Some of the opposition parties on Saturday blamed Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling of ’sabotaging’ the demand for a Gorkahaland by seeking to put the agitators on dock for frequent blockades of the National Highway 31A but again urged the agitators to reconsider their strategy to block State’s only road link.
“If the SDF government can not support the statehood demand, it should also not try to derail the political process on the issue,” SHRPP President AD Subba, BJP leader Padam Prasad Sharma and rebel SDF leader CC Sangderpa said at a press conference here.
The opposition leaders, however, did not favour frequent blockade of the NH-31A by the pro-statehood agitators and urged the latter to reconsider their tactics to disrupt the traffic on the highway which happened to be the sole road link between Sikkim and the rest of the country.
Alleging Mr. Chamling had made ‘unnecessary comments putting the onus on people from Darjeeling Hills for the law and problem in Sikkim at various fora,” the leaders alleged Mr. Chamling was trying to malign the ongoing agitation for a separate state.
Claiming the Chief Minister’s tirade against the pro-statehood leaders and supporters sought to create a discord among the people of Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills, the three leaders claimed the people of the Himalayan State strongly favoured the statehood demand.
Stating that Mr. Chamling’s hardline stand against Gorkhaland “antagonized the Sikkimese brethren from across the border,” the leaders significantly said Mr. Chamling should be held squarely responsible in the event of the pro-statehood agitations on the highway targeting the travellers to and from Sikkim in retaliation.
Former Chief Minister and State unit Congress President Nar Bahadur Bhandari too disagreed with Mr. Chamling on his contention that the agitators in Darjeeling Hills did have a disruptive impact on the development process in Sikkim.
If it was so then how the SDF government could gobble up thousands of crores of central funds in the name of development and even sent utilization certifications in that regard, he wondered.
Mr. Bhandari also advised Mr. Chamling to refrain from politicizing the statehood issue “to sustain himself politically and to gain additional central funds” for the sake of peace in Sikkim.
The former Chief Minister advised his successor against “vitiating age-old historical, cultural and linguistic ties between the people of the Himalayan state and Darjeeling Hills”.
