A nation wide newer states movement is the only way out

It is high time that the Darjeeling MP make his personal stance on the issue of Gorkhaland clear… Whether he is personally in favour of Gorkhaland or whether following his party stance he is also against the formation of Gorkhaland? He can no longer wade through the water knee deep and say I am both in land and water writes Barun Roy

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee has decided to launch an awareness campaign on Gorkhaland. “At the first instance, I was overwhelmed when I heard that the Pradesh Congress Committee was going to launch an awareness campaign on Gorkhaland,” a local Congress leader said jubilantly as he sat before me sipping a hot cup of tea. “At last, our party had done the right thing, a statewide if not a nation wide deliberation on Gorkhaland was needed. Let everyone come forward and discuss on everything concerning Gorkhaland. I was excited and elevated. But when PCC President Priya Ranjan Das Munshi told me that instead we were to make the people aware of our party’s negative stance on Gorkhaland, I was left disappointed and disillusioned. Who made the decision? Why had Priya Ranjan Das Mushi to come out in the open saying Congress is not in favour of Gorkhaland. We do not want the formation of Gorkhaland. We do not want the division of Bengal. It all seems crap to me”.

Certainly, the veteran Hill Congress Leader’s sentiments are equivocal to the dissention running deep in the Hills and the Plains. In fact, the very organization of the Congress Party in the Darjeeling District is fraught with ambiguity. The Darjeeling District Congress Committee is divided into Hills and Plains division. While Darjeeling is the headquarters of the District, the decision of the Darjeeling District Congress Committee (Plains) headed by Shankar Malakar is final. Hill Leaders like Chabi Rai and Nakul Chettri are disowned at a whim. A party insider says, “There is always an inherent tension between the Plains and Hills Congress Party men. The Hill leaders most of the time find their words subdued in the remarks of Plains Congressmen whenever a meeting is held in Siliguri. It is rarely that important meetings are held in Darjeeling.”

The Pradesh Congress Committee President Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and the Darjeeling District Congress Committee (Plains) President, Shankar Malakar’s assertion that Nakul Chettri and Chabi Rai are ‘self purported Hill leaders misrepresenting the Congress Party” is unfortunate. A leader like Priya Ranjan Das Munshi disowning his own grass root level leaders and cadres is not just uncalled for but down right preposterous. However, the Union Minister and the Siliguri based Sankar Malakar’s statement and stance on their own party leaders and cadres in the hills is much subdued compared to the Darjeeling Congress MPs assertion that both Nakul Chettri and Chabi Rai were attending the ‘All Party Meeting’ called by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha ‘as observers’ as it was important for the Congress Party to know what was happening in the Hills. The same Congress MP had on the 17 of June said, “Being a representative of the hill Congress, Nakul Chettri, has every right to ‘take part’ in the political congregation in Darjeeling at this critical hour.” I wonder what made the leader change his stance today. As a leader of the Darjeeling District Congress Committee (Hills) will he come to the aid of the Hills leaders or will he quote and misquote himself ultimately confusing himself and a whole lot of others in the whole issue. It is high time that the Darjeeling MP make his personal stance on the issue of Gorkhaland clear… Whether he is personally in favour of Gorkhaland or whether following his party stance he is also against the formation of Gorkhaland? He can no longer wade through the water knee deep and say I am both in land and water.

Why is Congress so worried over its stance on Gorkhaland?

The Congress has strangely enough outdone the Communist Party of India Marxist in making their stance known to the people vis-à-vis Gorkhaland. The Communist Party of India Marxists has thus far restrained themselves from launching an Anti-Gorkhaland Awareness Campaign relying on a dialogue with the ‘Hill People’. The Congress Stance on letting Bengal know that they are against the formation of Gorkhaland and the division of Bengal is aimed at Bengal sans Darjeeling District. The Congress party be it at New Delhi or at Kolkata knows that it cannot risk alienating the majority of Bengal by being in favour of Gorkhaland. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi hopes that with his stance known it will help theoretically help him regain power in the state and at the same time do well in the Lok Sabha elections. A deeper prodding of the Trinamul Congress leadership would also lead to similar conclusions that the national and the regional parties will not come out openly in favour of Gorkhaland. But at least they would not come out as openly and as hastily against Gorkhaland either as Congress has done. No matter what the Congress leadership’s vision both at the AICC and the PCC level; Priya Ranjan Das Munshi’s eagerness to disown the aspirations and dreams of the people Darjeeling Hills and Dooars Terai would be a massive self inflicted injury in a long term. This is also indicative to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Communist Party of the Revolutionary Marxists, All India Gorkha League and Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha and indeed to all those demanding for a separate statehood in India – Gorkhaland, Telangana or Greater Cooch Behar cannot be achieved merely by sending delegations to the State and the Central Governments. A nation wide newer states campaign must be worked out if the national parties like Congress and BJP are to be made to believe that carving newer states is in their interest. Until this is done, the national parties like Congress and BJP whose primary interest lies only in the formation of a Government at the Centre will not be sympathetic to the formation of newer states. All they are ever interested are in the number of MPs.