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The Second Uprising
For a long time resentment against Ghisingh had been on the rise. Working hand in glove with the West Bengal government, elections to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council was repeatedly deferred, extending Ghisingh’s term as the sole administrative caretaker of the council for more than six times between March 2004 and March 2008. Something unheard of in a democratic set up.
Today, as Ghisingh stays holed up in his residence, stripped of power, friends and the sycophancy of the obliging West Bengal government, the hills of Darjeeling prepares itself for the second Gorkhaland uprising. The brand new political party of Darjeeling, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has promised to “fight to the finish.” It has garnered support from the Nepali people of the Dooars, who have felt “betrayed” ever since they were left out of the DGHC area. A new map of the proposed state of Gorkhaland has been drawn from Meechi in the West to Sankosh in the East.
Mr Bimal Gurung who is more popular for his brawn than his brains has claimed that Gorkhaland would be a reality by March 2010. Claiming to have drawn inspiration from Gandhi’s Saytagraha movement, Mr Gurung has maintained that the movement would be a ‘democratic one’. The West Bengal government has in turn sworn that Gorkhaland would be achieved only over its dead body. For a generation which has lived through the nightmare of the earlier Gorkhaland movement, in which atleast one known person has been killed in every family, the fear of violence and the aftermath is real. Memories of bandhs extending for 40 days are still vivid in the minds of the elderly. An entire generation lost on its college days and the productive years of many young men and women were sacrificed for the cause of Gorkhaland. Many left this region for better prospects or wereforced to leave because of their affiliations to other parties.
The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill which Ghisingh accepted in 1988 was a huge compromise for the people of this region who had lost and sacrificed much more. People felt cheated at the poor compensation for the over 1200 lives lost in the movement. Resentment was high but Ghisingh was adept at using fear as the key. So huge was the sway that the GNLF held over the Hills that no opposition could make a dent in the political scene.
And then Bimal Gurung happened. He has offered new hope for the people of this place who have felt deprived for too long and have always complained of a ‘step-motherly’ attitude by the state government. He has shrewdly judged the emotional pulse of the people and has accordingly fired their imagination with a cry for Gorkhaland. Of course, there is a segment of people who are still skeptic of the whole Gorkhaland issue and regard it as a “begging bowl” to win elections – something which Ghisingh used and abused. Apparently, having learnt from the mistakes that Ghisingh had made, Gurung has formed a core body comprising of intellectuals, lawyers, critics - something that Ghisingh was loathe to. Claming that he would ‘remove all impediments’ that stood on the path to Gorkhaland like one would kick away black cats on one’s path; he said that the two black cats had been Ghisingh and the Sixth Schedule.
The Sixth Schedule had become a huge debate with the state and Ghisingh’s GNLF party hell bent on passing the Bill in the Parliament and the GJM pulling all stops to stop it from reaching the Parliament. GJM believed that the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution which provides reasonably greater administrative autonomy in certain parts of the tribal-dominated part of the northeast, was in fact a ploy by the state to divide the Nepali community along ethnic lines. The main divide would have been in between the Scheduled Tribes (the Sherpa, Tamangs and Limboos) and the Non scheduled Tribes.
The main flaw in the Sixth Schedule proposal perhaps lay on the fact that the region in which it was meant to be implemented i.e the Darjeeling hills, the Scheduled Tribe population comprised only about one third of the total population. The plan obviously was to kill two birds with one stone – not only would the people of this region be fully engaged in infighting amongst themselves over the Sixth Schedule, but the 6th December 2005 agreement made by Ghisingh and the State government in order to implement the Sixth Schedule in which it is clearly mentioned that it would be the “full and final settlement of the Darjeeling Hill areas issue that no further demands in this regard would be entertained,” would have once and for all put a lid to the Gorkhaland issue.
The general public sent thousands of letters to Ms Sushma Swaraj who was heading the parliamentary committee which was to see the feasibility of the Sixth Schedule implementation in the Hills. The state in its attempt to prevent the committee from coming to Darjeeling and checking on the ground reality propagated that the situation in Darjeeling was volatile and there would be a violent flare up if the team visited Darjeeling.
It helped that the Parliamentary Committee was headed by a BJP leader who had been apprised of the then prevailing anti-Sixth schedule wave by the Party’s MP candidate Mr Gambir Singh Yonzone. Mr Dawa Narbula, sitting MP from the Congress also endorsed the sentiment of the people. As Mr Sonam Wangal, an eminent writer of this region put in: “No where has such a thing been seen where the government goes out of its way to hand over supposedly additional powers to the people and the people so vehemently opposed to receiving it.”
