Only Delhi on Morcha radar – - Gurung likely to shoot down CM’s bipartite talks offer
Posted by barunroy on July 8, 2008
FROM THE TELEGRAPH
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| Bimal Gurung and his car with the ‘GL’ number plate in Darjeeling on Monday. (Suman Tamang) |
Darjeeling, July 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will not accept an invitation sent last evening by chief minister Buddahdeb Bhattacharjee for another round of bipartite talks in Calcutta, party insiders said.
“We had made it clear after the last meeting in Writers’ Buildings on June 27 that we are interested only in talks with Delhi which the state government will attend,” a senior Morcha leader said.
Bimal Gurung’s party today refused to react formally to the letter and said it would make its stand public tomorrow.
“Thank you for your letter dated 5 July 2008, regarding the proposal for a tripartite meeting to discuss your demand,” the chief minister’s letter states. “I accept your proposal for a tripartite meeting to discuss your demand. However, I am of the view that it will be fruitful if a meeting at a bipartite level between your organisation and the state government is held to arrive at a possible solution before going for the discussion at the tripartite level.”
However, the earlier talks seem to have created a congenial atmosphere as far as the relation between the state and the Morcha is concerned.
The chief minister has not only promptly replied to the Morcha’s letter written on Saturday in which it had pressed for tripartite talks, but also maintained that “I am grateful that your party has decided not to resort to bandhs for the time being”.
Although the Morcha has extended the bandh breather till August 7, it has not allowed government offices in the hills to remain open.
Against this background where the avenue for dialogue with the government is still open, the Morcha today went ahead with its pre-scheduled programme of replacing the “WB” number plates of cars with “GL” (Gorkhaland).
Only cars owned by central committee members of the party sported the new plates for the time being. “This is a form of protest. It is part of our civil disobedience movement. We will also ask the government vehicles to sport the GL number plates but government vehicles will take time,” Gurung said. He said the party was ready to see what action the government would take against the owners of these vehicles. “Let them take action, we will see,” the Morcha chief said.
Rahul Srivastava, the superintendent of police, Darjeeling, said the Bengal home secretary had already clarified his stand on the “GL” number plates. “It would be better to get a comment from the higher authorities as the stand has been clarified,” he said.
Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti, the home secretary, had during his visit to Siliguri recently said the “GL” number plates were illegal.
Observers believe that since the chief minister is directly negotiating with the Morcha leaders, it is unlikely that the district administration would take any decision without instructions from higher authorities.
