Centre rules out separate state of Gorkhaland
Posted by barunroy on June 15, 2008
Kolkata, Jun 14 (PTI) The Centre today ruled out any possibility of carving out a separate state of Gorkhaland from West Bengal as demanded by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), but said it was ready for talks.
“There is no question of creating a separate state of Gorkhaland,” External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce here.
The government, he said, was ready to hold talks with GJM, but without any precondition.
He also held a brief meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on this issue during the day.
The GJM has renewed the demand for Gorkhaland originally demanded by GNLF chief Subhas Ghising before settling for the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
GJM had called an indefinite bandh in Darjeeling hills and in some parts of adjoining Terai and Dooars region demanding Gorkhaland on June 10. They had asked all tourists to vacate the hills overnight.
The hill party had relaxed the bandh for 60 hours from 4 pm on June 11 for easy exit of stranded tourists and facilitating the hill people to buy food and essentials. PTI
JTM said
Pranab Mukherjee’s stand is bad news for the Congress and of course the CPM. They have not understood that the people do not want to remain Bengali Indians but want to be Gorkhali Indians!
jwalahang said
It’s not the centre; ITs the Bengalees sittig there …ruling out Gorkhaland !
JTM said
Then Sonia and Manmohan and the congress will have to unfortunately suffer the consequences of their Bengali party members
dass said
We want a wrtten document for a regection of gorkhaland and its reason from the president and the primeminister of India….
not verbally from another bengali….
untouchable said
I think the issue should be commented from the internal affairs minister of india…
Upendra said
Nice observation Untouchable… Ho ta.. why is External Affairs Minister being Batthey in Internal Affairs?? We are gaining more support by the day… please check the blog from Kerala…
http://mutiny.in/2008/06/14/why-not-gorkhaland/
Keep the hopes floating… Jai Gorkha Jai Gorkhaland
mohan said
who r these people … to oppose Gorkhaland
If U dont create Gorkhaland we can will create ourselve…..
If Central Ministers also oppose us then fren its time to declare Gorkhaland not a State BUT SOVERIGN COUNTRY
JAY GORKHA JAI GORKHALAND
jwalahang said
WHO is PRANAB MUKHERJEE ? WE only know him as a minister ! A Bengali minister without sufficient mass support ! He is a minister by virtue of being a Bengali !
jwalahang said
Who gave him the authority to speak against Gorkhaland ? Who is he ??? Is he The Prime Minister ? Is he the Home minister of India? Is he the spokesperson of the Congress Party? Why is he speaking outside his domain ? I want to make him clear that there are many non-Bengalees Congrss ministers supporting the Gorkhaland cause and after the 2009 General elections, we are definitely gonna have our STATE !
Raj Chetry said
WHO is PRANAB MUKHERJEE ?
He is a bengali who has never visited darjeeling nor does he have any gorkha friend.
rahul said
all you guys who claim to be indians, should go through refresher course of the constitution. you should also brush up your knowledge about the govt and cabinet. pranab mukherjee did not become a minister by virtue of being a bengali. congress has no compulsion towards bengal. he is a minister by the virtue of his stature and experience. and don’t make it into a bengali vs. gorkha thing. by the way consider the following. you must be aware of karnataka. there is a district called coorg and the local population is called coorgi who are different from kannadigas in language and culture completely. now what happens if they demand for separate coorgland? north karnataka is overwhelmingly marathi speaking. now what happens if they ask for a marathi land?
jwalahang said
hey, see this part of land was not yours o,k. We don’t have any affinity with u guys then why this….colonial attitude ?
rahul said
this land does not belong to you either……you can have all the ethnological/cutural/linguistic history backing this up.
jwalahang said
If you prove that this part of earth belonged to Bengalees then I would be the first Gorkhali to side with Ammra Bangali or Nav Jagaran ..!
jwalahang said
idiots..!
jwalahang said
this gonna be the last battle and we’ll see that who has the last laugh.!
jwalahang said
We will devise such plans that will ensure we won’t have to enter siliguri for business. We will develop special townships in the Plains of proposed Gorkhaland which will in turn Siliguri a Ghost town !
jwalahang said
We will invite the Business community of Siliguri like MARWARIS,GUJARATIS,PUNJABIS,BIHARIS etc(We can’t invite the Bengalees because there aren’t any affluent Bengali traders in Siliguri) in our special economic zones to makesure the downfall of Siliguri.
jwalahang said
We will also ensure that the Sikkimese people ,(Majority are Gorkhalis) shop in our economic zones. This will definitely teach them a lesson hard to forget !!! Ha..ha…ha…
rahul said
this part belongs to the lepchas and adivasis. so if at all, there should be a state for them.
pseude said
Sure, if you want Siliguri, be prepared to deal with many Kashmirs.
rahul said
you talk like mungeri lal and his haseen sapnay!! keep dreaming dude!
rahul said
jwalahang, by the way even the non bengalis are sising with the bengalis in their fight for siliguri and duars.