Last minute ‘strings pulling’ was done with Mr Subhas Ghisignh making late night rounds visiting Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi in order to get the Sixth Schedule Bill passed. By that time it was too late. The Bill had been shelved.
Stalling the Sixth Schedule Billboosted the spirits of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha like nothing else did. Added to it was the ignominy that Ghisingh had to face when he was denied entry in the Hills by the GJM. For more than a week he remained in the Foothills of the Darjeeling Hills, ostensibly down with a severe bout of flu and diarrahoea. For most, Ghisingh’s inability to enter his own land where he reigned as king for over two decades, was in a sense, poetic justice for a man who had “betrayed the cause of Gorkhaland.” It was only after Ghisingh had stepped down as the caretaker administrator that he was allowed to enter the Hills.
In keeping with its ‘Mission Bhandaphoor’, the Morcha has also begun to unearth the misappropriation of funds that the ex-Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council councillors had handled. Files have been seized and Bimal Gurung has promised to recover “every single paise that the councillors have robbed from the public.”
The State Government had called for an all party meeting to take stock of the Darjeeling Hills situation. But the irony was that the GJMM was not invited for talks. Trinamul Congress boycotted the meeting as a mark of protest. The GJMM has now refused all talks with the state Government and has reiterated that it would only talk if the Centre representative was present.
An indefinite strike has been called in the Hills to protest the atrocities perpetrated by the state on the GJMM supporters, including students and ex-Armymen, who had organized a peace rally and a fast rally in Bagdogra. Nepali people were stoned and attacked and their houses burnt at the outskirts of Siliguri.
So far Gurung has maintained that the movement would be “democratic and peaceful.” But he has also warned of serious consequences if pushed against the wall. By way of self defence he has urged all Nepali people to carry the traditional Khukuri.
State urban development minister Mr Ashok Bhattacharya’s statement that Indian Nepalis are “outsiders” who are influence by “outside forces” also doesn’t go well with the community who are fighting for their Gorkha identity.
The state and the Centre cannot afford to ignore the unrest in this region. More so, since the Maoist win in Nepal and China’s incursions into neighbouring Sikkim. Any unrest in this strategically important region has to be dealt with swiftly and effectively. The ongoing indefinite bandh has also inconvenienced the Sikkim Government as it is landlocked and the only route that connects it with the rest of the country is through the troubled Darjeeling region. If a proper solution is not sought for the long standing demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, the problem will only aggravate further, making it a soft target for divisive forces within and outside the nation.
Mr Bimal Gurung who is more popular for his brawn than his brains has claimed that Gorkhaland would be a reality by March 2010. Claiming to have drawn inspiration from Gandhi’s Saytagraha movement, Mr Gurung has maintained that the movement would be a ‘democratic one’. The West Bengal government has in turn sworn that Gorkhaland would be achieved only over its dead body. For a generation which has lived through the nightmare of the earlier Gorkhaland movement, in which atleast one known person has been killed in every family, the fear of violence and the aftermath is real. Memories of bandhs extending for 40 days are still vivid in the minds of the elderly. An entire generation lost on its college days and the productive years of many young men and women were sacrificed for the cause of Gorkhaland. Many left this region for better prospects or wereforced to leave because of their affiliations to other parties.
The Darjeeling Gorkha Hill which Ghisingh accepted in 1988 was a huge compromise for the people of this region who had lost and sacrificed much more. People felt cheated at the poor compensation for the over 1200 lives lost in the movement. Resentment was high but Ghisingh was adept at using fear as the key. So huge was the sway that the GNLF held over the Hills that no opposition could make a dent in the political scene. And then Bimal Gurung happened. He has offered new hope for the people of this place who have felt deprived for too long and have always complained of a ‘step-motherly’ attitude by the state government. He has shrewdly judged the emotional pulse of the people and has accordingly fired their imagination with a cry for Gorkhaland. Of course, there is a segment of people who are still skeptic of the whole Gorkhaland issue and regard it as a “begging bowl” to win elections – something which Ghisingh used and abused. Apparently, having learnt from the mistakes that Ghisingh had made, Gurung has formed a core body comprising of intellectuals, lawyers, critics - something that Ghisingh was loathe to. Claming that he would ‘remove all impediments’ that stood on the path to Gorkhaland like one would kick away black cats on one’s path; he said that the two black cats had been Ghisingh and the Sixth Schedule.
