The decision by the Centre to initiate the process for creation of Telangana State has given impetus to the demand for a separate State comprising the Darjeeling hills and certain areas contiguous to it in West Bengal by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), the leadership of which announced on Thursday a four-day bandh in the hills beginning from December 14 in support of its Statehood claim.
“We welcome the decision to create Telangana but demand that a similar decision be taken for a Gorkhaland State. The two States should be created at the same time”, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told The Hindu over telephone from Bagdogra airport.
Mr. Giri and some of his colleagues were on their way to New Delhi to meet Central leaders and press for the creation of a Gorkhaland state.
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The West Bengal Government has categorically ruled out any bifurcation of the State even though it is agreeable to giving greater autonomy to the region comprising the Darjeeling hills.
Calling for a four-day bandh in the Darjeeling hills, GJM president Bimal Gurung said that batches of 21 GJM activists would go on a “fast until death” in the three hill sub-divisional towns as well as in Siliguri and in the Dooars from Friday in support of the Gorkhaland demand.
“We have been in solidarity with those who have been behind the Telangana statehood demand all the while. At the same time, there can be no solution to the problem in the hills till a separate Gorkhaland state is created”, Mr Giri said.
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The decision to call a bandh comes ahead of the crucial fourth round of tripartite talks between the Centre, the State Government and the GJM leadership that is scheduled to be held in Darjeeling on December 21 to resolve the crisis arising from the Gorkhaland State demand.
“We expect a positive outcome in favour of Gorkhaland State in the forthcoming talks as a separate state can be the only answer to the political aspirations of the people of the region”, Mr. Giri said.
But by calling a four-day bandh in the hills in the run-up to the tripartite talks the GJM leadership appears to have gone against its assurance that it will ensure that discussions are held in a congenial atmosphere.
The GJM leadership regretted that so far both the Centre and the State Government have failed to show their “political will” to resolve the impasse in the hills.
“Neither the West Bengal Government nor the Centre has done anything to fulfil our demand for Gorkhaland. Just the way the Union Home Minister has made a positive statement on Telangana he should issue one in regard to Gorkhaland”, he said.