Prabal Rawat said
its not mungeri lal ke haseen sapnay…one day u’ll see that ..there will be gorkhaland…..like someone like thought UTTRAKHAND is mungeri lal ke sapnay….and UDHAMSINGH NAGAR part of UTTRAKHAND
rahul said
keep dreaming dudes!!! if you really believe in the cause then stop blogging and get onto the streets and try to build support among non goekhas. all you guys do is blgging and more of it.
YK Shrestha said
Rahul,
Are you serioulsy GM of Radio Mirchi?? How do you get so much of time to write all these? You say you have studied in Kurseong. Anyone who would have studied there would be sympathetic to the cause.
BTW, how are your parents? Hope they are safe back home now.
rahul said
am on leave dude…annual leave. ofcourse i studies in kurseong…otherwise how many calcutta bongs have you encountered on this site. am genuinely interested in the affairs of the hills…i consider hills to be my homeland and thats why am so sensitive to the developments. my parents got back today. thanks.
YK Shrestha said
It’s been quite long leave Rahul or have you come back to support your fellow beings
Radio Mirchi might be missing you badly. Time to report for duty brother.
Now, now, don’t ask me how I get time. Well, I own the company, I don’t work for others, so I have all the time in the world.
YK Shrestha said
BTW Rahul, pls watch CNN -IBN tonite at 10pm.
rahul said
brother, am on leave after 2 years. was planning to go to north bengal, but plans on hold for obvious reasons. have nothing better to do other than blogging. and have my team to take care of stuff. whats there on ibn?
P.C.mUNDHRA said
DARJEELING –BIMAL GURUNG–SIKKIM–CHAMLING–KOLKATA– DELHI
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GUARDING INDIA’S FRONTIERS.
The Gorkhas, famous in battle, have always proved deadly enemies, whether in ruthlessly exterminating freedom fighters on behalf of the British in Jalianwala Bagh or in maintaining British imperialism on Argentinean soil. They have an equally well deserved reputation for putting moral concerns of right and wrong completely aside when delivering services for contracted payment—- very often even with their lives.
In fact they also have more than an equal reputation for single minded tenacity and foolhardy courage in pursuit of ensuring blood payment against their monetary obligations. They are in short the perfect mercenary breed.
Today, they form a forced majority in the Darjeeling hills, and conspire by threat and sheer force to actually constitute a state that compromises India’s strategic chicken neck corridor. (In which specific area, ironically they do not actually constitute even a remote majority and the inclusion of which actually deprives the proposed Nepalese State of its very political basis)
So why would they fight for a state where they might be in a minority and who would plan and pay for such a scenario.
Things might become substantially clearer when you apply the likely proviso , that the Bangladeshi element of the population in these plain areas could in conjunction with this hill population decisively out vote the actual inhabitants or Bhumiputras of this region .(Note that there is a pre-independence history of an attempt in both Darjeeling and Islampur to secede to East Pakistan .)
How are immigrants demanding a state?
The Nepalese have immigrated to Darjeeling (Sikkim) area, at best within just the last hundred and fifty years, and are, (leaving aside the Bangladeshi’s), the most recent substantial immigrants into India. Today the chicken’s neck is in dire threat of going under the control of these two groups, (until very recently the vast majority were of foreign citizenry), because of the folly of vote bank politics which has allowed and encouraged them to freely populate this area.
Even today more than 50% of the Nepalese residents are immigrants who have entered India after 1950 which fact legally bars them from Indian citizenship as per the provisions of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of 1950—- and as for the Bangladeshi’s we all know where they come from ,in what numbers they enter India , and where their faith and beliefs lie. (Subba an alleged murderer from Nepal is now a member of parliament in India!)
In addition both these citizen groups enjoy the benefit of going back to their country of origin as and when they want to, to the welcoming arms of their respective governments who grant them instant citizenship. (In fact Nepalese law expressly provides that a Nepalese person may return at any time and claim citizenship.)
