The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) on Saturday said that there was nothing wrong in demanding a separate Gorkhaland state, but this should be achieved through a democratic movement and armed struggle was not the way. Commenting on Gorkha Liberation Organisation (GLO) Darjeeling branch committee Chattre Subba's threat to launch an armed struggle to achieve Gorkhaland, GNLF Darjeeling branch committee president Dipak Gurung said ''We believe in democratic movements''. He said that the original demand for creation of Gorkhaland was raised by his party and the hill people were committed to achieve it.

Speaking to newsmen at his residence in Darjeeling, Gurung said that all the three branch committees of GNLF, in a resolution in July this year, demanded that the centre table a bill on 'Gorkhaland' during the ongoing winter session of parliament. If this was not done, he said, the GNLF would decide its future course of action at the end of the session.

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He rubbished the GLO chief's ultimatum to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) members to quit and said ''There is no threat to them. DHGC chairman Subhas Ghising is going around rural areas supervising development programmes with his normal security.'' He charged the media with having highlighted Subba and his call for armed struggle to achieve Gorkhaland 'for reasons best known to them.'

Gurung, however, said that there must be a hidden power and brain behind Subba's sudden emergence with the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.
Bureau Report