the six companies of CRPF to be deployed in the hills, were yet to arrive at Siliguri.
He said even though the GJM supporters blocked the road to Assam passing through the Dooars region for two hours before dispersing, the situation was peaceful, .
Sikkim continued to remain cut off for the second consecutive day, with GJM supporters picketting the National Highway 31A, the sole link between Gangtok and the rest of the country, Tamta said. PTI UBR PC VU 06111736 DEL (Beacon online)

Darjeeling Strike: Gorkhaland

1st 3 photos by Barun Roy (beacon Online)

Bishal Kirat Rai:

I understand and do agree that most of the people from Darjeeling Hill live by daily earnings and it would be really hard time for them to face these Strikes. Darjeeling totally depends on tourism and telling the tourist to leave Darjeeling for upcoming indefinite strikes would sound some more difficult.

GJM has always tried to bond the Gorkha people all around world. GJM’s main motive to unite the Gorkha people and safeguard their interest where they are in minority. There are lots of Gorkha people in Naxalbari, wherein they have been socially, politically, educationally, boycotted.

GJM took the initiative to unite them and thought of making them socially, politically, educationally conscious.

GJM took several initiatives to hold a “Workshop” in Naxalbari. However, the permission was denied by the West Bengal Government ruled by CPI (M), who is totally against the up-liftment of Gorkhali community.

There are several evidences that GJM had requested for permission which was denied several times – The reason for denial is – “Security Concerns”

Two words - Security Concerns

How can Gorkhali people say that they are safe in West Bengal when they cant provide security to mere 1,000 people when they want to hold a workshop for social awareness.
Quite amazing we are in West Bengal.

Now coming to the point again :

As GJM had requested for the permission to hold Workshop on Gorkhaland. The permission was denied.

The only alternative was Dharna (bhok hartal) in non-violent way. No, one was accused, it was just a bhok hartal.

Now, these people where on Bhok Hartal were physically assaulted, man handled, attacked with latthis, stones and were the victim of abusive languages.
These people on Dharna (Bhok Hartal) were attacked by the so called NGO grouped backed by CPI(M) and local administration.

Now …The only democratic (non violent) way left in the hands of GJM was Strike.

NB : the only way to protest in a non-violent way in INDIA is Strike.

Tourist in Darjeeling and Sikkim were given enough time (36 hours) to leave Darjeeling so that they do not face any inconvenience. Tourists were explained the cause of the Strike and the people of Darjeeling requested these tourists to visit Darjeeling again. Some of the tourists were interviewed and they expressed that they would prefer to come Darjeeling again. These tourists were not at all harassed by the people of Darjeeling.

Most of the tourist understood the need of Gorkhaland. Some, of them even took part in meetings organized by the people of Darjeeling.

Just because of this legitimate Strike – All the leading News Papers and News Channels (National and International) have reported about Darjeeling’s demand Gorkhaland.

The News Channels that reported about Gorkhaland in India are as follows :

Aaj Tak – Leading News Channel.
IBN 7
India TV
Times Now
NDTV
Zee News
News 24
BBC World

To name few News Papers that covered the demand of Gorkhaland after this strike are :

Hindustan Times (Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
Hindustan– Hindi (Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
Times of India (Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
The Telegraph – West Bengal
Metro Now – Delhi
The Statesmen – West Bengal
The Pioneer - (Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
Punjab Kesari – Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh
The Hindu -(Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
Indian Express (Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
Mail Today - Delhi
Jan Satta – Delhi
Nav Bharat Times –Delhi
Dainik Jagaran – Delhi
Deccan Chronicle - (Delhi, West Bengal, Chennai, Mumbai)
Anand Bazar Partika - (Delhi, West Bengal)
Amar Ujjala – Delhi
Dainik Bhaskar – Delhi


This speaks a small Success Story to begin with.

This News has brought attention to the Movement and from this that we must carry on forward.

Gorkhaland movement in its present avatar is different from the earlier one. There are lots of intellectuals involved in the movement.

The difference people find between Subash Ghising and Bimal Gurung is :

Subash Ghising never wanted intellectuals to be a part of his movement. However, Bimal Gurung is opposite. He wants all the intellectuals to be part of his movement.