And of-course both these governments openly harbour anti-Indian forces on their soil and look on with fierce favour at these forces collaborating with India’s enemies from Bangladesh and Pakistan through their surrogate separatist fronts in Assam and Coochbihar. (Ironically these very same outfits, till very recently, when they comprehended the mischief potential from this group, accused the Nepalese of being Foreigners!!)
Vote bank politics and weak kneed appeasement in pursuit of votes has now come full circle to haunt Buddhadev and the communists who actually frittered away their not insubstantial hold in the hills by pandering to whims of that arch practitioner of blackmail politics “ Ghising ”. They allowed a patently illegal and out of term council to rule much beyond its mandate by succumbing repeatedly to threats of mayhem from Ghising—- and now mayhem is visiting them full force to haunt them like Banquo’s ghost.
Already under double and now treble threat, in an election year, in addition to Singur and Nandigram the communists have added to their pitfalls and have no alternative but to succumb to the storm against which they have lost both the initiative and the will to do battle. The opposition meanwhile is only too well aware that it has the communists by the hip and true to Gorkha characteristics will press for the kill mercilessly.
Simultaneously and shamefully the same rights that Indians doled out without a thought to Nepalese in India, Indians in Nepal , living there for generations, were and are systematically denied —-and our impotent representatives in the Indian Embassy have actually turned their back every time that an insult or injury has been hurled at the Indians in that country.
Any self respecting government would rush to the help of their citizenry. We have seen both British and U.S. government’s fight tenaciously for even criminal citizens like Peter Bleach who they have ultimately even repatriated.
The Indian foreign service bred on Nehruian contempt for the trading class has still not realized that the van guard for any propagation of Indian culture, thought ,values and views in any area of the world can only succeed when the Indian trading class in that country succeeds and not because of any supposed promotional efforts of the embassies or government departments.( Today the business community in USA and U.K. for example do much more to promote Indian political interests than any government effort etc)
Unfortunately our foreign service has always held our trading class in contempt and our diplomats would not normally been seen dead in their company in the various countries where they are posted. In fact they treat them as pariahs and actually propagate that Gandhi’s tribe are not true representatives of India and Indian ness.
So true to form, a weak central government actually allowed, under Nar Bahadur Bhandari’s pressure, 80,000 Nepalese immigrants “citizenship rights” overnight. Under Chamling these very same immigrants now support the separatist movement. Simultaneously the same central government deprives Indian citizens of fiscal benefits, freely given to these recent immigrants, even though the deprived Indians are older residents and have contributed and sacrificed much much more for this region and its development.
Instead an impotent central government and its corrupt bureaucracy shares in the institutionalized corruption of Chief Ministers like Pawan Kumar Chamling who is openly pumping in money into this separatist movement.
Chamling has been successfully postponing a well documented corruption case in the Supreme Court and Officers of the Central Government are openly helping him in this exercise. Now the same central governments will send in army and paramilitary forces to die fighting in these same hills pitted against the money and forces provided by this same Chamling under the guise of promoting singers etc.
A classic case of the right hand and the left hand of the same body destroying each other in full public view.
Were this case of misappropriated assets followed up vigorously, one of the main source of finance could at least be stopped from becoming a tool in the hands of India’s enemies. Instead Chamling is successfully diverting the attention of the people by pretending to fight a another Nepalese cause so that he can claim political dividends at India’s cost and simultaneously he also aims o scare the Judiciary from proceeding against him by projecting a national emergency in the region .
In fact a chauvinistic Chamling cares little for Indian concerns or the Indian constitution .He recently used his brute majority in the Sikkim assembly to pass a patently illegal act reserving 95% of the jobs in the state .The Governor returned the bill as patently unconstitutional and promptly in defiance of even the Governor’s constitutional office Chamling re passed another similar Act, again an illegal bill, this time reserving 80% of the jobs for the majority community.!
It is truly amazing that the Sikkimese Nepalese have forgotten so quickly the discrimination that they suffered for decades under the erstwhile ruler and now actually seek to impose similar discriminatory laws on others in the state.
Supposedly in fulfillment of an apocryphal prophecy the betrayal of the king of Sikkim by the Nepalese apparently forewarned the king of Bhutan. He than supposedly took preventive action and the Government of India also realizing their earlier folly in Sikkim helped the Bhutanese monarch to save both his people and larger Indian interests.
