Kolkata: The demand for Gorkhaland
preceded that for Telangana, going back to 1917 when the
Hillmen's Association came into existence which petitioned for
the administrative separation of Darjeeling and made the same
demand again in 1930 and 1934.
But it was GNLF supremo Subhas Ghising who took up a
violent movement for the first time for creation of Gorkhaland
in 1986 comprising the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling
district -- Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.
The Siliguri subdivision in the plains besides the
adjoining Dooars and Terai in Jalpaiguri district in North
Bengal were to be part of the proposed state.
The movement culminated in the Darjeeling Accord of
1988 and the formation of the the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill
Council after which the move for a separate state was shelved
by Ghising.
"Their's (Telengana) was a bloody movement, but ours
is Gandhian. Our movement will never be through armed
struggle. Our agitation will be confined to bandhs, dharnas
and hunger strikes," GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri told
agency from Delhi.
"If the demand for Telengana is five decades old, then
we Gorkhas have been demanding a separate Gorkhaland state for
over a century," GJM central committee member Harkabhadur
Chetri told agency over telephone from Darjeeling.
The main reason for demanding a separate state, he
said, was that the identity and culture of the people in the
hills was separate from those living in the plains of North
Bengal.
Soon after the Gorkhaland stir came to an end in
August 1988, the current president of the GJM, Bimal Gurung,
who was a close aide of Ghising, parted ways with him.
After he left the GNLF, Gurung was hunted by the
police in a murder case and for possession of illegal weapons.
Gurung surrendered to the police three years later. He
subsequently floated the Pabatiya Bekari Sangathan to work for
the unemployed youth.
Following a rapprochement with Ghishing, Gurung
returned to GNLF, but had differences with the GNLF chief
again after his nomination in a by-election to the post of a
councillor to DGHC was refused. He was later expelled.
Gurung's came to the fore again when he successfully
mobilised the hills in favour of Indian Idol III contestant
Parshant Tamang, whom Ghishing refused to support initially.
He set up branches of the Prashant Fan Club across Darjeeling.
Riding the Prashant wave, Gurung floated the GJM on
October 7, 2007.
Gurung took revenge on Ghising soon after and drove
him out of Darjeeeling hills, which the GNLF supremo has been
unable to enter again. He now lives at Pintail village close
to Siliguri in the plains.
The GJM president also rejected Ghising's proposal for
6th Schedule for the hills which would give enhanced powers
and revived the demand for Gorkhaland.
Gurung has vowed to create a separate state by 2010
through non-violent form of protests by refusing to pay taxes
to the government including electricity and phone bills and
had the number plates of vehicles running in the hills to GL
(Gorkhaland). The GJM has also raised its own militia.
The West Bengal government has consistently opposed
the creation of Gorkhaland. A tripartite meeting is scheduled
on December 21 in Darjeeling.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 11, 2009, 22:19