By Janga Sunuwar
The Centre is caught between a rock and a hard place over the Gorkhaland imbroglio. It has not yet cleared its stand on the separate statehood demand by the hills leaders and allowed the problem to fester for such a long time, much like the State Government has done.The formal meeting of the GMCC’s (Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee) delegates and stakeholders of the hills with the Home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi has come as a huge se back. There were high expectations that the dialogue with the Centre would end the long political crisis in Darjeeling but it has reached a dead end without arriving at any consensus. The Centre and BJP’s veteran leaders are purportedly juggling with this crucial issue and procrastinating as if they don’t have any political obligation towards the hills.
The Bengal’s chief minister Mamta Banerjee is now on the horns of a delimma as how to proceed further to engage the hills leaders for talks after the she mishandled the hills affairs.The colossal misgovernance and misrule have devastated the beautiful atmoshphere of the Queen of Hills like never before.Ostensibly the State has callously failed in the process of delivering the peace, prosperity and development that eludes hills since decades.The bonhomie and chemistry which was forged few years ago between Miss Banerjee and Bimal Gurung has now been marred by the friction in their relationships after the revival of the secessionist movement.
There is a lull in the foothills after two months of indefinite strikes with the absence of the Centre’s intervention. With no developments taking place in the capital however, the persistent demands for statehood in the hills and parts of plains-terais is getting stronger with sustained efforts led by the people. There is fear and anxiety clouding the hills with uncertainties .Two months have gone by but peace eludes the Darjeeling Hills as the State is not ready to take up the Herculean task of allowing people to live a life free from impositions. The continuous ban by the State machinery and indefinite strikes by the political parties have increased the burden of the people to the extreme and paralysed normal life with uncertainty all around. Nobody ever thought that things would come to such an appalling pass.
Far from the hullabaloo of “We want Gorkhaland” slogan which never ceases to echo on the ramparts of hills and ditto in other places, there are several tea gardens in the hills and in plains under the hills jurisdiction which are in utter shambles due to the vicious impact of indefinite strikes. The complete shutdown of tea gardens has caused havoc in the workers lives as they mostly depend on the tea gardens for their livelihood. The tea industry in the country has already suffered a huge loss over the spiralling prices of Indian tea at the international markets owing to more new competitors. The indefinite strikes added more woes to this problem in the State. The sluggish but persistent approach of the hills leaders to carry out the strikes without declaring any deadline has created a paranoia and landed people in more trouble. They should take some prudent and effective steps to deal with hills political crisis at an instant apart from theatrics of the absurd as indefinite strikes will only hampers public life and chances of drawing attention of the Centre are few and far between.It would be unfair if the irreparable loss of tourism industry is unaccounted for. So too the fate of several schools which are closed and became sandwiched over the feud between the Hills and the State.
It has become a tendency of the State to ignore the restiveness in Darjeeling since the agitation is not a new problem as it is a sporadic ritual of hills leaders to raise the statehood demand every five or ten years. Probably the BJP at the Centre thinks on the same wavelength otherwise the GMCC and other stake holders of the hills do not have to face defeats and disappointments regardless of shifting the statehood agitation’s epicentre to Delhi. There is little visible results on the ground despite their impromptu visits to Delhi and dialogue with the Centre. The Centre’s lukewarm approach and apathy to the plight of Gorkhas is an indication that the fight for statehood might go on for a long a long time even after sixty days of indefinite strike becomes unfructous and also hangs the fate of statehood agitation in the balance between hope and despair.
There is as well a growing resentment among the people against the Centre which has been trivializing the statehood issue under the influence of the State and stopped taking any decision on hills crisis after achieving a political mileage from the initial phase of the hills agitation. The fight for identity crisis and self rule is still a mirage. Century old demand of Gorkhas in the country is still an illusion due to neglect, apathy and weak political leadership and of course highlighted in an inarticulate manner by the hills leaders.