Little do the Paper Nepalese Tigers in Sikkim and Darjeeling realize that people like Tiger Bal Thackeray and the North Eastern states like Meghalaya are watching their every move with rapt attention .Should these law pass Judicial scrutiny all these governments would quickly pass similar laws and over one Crore Nepalese from Maharashtra alone would be at the receiving end of a law which would have been promoted by their very own Nepalese champions.
Earlier a similar situation in Shillong when the Nepalese were specifically thrown out of the state required much tact, deft handling and effort on the part of the central government to restore the status quo ante. Were such a law to pass in Sikkim they would be one more reciprocal mass Exodus of Nepalese from the North East and they would all flock to Sikkim and Darjeeling.
This area has already seen a huge influx because of the refugees from Bhutan and another influx would create many social tensions in the foothills which would certainly bode ill for the interests of the Government of India.
Of-course the supreme irony of any such law would be that a Nepalese would be responsible for implementing a law that the Nepalese have historically been fighting against literally in every corner of the world that this community has migrated to in search of employment hearth and home.
This division has the potential to separate the Indian republic from the seven eastern states exactly as Pakistan was rent apart from Bangladesh.
In such a scenario, (with the well established proclivity of the Nepalese in the hills to blackmail the ordinary citizen and weak governments into acceding to their every whim by frequent and long bandhs) they could demand any price from an enemy state to rustle up trouble in the new state.
Remember Ghising frequently called bandhs, even for 40 days and he did this every time the tourist season came around so that the suffering of the ordinary people in the plains or in Sikkim could be made to bear on the inevitable government reaction.
This success only made the blackmailers bolder every time they succeeded in getting their impossible and even illegal demands accepted.
Finally ,to their utter astonishment ,when even the illegal 6th schedule constitutional amendment was conceded, it dawned on them that this weak and corrupt governments would knuckle down to every demand right or wrong and so the bold new demand for a state with Siliguri in tow to cut India in two.
Remember that this area is of prime importance to
a. The Chinese who apart from wanting to create problems for India see the Rumtek throne as a serious challenge to their authority in Tibet as the Karmapa will certainly in due course replace the Dalai Lama as the chief of the Tibetan movement.
b. The Pakistani’s to limit the size and strength of India.
There is no dearth of Chinese and Pakistani agents in the garb of monsters, monks, mullahs and monastery’s ready to inundate this area with any amount of money to destabilize India.
The responsibility of guarding our borders are ours and as a basic minimum: —-
1. India must protect itself ruthlessly and without any further compromises.
2. The indo-Nepal treaty must be annulled to satisfy Prachanda’s anti –Indian rhetoric and pro-Chinese leanings.
3. The porous border from where money and men invade India with the signal purpose of harm to India must be sealed effectively.
4. The Nepalese population must be meticulously scrutinized to ensure that only Indian Nepalese and not foreigners are involved in the politics of India.
.
Upendra said
Dear PC… think of every reason.. talk of every possible situation… do all you can.. to your best possible ability… and I wish U luck….
But brother/sister… no matter what you say or what you do… “Swaraj is our birth right and we will have it…”
Where were you… when your CPI(M) buddies were openly supporting China in 1962?? While we the Brave Gorkhalis were protecting our borders??? Where were you when WB Govt prevented Tibetans to stage a rally against the Chinese in Kolkatta??
Write as much as you want to… your hate filled words give us energy and determination to succeed no matter what… and succeed we shall.
All the best to you… may your hate generate enough energy among the Gorkhalis to achieve Gorkhaland.
Eyes On You said
This One by Majumdar is Just a set of accusations and Threats built on air….some are true….He Talks about Chamling pumping money for the movement???? Bull shit……Ppl from sikkim could vote on their own…..I don’t think much money passed from Sikkim to Darj….The money for vote came from all over the world…..Not sikkim.
And Mr. Majumdar….Don’t provoke Nepali sentiments calling them violent…Its bravery….Punjabis and Jats are also violent/Brave…..Is it our fault that u come from one of the most coward races of the world, Obviously one or two exceptions are always there????
If you don’t have balls then ask your ancestors why?? Don’t crib here out of jealousy
And Why Don’t you Scrutinise Bong Population???? You will that in some parts on Bengal and Assam More that 50% of the bengalis are illegal immigrants…and they are effecting 25 Lok Shabha Seats…..
