From Our Correspondent
TURA: The ripple effect of the creation of Telangana has gone beyond the hills of Gorkhaland in Darjeeling and crossed over from Assam to end up in Garo Hills where a conglomerate of organizations under the Garo Hills State Movement Committee (GHSMC) has announced a string of protests including a dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Thursday.
The separate state movement committee seeking a separate Garoland has announced a 5 am to 5 pm all Garo Hills bandh on August 8.
Prior to that, the movement will hold a sit-in dharna at the premises of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tura on August 6 and 7.
The Garoland movement is being spearheaded by the GHSMC which comprises of the Garo National Council political party, the All India Garo Union, the Tura Government College Students’ Union and the A’chik Students Welfare Association (ASWA) which includes student bodies from all the colleges of Garo Hills.
“If the government can give Telangana for the Telegu speaking people of that state why can’t Garoland be created for the Garos? Our demand for Garoland is in line with the State Linguistic Act of 1965 which allows the people to seek a state of their own in the land they belong. We are not grabbing someone else’s land,” GHSMC general secretary Augustine Marak told The Shillong Times.
The announcement of Telangana state has fuelled other tribes and groups across the eastern region of India, particularly the North East, to raise the banner of revolt against New Delhi’s ‘failure’ to accept their demands for a separate identity.
From the Gorkhas in Darjeeling seeking Gorkhaland state to the Koch Rajbongshis demanding Kamatapur along the Assam-Bengal border, statehood demands are rising by every passing day.
Besides the Garos calling for Garoland in Meghalaya, the Karbis have also begun to agitate for their own state in Assam.
