Posted by barunroy on March 16, 2008
By Subrata Nagchoudhury
The words sum up Bimal Gurung—the new protagonist in Darjeeling’s statehood script.
Who is this man called Bimal Gurung, shaking up things in Darjeeling Hills?
“He was a soldier of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in the ‘80s when Subhash Ghisingh was fighting for a separate state. He is now a soldier fighting for separate statehood for Darjeeling,” answers one of his close lieutenants.
The words sum up Bimal Gurung—the new protagonist in Darjeeling’s statehood script. This is the man who successfully forced a regime change after 21 years, the man who orchestrated the sad plight of a regional dictator being banned from his fiefdom. Even as Gurung takes command, his politics, for the time being at least, is centred on his bitterness with Ghisingh.
When he recently led a seven-member delegation of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha to hold talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Gurung spoke to the Indian Express, narrating how deep rooted his hatred was for Ghisingh. “Ghisingh knows very well how to slit throats. For 21 years, he has been doing that. The hill people have seen his performance. The young generation is witness to the state of affairs in the hills. They have nothing to look forward to. Ghisingh would have slit my throat as well, had I not deserted him in time. Now, all the hill people have turned against him. Its the people’s ban that prevents him from entering Darjeeling now,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Essays | Tagged: darjeeling, dghc, gorkha national liberation front, bimal gurung, gorkha janmukti morcha, subash ghisingh, nepal, prashant tamang, darjeeling gorkha hill council, terai, dooars, buddhadeb bhattacharjee, sikkim, singamari, malaysia, singla, west bengal chief minister, takvar, unemployed hill people association | Leave a Comment »
Posted by barunroy on March 16, 2008
Darjeeling district legislators have demanded that India’s West Bengal state government give proper clarification regarding the killing of 1,200 people by its police two decades ago when the ‘Gorkhaland’ agitation was at its peak.
According to a Kantipur daily, legislators Gaulan Lepcha and Pranay Rai had put forth this demand before WB chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya at the Kolkata legislative assembly Thursday.
After chief minister Bhattcharya gave clarification for the shoot-out that took place at Dinhata of West Bengal during the Thursday’s session of the parliament, the Nepali speaking legislators had demanded that the government also give similar clarification regarding the people who were martyred during the Gorkhaland agitation that broke out in the year 1986. Similarly, they have also sought an explanation regarding the killing of Krishna Subba and Dev Raj Sharma by the state police on August 7, 1981. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in In Newspapers Today | Tagged: buddhade bhattacharya, chief minister, daily, darjeeling, dev raj sharma, dinhata, district legislators, gaulan lepcha, gorkhaland, india, kantipur, krishna subba, nepali, pranay rai, wb, west bengal | 5 Comments »