Please Check the article in Times of INdia Few days ago
Illegal Bangla migrants a security threat: report
Vishwa Mohan | TNN
New Delhi: Referring to various kinds of threats, an internal document of the government, makes it clear that the country would face security challenges due operations launched by ISI not only in the short term or medium term, but till 2025, when the terrorist outfits too have all kinds of sophisticated equipment at their command. Talking about demographic invasion, the 68-page report in its second chapter — Contemporary Appraisal of Internal Security Scenario — says that the concentration of Bangladeshi illegal migrants starting from the 24 Parganas district in West Bengal to Barpeta in Assam is more than 50% of the local population which could influence as many as 25 Lok Sabha seats in the region.
The government’s public stance has often been one of denial as far as the numbers of Bangladeshi illegals are concerned.
The committee, headed by senior paramilitary force officer George C Francis, has, in fact, mentioned the ‘‘demographic invasion’’ in the light of the vulnerability of the Bangladeshi illegal immigrants in terms of being used by ISI to continue its Operation Pin Code. The Pakistani covert operation — launched in 2004 — was aimed at using these migrants for its nefarious designs in N-E.
The committee has taken into account information gathered by India’s intelligence agencies after neutralization of ISI cells in the country during 2001-06. About ISI’s activities beyond J&K, the report says that the ISI has been funding the construction of madrassas in the Terai region of UP from where it recruits people. The menace of money laundering, tax evasion, existence of rogue off-shore banking facilities on behalf of small countries, circulation of fake Indian currency at the behest of ISI, and the role of underworld-ISI nexus in Maharashtra and Gujarat are some of the main points which have found adequate space in the report.
tatu said
mundhra is rightly said in sikkim the original people (lepcha and bhutias ) are now sidelined. the people from nepal makes all the place is hell. gjmm must submit their accounts. where from they getting money? if they are in same attitude keeping for long it will impossible for darjeeling to accomodate all the nepalis which wiil through out from rest of the world.
Anonym said
PC
It is intellectual prostitutes like you who have absolutely no regard for the brave soldiers guarding our frontiers that militancy and speratist movements arise. Can you site one instance where a Gorkha has been a Chinese agent and working against the interests of India? I am pretty sure about CPM’s role and celebrations when India was invaded by China. Do you know how many Gorkhas laid their lives defending India during the Indo-China war?
You have a lot of figures in what you write but needless to say they are all baseless. You have tried very well to rewrite history to suit your desires, but failed.
Talking about Chavanism, you are just giving air to a part of Bengali Chauvanism that has become an expert in annhilating cultures and identiies of other minorities. Look at Tripura, it is effectively a Bengali state now. Look at Silchar, it is more like a district of Bengal rather than that of Assam. Had it not been for natinalist movements in Assam and Manipur, they would have suffered the same fate as Tripura.
Your writings only show the desperation and fear you have in giving exploited people their due share. It will be to the best interest of your personal development and intellectual enrichment if you put your intellectual resources to thinking about ways to create a more just and fair society . If you are truly patriotic you would want the country to be “Where the head is held high and the mind is without fear….”
May you have the courage to fight for truth and justice.
Joe said
@majumdar, tatu
enough of your slanders. Had you are a true indian you should refrain from such racial comments and endorsing violance. If you have come here to discuss as a concerned citizen of india them do so on bring communities closer but do not try to create a divide. So far with all your unintelligent remarks you risk proving that you are the disease that plagues india and part of the problem than solution. Stick to “actual” facts and figures than just loose talk
Himesh said
I demand every district of West Bengal be made into seperate states. Afterwards every regional problems will be solved. Everybody will live in peace. There will be on crime. There will be no sorrow. There will be only fun and fair.
Even then, any state can join with any country of their wish. After all it’s a true DEMOCRACY.
Pranavesh said
@Himesh -other than your sarcasm, you are not making sense at all
JTM said
Why has the Subhash Chakravarty comment on Gorkhas post removed from the blog?
JSTO Kalimpong said
The Gorkhaland debate is out in open and the initiative of APDR which recently supported the cause is a precedence which is being set for the rest of the Bengali community. What is expected of the Bengali community in general and the intellectuals in particular is to offer rational arguments to the questions like Why Gorkhaland or why not Gorkhaland ? In this connection Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen and others have not only done justice to the cause of the Gorkhas. The involvement of the intellectual Bengali in the Debate would also limit the activities of communal elements who are but creation of people with vested political interest.