Bimal Gurung is the one and only person who initiated second Phase for Gorkhaland
Bimal Gurung is the only person who braved to go against all the odds.
Bimal Gurung is the only person who risked his Life to Challenge the so called undisputed leader of the Hills
Bimal Gurung is the One who unified a Dispersed Diaspora of Dreamers and Lovers of Gorkhaland.

Bimal Gurung is the One who Inspires people of all walks of life to join this Movement; he is the One who bears the brunt of all misgivings.

Today he qualifies to stand tall to lead the people for achieving Gorkhaland and we should (though I would prefer to use the word ‘must’ here) support him. Right from the day he declared this movement, he has said that he does not aspire to seek to occupy a ‘Chair’ - let us believe him at least for now as the ‘Chair’ is far away at this present juncture.

Let’s support the one and only solution of Darjeeling - GORKHALAND.

Furthermore, I would request to every one to educate the people and the Media with the necessity of Gorkhaland wherever it may be – be it in India or abroad.

The legitimate need of Gorkhaland needs your support and publicity and it is first our responsibility to educate our fellow citizens about this - so please write about the necessity of the Creation of Gorkhaland.

This could be one of the greatest ways in which you could make your contribution.
So Gorkhas Go Ahead - Pen is Mightier than the Sword.
Jai Gorkha. Jai Gorkhaland. Jai Hind.

GORKHALAND MOVEMENT: BIMAL GURUNG'S SPEECH

on May 7th Gorkha janmukti Morcha organized a public meeting at Indira gandhi Maidan. This is a glimpse of the speech of Bimal Gurung

