CPM keeps Darjeeling issue on back burner for time being

The West Bengal CPM’s growing anxiety over the ongoing agitation in Darjeeling by the newly formed Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) was reflected in the party’s state secretariat meeting on Friday. For the moment, the CPM leadership has decided to address it after the May panchayat elections.
 
The GJM, a breakaway faction of Subhas Ghising’s Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), has launched renewed agitation in the three hill sub-divisions of Kalimpong, Kurseong and Darjeeling demanding separate statehood for the Gorkhas. For the past few weeks, GJM activists were not allowing any state organisations in the hills to function.

The CPM’s worry over the GJM agitation has deepened after the Gorkhas attempted to make inroads in the planes of Siliguri sub-division by holding rallies and running campaigns in favour of their demand for separate statehood.

Siliguri is basically a CPM stronghold with Ashok Bhattacharjee, state urban development minister, representing the assembly constituency. But over the past few weeks, the GJM activists have tried to hold rallies in Siliguri town.

In the first week of April, they had organised a rally near ‘Darjeeling More’ and forced the police to resort to lathicharge the activists. The CPM-led Left Front government was forced to set up a judicial commission to probe the incident of lathicharge on the GJM activists.

Veteran Marxist and CPM leader Jyoti Basu also warned after the meeting that the “situation in the Darjeeling hills isn’t good and that tourists should refrain from going there for the time being.” Mr Basu also added that West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was closely tracking developments in Darjeeling.

Mr Basu also said many people had died in the Hills when the GNLF had organised continuous agitation during his tenure as the chief minister. It is also learnt that the CPM state leadership as well as the state administration has taken strong exception to the GJM’s plans to gherao the state administrative buildings at Writers’ Buildings on May 9.

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