Kolkata: The Centre is considering amending the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) accord and giving the council more power as it tries to explore the middle path to solve the Darjeeling crisis.
Sources said the union home ministry is working on convincing the West Bengal government and leaders of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) to sit for a tripartite meeting.
Speaking to News18, a senior state BJP leader said, “When GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri came and met our party president Dilip Ghosh, it was discussed that separate state of Gorkhaland is not possible. Even BJP’s manifesto has hinted towards some amicable solution and not mentioned anything about a separate state.”
“In 2009 and in 2014, our manifesto clearly mentioned that it will sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long-pending demands of the Gorkhas, the Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling district and the Dooars region. Nowhere was the formation of a separate state mentioned,” the party leader said, adding that a formula will be worked out not just for the Gorkhas but also for the Adivasis and other groups.
The BJP leader further said that even the GJM top brass is aware that a separate state is not possible right now and the fight is to get more power, making it run almost parallel to the state government. This is only possible through amendments in the existing GTA accord.
“The central government is trying to convince Bengal government for some amendments in the exiting GTA accord. Some GJM leaders also stressed for Union Territory status if not a separate state. These possible solutions are in early stage but our stand is very clear – no division of Bengal,” the leader said.
In 2004, former BJP MP from Darjeeling, Jaswant Singh had also said, "The solution lies in union territory status.”
Long Pending Demand
Ever since the GTA was framed in 2011, GJM leaders have been raising objections over discrepancies between the Bill and the memorandum of agreement signed on July 18, 2011.
A GJM-team led by Roshan Giri and Harka Bahadur Chhetri (now founder of his new Jan Andolan Party) had met chief secretary Samar Ghosh and parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee to place their demands and objections in writing.
One of the important points highlighted by the GJM was the missing line on ‘ethnicity of the Gorkhas’. The Bill mentioned socio-economic and linguistic development of the Hills but points on Gorkhas ethnicity was missing. Then the GJM delegates told the chief secretary to incorporate the words as this is the main issue for the people living in the Hills.
The second objection was that the Bill empowered the state government to replace the GTA on non-performance ground. GJM leaders felt that state government retained maximum power while framing the bill and smelt conspiracy when it comes to autonomous nature of the GTA.
The third objection was discrepancies between the Bengal government-GJM agreements. Both the parties agreed on transfer of financial, administrative and executive power to the GTA, but the Bill only mentions about the executive power. This means that for every financial release, the GJM has to depend on state government for final execution.
The fourth issue was nominating power of chief executive of the GTA. As per agreement, the chief executive of the GTA can nominate 14 persons. But in the Bill it was mentioned that he can nominate 12 persons.
Last but the not the least was terming it ‘GTA Sabha’ instead of ‘Assembly’ as mentioned in the Bill. GJM leaders demanded that the word ‘Sabha’ should be replaced with ‘Assembly’. They felt that with the word ‘Sabha,’ GTA’s importance will be lost.
Clear Message
Over the years, Bengal BJP unit has been very clear about their stand on Gorkhaland. They never supported the division of state on basis of language, caste and identity. Till today, even after a fortnight of unrest in the Hills – Bengal BJP has stuck to its stand and said it will not allow division of Bengal in the name of Gorkhaland at any cost.
Significantly, now the central leadership is also publicly saying that they are not in favour of a separate state. Two days ago, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said that he does not support the creation of Gorkhaland.
While hinting towards more powers to GTA, Vijayvargiya said, “West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee created GTA to address issues and for the development Hills, but they did not address it. Therefore, people resorted to protest rallies”.
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