The BJP on Monday said it would find a permanent political solution
to the pending issues in the Darjeeling Hills, Siliguri, Terai and
Dooars and recognise 11 Indian Gorkha sub communities as Scheduled
Tribes but made no mention of a separate Gorkhaland state.
Incidentally,
the BJP is eyeing its third consecutive victory in the high-profile
Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency that has witnessed violent struggle
and a record 104-day shutdown led by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in
2017 to push its demand for Gorkhaland.
“We will recognize the 11
Indian Gorkha sub-tribes that were left out, as scheduled tribes (ST).
We are committed to finding a permanent political solution to the
outstanding issues,” read the BJP’s manifesto.
Under Atal Bihari
Vajpayee’s Prime Ministership, five sub-communities of the Gorkhas were
declared STs, two of whom (Limbus and Tamangs) were categorised in 2002.
On
Monday, political parties of Darjeeling hills and pan-India Gorkha
organizations including the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Bimal Gurung
faction), Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), Communist Party of
Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) and All India Gorkha League (AIGL) have
welcomed the announcement. The National Gorkhaland Committee (NGC) and
Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP), too, hailed it.
However, the GJM
(Binay Tamang faction), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) , slammed the manifesto saying the BJP is
trying to mislead the Gorkhas.
The GJM (Gurung faction), GNLF,
CPRM, AIGL, NGF and BGP all are supporting the BJP in Darjeeling. The
GJM (Tamang faction) is supporting the TMC.
“We are thankful to
our NDA alliance partner, the BJP, for giving a separate platform to the
the Gorkha community to address our issues. BJP’s acknowledgement and
commitment to finding a permanent political solution to our decades-long
demand is also very significant, especially from the national security
perspective,” said Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the GJM (Gurung
faction).
Both Ajay Edward, senior GNLF leader, and Govind
Chettri, senior CPRM leader, said that the BJP has honoured the Gorkhas
by showing its commitment to find a permanent political solution.
However,
Keshav Raj Pokhrel, leader of the GJM (Tamang faction), said, “The BJP
manifesto has not mentioned the long-pending aspiration of the Gorkhas,
which is a separate state of Gorkhaland.” He also questioned why the BJP
had not granted ST status to 11 Gorkha communities yet.
Before
the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to “sympathetically
look into” the long-pending aspirations of the Gorkhas.
Asok
Bhattacharya, CPI (M) legislator and Siliguri mayor said, “The Prime
Minister had said the dreams of the Gorkhas are my dreams. But what has
he done to fulfil his promise?”
Goutam Deb, senior TMC leader and
Bengal tourism minister, alleged, “The BJP is desperate and is making
hollow promises. It failed to fulfil its promises made in 2009 and
2014.”
Last month, the BJP announced the name of Raju Bista,
entrepreneur and managing director of a private company, as its
candidate from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal after
sitting MP SS Ahluwalia said he did not want to contest from same
constituency. In 2014, Ahluwalia had defeated Trinamool’s Bhaichung
Bhutia by around two lakh votes in Darjeeling.
On Sunday, the party named Ahluwalia as a candidate for the Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat.
https://www.hindustantimes.com
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