Left’s Misfired Missive

Tendentious Anti-imperialism
Monday 2 June 2008, by Sankar Ray
The West Bengal supremo and Polit-Bureau member of the CPI-M, Biman Bose, slapped a suspicion at the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha leadership that the movement is inspired by US imperialism. In a more gossipy than substantive tone, he said: “We do not have evidence to prove the allegation but we have strong doubts that US Intelligence agencies are linked with the political turmoil in the Darjeeling hills.” Carrying on his political formulation in a cavalier fashion, he added that there might be a possible involvement of the US secret agencies in Darjeeling as the USA, adept in ‘the art of Balkanisation’ or vivisecting non-conformist countries into smaller ones, may have some role in the “ongoing disturbances in the Darjeeling hills”. Bose was speaking to the media at the Siliguri party office.
Bose, albeit as crucial a political personality as the Left Front Chairman, is at home in trying to sell rumours. Immediately after the people of Nandigram were astir in the first week of January 2007, he told the media that the Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar had a secret meeting at Sonachura, Nandigram, to chalk out the agitation. When Medha shot back saying that she had never been to Nandigram and threatened to sue the LF big boss, the latter climbed down stating that he got such an information and expressed regret. When Tapasi Malik, daughter of a landless labourer, was found assassinated and charred at Singur, Bose said she might have died out of a failed romance. A silly attempt to vilify the first martyr of Singur peasants’ struggle against the Tata Motors project. There are many such instances, all in video cassettes of several private TV channels, of baseless accusations or concoctions by the man, known as the best recruit of the CPI-M’s organisational genius, Promode Dasgupta.
The LF Chairman wants to differentiate between the GJMM and Gorkha National Liberation Front, led by Subhas Ghising, as the GNLF can’t be accused of links with US imperialism. B T Ranadive, a founding PB member of the CPI-M and infamous for pushing the undivided CPI into a sectarian quagmire in the late 1940s, wrote a piece in the CPI-M’s mouthpiece People’s Democracy two decades back and branded the Gorkhaland stir as “yet another attack of the secessionist forces on the unity and integrity of India”. (B.T. Ranadive: “Gorkhaland Agitation—a Part of Imperialist plot in the East”, PD, September 10, 1988) But the CPI-M stopped calling the GNLF and Ghising ‘secessionist’ when there was a discreet deal between Ghising and the CPI-M for smooth victory of the CPI-M nominee from the Darjeeling parliamentary seat. Every time (except in 2004) the GNLF used to boycott polls in the hill segments and ensured victory of the CPI-M. When in 2004 the GNLF decided to side with the Congress nominee, Dawa Narbula, the CPI-M campaigners raked up the secessionist allegation against the GNLF.
The CPI-M has in the last two decades been very often spearheading its criticism against US imperialism and the neo-liberal ideology. This is commendable. Now the party talks of peace and peace movement unlike in the 1960s and 1970s when its fire-eating leaders like M. Basava-punnaiah, BTR and Dasgupta used to ridicule the World Peace Council and its Indian arm, the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation which now is gradually in for grab by the AKG Bhavan, thanks to the submissive attitude of the CPI. In the late 1960s, the CPI-M, parroting the Communist Party of China in its resolution at the Burdwan plenum, slandered the CP of the Soviet Union stating that the CPSU leaders “go to the extent of exaggerating the concept of peaceful coexistence… as a form of class struggle”. However, this was a downright lie as the document adopted by the 81-party meeting (Moscow, 1960) categorically said: “Peaceful coexistence of states does not imply renunciation of class struggle as the revisionists claim.” Among the signatories of the document was the CPC, which unfortunately distorted this in the letter of the Central Committee of the CPC to the CC of the CPSU on June 14, 1963; and that constituted the whole essence of the CPI-M’s ideology after splitting the CPI.
The tirade against US imperialism is excellent but not the misuse of it. The CPI-M General Secretary, Prakash Karat, propped up by the mainstream media as an outstanding ideologue, told newspersons at the recently-concluded 19th Congress of the CPI-M at Coimbatore that the Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (Committee of Resistance against Eviction from Land) of Nandigram is inspired by US imperialism. West Bengal’s Higher Education Minister Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, a delegate, and Karat referred to the US State Administration’s human rights violation report in India, especially Nandigram. “ It is now evident that there was something more than the issue of land,” Karat remarked, as if the Nandigram stir was inspired by the Bush Administration.
The role of US imperialism in the Nandigram movement was discovered by the AITUC General Secretary and CPI group leader in the Lok Sabha, Gurudas Dasgupta, who raised the matter during Zero hour in Parliament on March 14 drawing attention to the US State Department report, 2007 ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—India’. “The issue is: it is India’s concern, not the US’s,” the firebrand MP said. But there is a catch here. A statement was issued by the CPI-M PB on the same day chiding the US Government for ‘unnecessary and unwarranted’ interference and denouncing the reference to Nandigram. The AKG Bhavan biggies advised ‘all right thinking people to reject this contention and interference of the US Government’. The choice of March 14 was to divert attention of TV-viewers from the coverage of events on the first anniversary of the Nandigram incidents that provoked the State Governor to express his sense of ‘cold horror’.

