The Gorkha leaders of the hills today postponed their hill bandhs till the 5th of July. This was a result of Centre agreeing to tripartite talks, if required, after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Bengal government held a meeting this week. This declaration is supposedly from the Union home minister Shivraj Patil who had met the 4 member Morcha delegation in city of Delhi.
Meanwhile Darjeeling had the media and publicity secretary of the Morcha, Binay Tamang, commenting that their party had got a letter from the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and he had welcomed the decision of sending emissaries to Calcutta so that talks could be held between them. It had also been reported that the Morcha has also been going easy on the stand after realizing that the Delhi government is currently preoccupied with the nuclear issue. Hence a little time to spare could result in greater benefits for them.
The leader of the party Bimal Gurung also commented that they had to look at both Delhi and Calcutta before they went ahead with these movements. He also added that making mistakes for smaller gains was no their concern but they wanted to achieve statehood. Gurung said that there were chances that the UPA government would be able to survive the nuclear issue.
The Morcha group had also met Patil to present their demands for statehood. They want a Darjeeling district and also neighboring areas of Dooars. Their demands were presented through a map. The group was led by the general secretary Roshan Giri who said that political problems should have similar solutions and since the Centre showed positive response to their tripartite meeting, the Morcha had no problem in deferring the blockade.
The home ministry told the media that if any cooperation was required then the Union government was willing to help the state and the other groups also. There are talks of the tripartite talks being held next month but this will mainly depend on the result of the Morcha delegation meeting which is supposed to be held in Calcutta. The agreement of the Centre for tripartite talks has led to worries and their impact on the Sikkim Morcha also. The Sikkim Morcha is expected to resume their infinite blockade from 26th June by blocking the NH31A which is also the state’s lifeline.
The home secretary Madhukar Gupta and Union defense secretary Vijay Singh went to Siliguri along with chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb so that the situation could be reviewed. This is some good news for the tourists and the hoteliers in Darjeeling as the peak season saw bandhs and no commerce for a long time.
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