Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who faced pro-Gorkhaland slogans at a function in Darjeeling on Tuesday, saw for herself that “the hills are not smiling,” West Bengal Left Front Committee chairman Biman Bose said here.
“The Chief Minister, who has repeatedly said that ‘Darjeeling is smiling,’ experienced firsthand that the hills are in fact not smiling,” he told journalists when asked to comment on the developments.
The Chief Minister’s refrain that “I have solved the problem of the hills” within a matter of months was belied by the incident and the fact that the people of the hills were not happy with her remark about Darjeeling being an integral part of West Bengal, he said.
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Mr. Bose said recent developments vindicated the Left stand that the tripartite agreement, which paved the way for the setting up of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, did not resolve the problem in the hills but was rather used as a “stepping stone” by those agitating for a separate State.
PCC president Pradip Bhattacharya said the incident “only proves that all is not well in Darjeeling” and “we are headed for more unrest.”