THE idea of giving the US (read the CIA) tag on the genuine agrarian struggle was novel, but ludicrous too. What Karat, Dasgupta and Roy Chowdhury suppressed was that it was not a report prepared by the US Government, but a verbatim reproduction of a UNHRC report. It is accessible to netizens the world over. The credit line to the UNHRC was there too. Karat’s feigned innocence is mischievous. Interestingly, the selective ballyhoo was not made on March 11 when it was uploaded in the US State Department’s website but on March 14. The concocted link between the US imperialists and Nandigram protesters was to give the protesters a bad name and hang them. This is not only cowardice but tendentious.
The 293-word portion on Nandigram in the UNHRC document reads: On March 14, thousands of local villagers in the Nandigram district of West Bengal attacked police and Communist Party of India–Marxist (CPM) supporters who tried to enter an agricultural area earmarked for conversion to an industrial zone. Acting on orders from the CPM-led State Government, the police fired on the crowd, killing 14 individuals and injuring 45. The Kolkata High Court ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), but the court later revoked the CBI’s investigative authority and asked the CBI to preserve evidence. On July 10, members of the Anti-Naxal Special Police Force killed five persons including an alleged leader of the CPI-Maoist cadre at Ammadlu village in Chikmagalur district. According to the Karnataka police, all five were members of the local Naxalite unit, while human rights groups alleged that four of those killed were residents of a house caught in the crossfire. At year’s end a magisterial inquiry into the encounter was underway.
From November 6 to 11, CPM members, whom human rights groups claim had State Government support and direction, conducted a violent campaign of intimidation to regain control over the Nandigram area from the BUPC. The BUPC included those opposed to the CPM’s plan to acquire local land for industry, some former CPM supporters, and Opposition party workers and was backed by the Trinamul Congress, part of the West Bengal Opposition. News reports and eyewitness accounts noted that CPM cadres fired on BUPC supporters and local villagers, killing at least three and injuring others, burned many houses, and engaged in numerous rapes. On November 27, journalists reported the discovery of mass graves in the area. Following a government order on December 7, the CID initiated an inquiry into the identity of the bodies”.
There is no exaggeration, but understatement. The judgment by the High Court of Calcutta, inexplicably delivered in an inordinate delay after a bigger and more cruel genocide nearly for the whole of November last year, recorded 27 disappearances, 162 injured and half a dozen of rapes.
Karat, Dasgupta, Roy Chowdhury et.al should know that the UNHRC got Nobel Peace Prize twice for defending peace and human rights with their people working with great risks everywhere; why don’t they, then, pull up the UN affiliate instead of aiming at a deliberately wrong target? Dasgupta, arguably a vociferous pro-labour parliamentarian, danced to the tune of the AKG Bhavan honchos. True, without the CPI-M’s support he could not and will not be an MP.
About the CPI’s canine subservience, no elaboration is necessary. Its cadres lined up at the entrance of Coimbatore’s V. O. Chidambaram Ground, the venue of the mass meeting, to greet the first procession led by Sitaram Yechury. That’s the singularly great contribution of the CPI General Secretary, A. B. Bardhan, to his AKG Bhavan bosses.
The UNHRC referred to the Home Ministry’s 2006-2007 Report , revealing “1159 deaths in police custody between April and December 2006”. It makes a crisp reference to violence perpetrated by Naxalites—meaning the Maoists—in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and counter-terrorist excesses by the state too. Left MPs are deceptively silent about this. “Of the 336 individuals killed in Chhatisgarh, 93 were civilians, 170 police personnel (regular forces, as well as Special Police Officers) and 73 were alleged Naxalites. According to Andhra Pradesh Police, Maoists killed 44 civilians throughout the year.” The police too “were responsible for 47 encounter killings of Maoists during the year, compared with 110 in 2006”. Militants of the United Liberation Front of Asom “killed more than 110 persons in bomb attacks in the Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Sivsagar districts of Assam”, the UNHRC stated. The official Left parties are unperturbed over the matter.
Let me drift a little to tell you a bit about Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, now a Minister of Higher Education, West Bengal. He was a temporary Maoist during the early period of the Naxalbari revolt, but went back to the CPI-M to regain a safe life and career. He was twice elected an MP too. The other day I was seeing a documentary of the Naxalbari movement, Basanter Dinguli ( Memories of Spring Thunder), written and directed Amar Bhattacharya, one of the many victims of state terror for involvement in the Naxalbari struggle that relived those high-voltage days which catapulted the agrarian imperative to the national arena. Amar did a good job, leave apart our ideological differences. Roy Chowdhury’s active role during the days of ‘spring thunder’ has a mention there.
However, Karat’s role in ‘transferred epithet’—US link to the Nandigram stir—had a hidden purpose. He confirmed that he is an obedient boy of the cash-rich CPI-M’s West Bengal unit which calls the shots from Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan. Asset values of buildings, constructed and owned by the CPI-M’s district and zonal committees and mass organisations like the CITU, All India Krishak Sabha, morninger Ganashakti and State and Central Government employees’ bodies, may be anything between Rs 300 crores and Rs 400 crores. Karat and other biggies at the A.K. Gopalan Bhavan, the party’s national headquarters, have to keep the M A Bhavan honchos in good humour, shelving ideological issues aside.
Poor Marx, five-star Communists like Karat and Yechury, posing as his disciples, conveniently forgot Marx’s words—“I am human, and nothing human is alien to me”—borrowed from Publius Terentius Afer, the playwright of the Roman Empire, known more as Terence (195-159 BC). Which was why Yechury wasted no time in justifying the mini-genocide at Nandigram on March 14 as if all this was provoked by the peaceful mass, under the banner of the BUPC. Maybe, tomorrow Karat and Yechury will defend the bumptious CPI-M MP—the overlord of Haldia—Lakshman Seth who tried to prevent the CRPF DIG Alok Raj to do his assigned task at Nandigram to help peaceful Panchayat polling there. The mafia face of false Marxism is out in the broad daylight of grim reality, at least in West Bengal. (Mainstream weekly)

