GNLF, a BJP ally, seeks Sixth Schedule for Darjeeling

While not opposing the CAA, there are some apprehensions about the CAA and NRC, says MLA Zimba

January 24, 2020 03:04 am | Updated 03:04 am IST - Kolkata

Expressing apprehension over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), a prominent political force in the Darjeeling hills of north Bengal and an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has raised afresh the demand for Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling hills.

“While we are not opposing the CAA, there are some apprehensions about the CAA and NRC. This is mainly because the people of the hills are not good at paperwork and documentation,” GNLF Darjeeling leader Neeraj Zimba told The Hindu .

Long-pending demand

Mr. Zimba, an MLA who won the Darjeeling Assembly seat and was elected in May 2019 when he contested the by-polls with the support of BJP, said that the Sixth Schedule would not only allay the fears of the people of the hills but also recognise the long-pending demand of autonomous self-rule of the people of the hills.

“We want the BJP to take note of what they had promised in their manifesto in the 2019 polls that they are committed to finding a permanent political solution to the issue of the Darjeeling hills. The Sixth Schedule is the most sensible and feasible solution for the people of the hills,” he said, adding that experiments like the Gorkhland Territorial Administration, a regional autonomous body, had failed.

Bill pending

Referring to the situation in the northeast, where areas in States like Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura were under the Sixth Schedule, Mr. Zimba said that there is a rationale behind the demand, which was first raised by GNLF founder Subhash Ghising. Mr. Ghising was practically synonymous with the prolonged violent movement in the hills for a separate State of Gorkhaland. Mr. Zimba said that there was a Bill (for bringing the Darjeeling hills under the Sixth Schedule) pending in the House, for giving Sixth Schedule status to Darjeeling, which had been vetted by the Law Ministry.

Mamata’s visit

The development also assumes significance when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is visiting the Darjeeling hills and has taken her opposition to the CAA to the region. Ms. Banerjee has been raising the issue that about 1 lakh Gorkhas had been left out of the NRC exercise in Assam. The Chief Minister, while raising the issue that her party had lost the elections in Darjeeling, added that this did not matter to her at the moment.

“Darjeeling is in danger and there is an attempt to snatch away citizenship rights from the people of Darjeeling,” Ms. Banerjee said in the hill town on Wednesday.

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