Longstanding issues such as the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal cannot be wished away with a magic wand. State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appears to think otherwise, as if charisma, short-term political tactics, and tokenism are enough. Ms. Banerjee had claimed to have solved the Gorkhaland issue after agreeing to the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in 2011, following a series of agitations by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. In the years since its establishment, little has been done on the ground to transfer many of the subjects to the body as was promised, rendering the notion of autonomous rule in the Hills rather moot. The hold of the GJM in the Hills was sought to be broken by reaching out to indigenous communities in the region through the creation of various tribal development boards. The GJM, on the other hand, believes that the GTA is just a stepping stone for the creation of a separate State. Legitimate grievances with the West Bengal government on transfer of powers to the GTA aside, the GJM, which has ruled the Authority, too has been guilty of lackadaisical administration. The party also mirrors Ms. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in Machiavellian tactics, such as dovetailing with the Bharatiya Janata Party in parliamentary elections alone so as to secure support for the statehood demand. The ad hocism and tokenism shown by these two political parties in West Bengal are responsible for the renewed violence in the Darjeeling Hills. For its part, the BJP is caught in a bind — it seems to be sympathetic to the statehood demand, allied as it is to the GJM in the Hills, but is afraid to articulate it openly as it has ambitions in the rest of the State.
The proximate cause for the flare-up in the Hills was the State government’s announcement that Bengali should be compulsorily taught in all schools in West Bengal till Class X. Earlier this month the government had also held a cabinet meeting in the Hills after many years, drawing a sharp response from the GJM and other separatist political forces that saw this as a ploy to undermine the GTA’s authority. Ms. Banerjee later clarified that Bengali was optional in the hill district, but this was not enough to assuage sentiments as the GJM sought to use this point to ramp up agitations. The whipping up of passions in the Hills has coincided with the rise of Bengali chauvinism in the plains in the recent past. This polarisation does not portend well. The State government must reach out to the GJM and work out a way to transfer powers to the GTA as was promised in 2011. A signal in this direction will go a long way in tamping down the violent agitation. It should also abandon its wishful thinking that short cuts can solve the intractable Gorkhaland issue, which is culturally rooted.