Is state serious about the Gorkhaland issue?

At last the state government buzzed. Biman Basu has asked Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJMM) for the talk. He said that the problem can be solved if State, Center and GJMM come together and talk.

But the question arises is state serious about the Gorkhaland issue? In the past too through these kinds of talk DGHC (Hill council) was given to the people. what gane plan is the state or the CPM playing this time?

GJM to march to Kolkata demanding separate state

IN A throwback to over two decades ago, the hills of Darjeeling, quaintly named the Queen of the hills by the British has again begun to seethe. The mid-eighties saw violence in support of a separate state of Gorkhaland restricted to the hill region where over 300 people died. Today, another generation of activists is seeking to bring the same demand to the capital of West Bengal, Kolkata.

The fledgling Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) born six months ago, which wrested control of the Darjeeling hills and the future of the hill people from the hands of Subhas Ghising, the supremo of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), is bent on bringing the agitation for a separate state at the doorstep of the Left Front government which fought tooth and nail to stop Darjeeling from seceding in the mid-eighties.

The Morcha is planning to use 10,000 handpicked people from the three hill subdivisions and start a long march to Writers' Buildings, the state secretariat on May 7. The activists will walk all the way to the seat of the Bengal government to lay bare its demand.

The Morcha wants to tell the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and people of Bengal about the injustice meted out to former servicemen who have spent their lives guarding the country and the burning desire for a separate state they can call their own, Bimal Gurung, Morcha president told a huge crowd in Darjeeling yesterday, the local media reported.

Much before the planned march to the capital of the state the Morcha has called for an indefinite shut down of all government establishments, both central and state in the Darjeeling hills as of April 14. Morcha leaders have assured tourists that they would not be inconvenienced because the shut down would only in government offices. Hotels, private establishments, municipalities and banks will be kept out of the purview of the shut down.

It is a long drawn programme that the Morcha has in mind, albeit different from the tactics used by Ghisingh in his heydays when indefinite bands and violence were his only weapons. The Morcha is mobilizing school students to take part in the rally in Darjeeling on April 11. On April 15 school teachers will stage a rally. On April 17 minority communities would take out a rally in the hill town.

There was a 24-hour bandh in the hills from Thursday to Friday morning in protest against police action on ex-servicemen from Darjeeling during a rally in Siliguri on Wednesday. The Morcha has demanded an inquiry into the police lathi charge on its rallyists.

Meanwhile the man who has earned the wrath of the Morcha the most urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharjee appealed to the agitating hill leaders to come to the negotiating table both with the Centre and the state. He said agitations and violence would not solve problems and pointed out that the state chief minister was always ready for a dialogue. The minister has become persona non grata in Darjeeling because he called the Morcha leaders "outsiders". The minister was elected from North Bengal and is in charge of CPI (M) affairs in the hill district. (merinews)