The Sixth Schedule had become a huge debate with the state and Ghisingh’s GNLF party hell bent on passing the Bill in the Parliament and the GJM pulling all stops to stop it from reaching the Parliament. GJM believed that the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution which provides reasonably greater administrative autonomy in certain parts of the tribal-dominated part of the northeast, was in fact a ploy by the state to divide the Nepali community along ethnic lines. The main divide would have been in between the Scheduled Tribes (the Sherpa, Tamangs and Limboos) and the Non scheduled Tribes.
The main flaw in the Sixth Schedule proposal perhaps lay on the fact that the region in which it was meant to be implemented i.e the Darjeeling hills, the Scheduled Tribe population comprised only about one third of the total population. The plan obviously was to kill two birds with one stone – not only would the people of this region be fully engaged in infighting amongst themselves over the Sixth Schedule, but the 6th December 2005 agreement made by Ghisingh and the State government in order to implement the Sixth Schedule in which it is clearly mentioned that it would be the “full and final settlement of the Darjeeling Hill areas issue that no further demands in this regard would be entertained,” would have once and for all put a lid to the Gorkhaland issue.
The general public sent thousands of letters to Ms Sushma Swaraj who was heading the parliamentary committee which was to see the feasibility of the Sixth Schedule implementation in the Hills. The state in its attempt to prevent the committee from coming to Darjeeling and checking on the ground reality propagated that the situation in Darjeeling was volatile and there would be a violent flare up if the team visited Darjeeling.
It helped that the Parliamentary Committee was headed by a BJP leader who had been apprised of the then prevailing anti-Sixth schedule wave by the Party’s MP candidate Mr Gambir Singh Yonzone. Mr Dawa Narbula, sitting MP from the Congress also endorsed the sentiment of the people. As Mr Sonam Wangal, an eminent writer of this region put in: “No where has such a thing been seen where the government goes out of its way to hand over supposedly additional powers to the people and the people so vehemently opposed to receiving it.”
Last minute ‘strings pulling’ was done with Mr Subhas Ghisignh making late night rounds visiting Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi in order to get the Sixth Schedule Bill passed. By that time it was too late. The Bill had been shelved.
Stalling the Sixth Schedule Billboosted the spirits of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha like nothing else did. Added to it was the ignominy that Ghisingh had to face when he was denied entry in the Hills by the GJM. For more than a week he remained in the Foothills of the Darjeeling Hills, ostensibly down with a severe bout of flu and diarrahoea. For most, Ghisingh’s inability to enter his own land where he reigned as king for over two decades, was in a sense, poetic justice for a man who had “betrayed the cause of Gorkhaland.” It was only after Ghisingh had stepped down as the caretaker administrator that he was allowed to enter the Hills.
In keeping with its ‘Mission Bhandaphoor’, the Morcha has also begun to unearth the misappropriation of funds that the ex-Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council councillors had handled. Files have been seized and Bimal Gurung has promised to recover “every single paise that the councillors have robbed from the public.”
The State Government had called for an all party meeting to take stock of the Darjeeling Hills situation. But the irony was that the GJMM was not invited for talks. Trinamul Congress boycotted the meeting as a mark of protest. The GJMM has now refused all talks with the state Government and has reiterated that it would only talk if the Centre representative was present.
An indefinite strike has been called in the Hills to protest the atrocities perpetrated by the state on the GJMM supporters, including students and ex-Armymen, who had organized a peace rally and a fast rally in Bagdogra. Nepali people were stoned and attacked and their houses burnt at the outskirts of Siliguri.
So far Gurung has maintained that the movement would be “democratic and peaceful.” But he has also warned of serious consequences if pushed against the wall. By way of self defence he has urged all Nepali people to carry the traditional Khukuri.
State urban development minister Mr Ashok Bhattacharya’s statement that Indian Nepalis are “outsiders” who are influence by “outside forces” also doesn’t go well with the community who are fighting for their Gorkha identity.
The state and the Centre cannot afford to ignore the unrest in this region. More so, since the Maoist win in Nepal and China’s incursions into neighbouring Sikkim. Any unrest in this strategically important region has to be dealt with swiftly and effectively. The ongoing indefinite bandh has also inconvenienced the Sikkim Government as it is landlocked and the only route that connects it with the rest of the country is through the troubled Darjeeling region. If a proper solution is not sought for the long standing demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, the problem will only aggravate further, making it a soft target for divisive forces within and outside the nation.