Force 1000 for Morcha -

Darjeeling, April 11: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today announced a recruitment drive for “Gorkhaland Police”, a force that the party says will be trained to do “social work”.
Those who have not exceeded 30 years are eligible to apply. The volunteers, however, will not get any salary.
During the Gorkhaland agitation in the eighties, the GNLF, too, had its own force, the Gorkha Volunteer Cell, commonly known as the GVC, which had been raised to fight the CRPF then deployed in the Darjeeling hills.
Morcha leaders said their “police force”, complete with uniform, the colour of which is yet to be decided, and khukuri did not go against their idea of democratic struggle.
“The khukuri is our community’s identity and should not be misrepresented as a symbol of armed struggle. We still believe in the democratic form of protest and our force will be trained to do social work,” said Binay Tamang, the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha.
Although the force is being raised for crowd and traffic control during party meetings and rallies, Tamang said, the guidelines for recruitment is stringent. “Only youths below the age of 30 will be taken into Gorkhaland Police and they must be both physically and mentally fit (see chart). The Morcha will form a selection committee which will recruit the force,” added Tamang.
Around 1,000 volunteers would be recruited. While 300 youths (male and female) will be selected from Darjeeling, the force will induct 200 each from Kalimpong and Kurseong and 100 from Mirik. Later, the remaining 200 will be selected from Siliguri and the Dooars. Once selected, the youths will have to undergo a training for three months.
“We will hold a centralised training camp for them in Darjeeling. During the training, we will provide them with uniform and will take care of their boarding and food.”
Although Tamang evaded questions on why the party felt the need to come up with its “own force”, the move comes in the wake of the Morcha announcement that it would not seek any permission from the district magistrate to hold its political programmes.
“They will come handy when we organise rallies and public meetings. The youths will also be trained to perform rescue acts during landslides and fire accidents,” said Tamang. At the end of the three months, the “Gorkhaland police personnel” will be given ID cards and any act of indiscipline will be strictly dealt with which could even amount to “expulsion from the force”.
Rahul Srivastava, the Darjeeling superintendent of police, has refused comment on the raising of the Morcha “force”. “We have not been informed about this. We will have to look into the issue and discuss it with higher authorities before I can comment.”
Lawyers differ on the legality of raising such a force. Poonam Kumar Sharma, a lawyer from Darjeeling, said: “I do not think there is any legal interpretation on the usage of the word police. However, if the Morcha is forming a volunteer cell to control crowd and traffic during their political meetings and for social services, I do not think there is anything illegal about it. Political parties do use the services of volunteers for such activities.”
Advocate Jaymalya Bagchi from Calcutta said there was no legal problem, if any organisation identified itself as “police”.
“But the organisation will be prevented from registering itself under the Societies Registration Act. And if the organisation is not registered, it has no legal clearance,’’ Bagchi said.
Tamang said the party “has not yet thought anything on these lines”. (The Telegraph)

GORKHALNAD AGITATION: CLASH AT SILIGURI

Clash at Siliguri: Glimpses from Himalaya Darpan (Nepali Daily): To read Himalaya Darpan click at the given link at right hand.

Hills shutdown after foot hills clash

Hills shutdown after foothills clash
Gorkha Ex-Servicemen Battle Police After Statehood Rally Is Blocked In Siliguri
Deep Gazmer & Pinak Priya Bhattacharya TNN
Siliguri/Darjeeling: Some 2,000 Gorkha ex-servicemen descended from the Hills in support of Gorkhaland and clashed with police when stopped at Darjeeling More on Wednesday. They ransacked police vehicles and shops and fought a pitched battle with the cops. At least 35 persons were injured, including policemen, ex-servicemen and photographers, who were admitted to hospitals and nursing homes in Siliguri. Around 40 people were arrested. In protest, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha called a 24-hour bandh in Darjeeling district, including Siliguri, on Thursday. Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party (GCDP) — the political wing of Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association — and Kamtapur Progressive Party have supported the bandh. “The situation is under control as of now. But we’ve deployed additional forces,” said Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey. The incident occurred a day before the CPM-run Siliguri civic body called a mass convention against GJM’s demand for statehood. Flaunting banners of the GJM-affiliated Bharatiya Gorkha Bhutpurwa Sainik, the demonstrators assembled at Darjeeling More, Bagdogra and Pradhannagar for a ‘peace rally’ to Hasim Chowk via Hill Cart Road, Siliguri’s lifeline. On being tipped off, the Siliguri police put up barricades at all entry points, stopping the agitators from entering the town. Trouble broke out when GJM supporters broke through the barricades and clashed with the police. “It was a peaceful rally. But CPM cadres, in connivance with the administration, tried to disrupt it,” GJM secretary Roshan Giri said from Siliguri. Police denied the charge, saying the demonstrators sparked trouble by pelting stones. The cops then resorted to a lathi charge and burst tear gas shells to disperse the mob, but that proved inadequate. The mob chased the cops and ransacked police vehicles. “One of our officers was dragged into the crowd by GJM supporters, leading to violence,” the DM said. According to Pandey, the Gorkha ex-servicemen had planned the rally without permission. “We knew the rally wouldn’t be a peaceful one, so we withheld permission. The organizers had told us only ex-servicemen would take out the rally. In reality, about 60% of the crowd comprised people from different places,” the DM said. As soon as the news spread in the Hills, GJM supporters forced shops to down shutters. Later, at a joint press conference of the three parties who backed the bandh, GJM chief Bimal Gurung attacked municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya for using cops against “our legitimate cause”. CPM cadres behind rally ruckus: Bimal Gurung Siliguri/Darjeeling: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung claimed CPM cadres had sneaked into Wednesday’s rally of ex-servicemen and invited the police crackdown. In a tactic borrowed from Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, he accused the police of acting under the directives of the CPM party office. The three parties that have backed Thursday’s bandh also charted out their future course of action. A public meeting at Siliguri on April 27 will be followed by gatherings in Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Raiganj and Jalpaiguri through April and May, just before the panchayat elections in the plains begin. In a press release issued from Kolkata, CPM state secretary Biman Bose appealed for peace in the Hills and the plains. “Some forces are out to drive a wedge between the regions. We are committed to development of the Hills and want to sort out the problem through dialogue with the state government and the Centre,” Bose said. IG (law and order) Raj Kanojia said the rally had not been given permission in view of the volatile situation in Siliguri. “There was a blast last week and explosives were recovered recently. But they chose to ignore the directive, which resulted in the clash,” said Kanojia.

Gorkhaland activists and police face off at Darjeeling More

A police barricade at Darjeeling More in Siliguri on Wednesday
(The Times of India)

Lepchas are the first inhabitants of Darjeeling and Sikkim

The above article appeared in Himalaya darpan of today which talks about the Lepchas as the original inhabitants of Sikkim and Darjeeling. The historical facts and references are given. I will try to translate it into English and will post here in due time. Worth reading the article. For beteer view of the article please click the link given at the right hand side.

Issue on Gorkha Identity: Are Darjeeling Hill Nepalese foreigners?

This is the write up for the answer to the question raised by Mr. Sumanta Sen in The Telegraph, Kolkata edition, Dated April 3, 2008 on the Gorkha Identity in Fifth Column: Fight for a New Home.
Mr. Sen writes in the midst of the tussle, a pertinent question seems to have got lost. The question is how valid is the Nepalese claim to Darjeeling, which includes Kalimpong and Kurseong? Are they the original inhabitants? The answer, unfortunately, is a ‘No’…….. Strictly speaking, the Nepalese in Darjeeling can be dubbed ‘foreigners’ because they have come from another country. For whole story read
Mr. Sen sounds that he is advocating for the state and is desperate to force the sixth schedule in the hills. He sounds contradictory himself, in one hand he says Nepalese can be dubbed as foreigners and on the other hand recognizes citizenship of ours too. It shows that he knows what the status of Nepalese is. The state or the supporters of the so called sixth schedule are desperate seeing the positive momentum of the movement in the hills. They know that Gorkhaland is achievable. And it is the trend in the past too to sideline the real demand of the Hill people.
Mr. Sen has misconception regarding the term Gorkha itself. He had taken the explanation of the term Gorkha from a reliable source but muddled with it. The source says “It is a misconception that the Gurkhas took their name from the Gorkha region of Nepal. The region was given its name after the Gurkhas had established their control of these areas. In the early 1500s some of Bappa Rawal's descendants went further east, and conquered a small state in present-day Nepal, which they named Gorkha in honour of their patron saint.” So every Nepali in the Hills is a Gorkha. Our root lied in the Bappa Rawal’s ancestry which hails from India. It has nothing to do with the citizenry of a country.
By the way how does one differentiate between Bangladeshi Bengali and Indian Bengali? Why don’t you call Amartya Sen a foreigner, he is born in Bangladeshi region? You will argue that it was before Independence, bla..bla..bla right? The same logic applies to us. If you dub Darjeeling people as foreigner then the land itself by default is a foreign land which was ruled by Nepal and Sikkim(Sen has accepted this fact ). Why doesn’t Sen argue in favor of giving back the land to Sikkim or Nepal or Bhutan? He will not do so? Because he knows not what is what in the hills? Why cannot he argue and say that the Dooars, Siliguri was and is a part of the Darjeeling Hills by default, he will not do so because he knows not the history. The arguments put forward by Sen are hypothetical. He does not have sufficient data to authenticate his arguments. Please do remember, Sikkim, prior to 1973 was a sovereign country. Sikkim as a sovereign state of India at no cost will claim its ownership on Darjeeling, to claim its ownership on Darjeeling, as a sovereign state of India is nonsense. Sen talks about fencing of the border because of the influx. But what data he has to support his argument that immigrants from Nepal are residing in Darjeeling Hills? Is he talking about fencing the border with Darjeeling only or the entire Nepal India border? India will be on loss if it is done. Sen sounds conservative and looks at the issue from a very narrow point of view.
History tells that by the start of the twentieth century, Gorkhas made a modest socio-economic advance through government service, and a small anglicized elite developed among them. Following this in 1907, the first ever demand for “a separate administrative setup” for the District of Darjeeling was placed before the British government by the “leaders of the hill people”. The “Hill people” here referred to the Lepchas, Bhutias and the Gorkhas. Their main reason for doing so was the superior attitude of the Brown Sahibs (from Dhaka and Calcutta) shown towards the people of the hills and their growing sense of insecurity against the educated hordes of the plain. The demand was ignored. The demand for separate statehood was revoked in 1917, 1930, 1934. On 19 December 1946, the party's heart and soul, D.S. Gurung even made a plea in the Constitution Hall before the Constituent Assembly for recognition of Gorkhas as a minority community "Sir, the demand of the Gurkhas is that they must be recognized as a minority community and that they must have adequate representation in the Advisory Committee that is going to be formed. When the Anglo-Indians with only 1 lakh 42 thousand population have been recognized as a minority community, and Scheduled Castes among the Hindus have been recognized as a separate community, I do not see any reason why Gurkhas with 30 lakhs population should not be recognized as such." (Source Wikipedia). Is this not the same attitude of the so called Bhadra lok from Kolkata or West Bengal towards Darjeeling?
Darjeeling Nepalese or the Indian Nepalese has never denied their roots. We have never denied our history. But what we want to do is reinvent our history. The constitution of India provides us ample space to reinvent it. Mr. Sen must know why this upsurge or the demands for the formation of new state is coming up now and then. The way Sen has put forward his argument, it itself is one of the causes for demanding separate state. First there is a big question on our Identity. Second, the issue of development is another question. Darjeeling in terms of revenue from tea and tourism fills state revenue box but in return what does it get? A penny? With penny what have we done let me cite few examples: the overall Human Development index of the hill (Darjeeling) shows (0.65) and ranking at the fourth position after north 24 Parganas. Where the higher education facilities in the hills is almost nil still Darjeeling shows HDI on education as 0.72 next to Medinipore. Check the outlays of the government; only in 1990s outlays in Darjeeling was higher. Third, Governance is and was always an issue in the hills and state government never tried to straighten it because they were virtually running the hills and they loved to do so. Irrespective of the Government’s insufficient support, negligence Hill can come up to this high level then imagine what we can do once Gorkhaland is formed? Subrat Mukherjee, don’t compare Darjeeling with Purulia. We are dignified people with enough self esteem. Fourth, Darjeeling has no cultural affinity with Bengal. Darjeeling is unique in its demography, geographic constituents, language. This difference should allow us to be separate from Bengal.

I am the citizen of India. Gorkhaland is my birth right. When I can get Gorkhaland then why should I get satisfied with sixth schedule? West Bengal will never allow Darjeeling to be separated from it because it is one of the major source of revenue to it, they can muddle with the people of the hill easily. For their selfish desires Hill have suffered a lot till date, NOW is the time to fight back and get our right.