Don’t create rift in GJM: Ahluwalia to Mamata

Shubhadeep Choudhury

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Tribune News Service

Kolkata, September 11

Darjeeling MP and Union Minister of State for Agriculture SS Ahluwalia today said the West Bengal Government would not benefit by creating rift within the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).

Ahluwalia’s statement assumes significance in view of the confusion prevailing over the meeting over the Gorkhaland agitation that CM Mamata Banerjee is slated to hold at Siliguri tomorrow.

This will be the second round of dialogue between Mamata and various Darjeeling Hill-based political parties who support the demand for carving out from West Bengal a separate state for Nepalese settlers.

The first round of talk was held in Kolkata when the GJM, the party spearheading the current phase of the agitation for Gorkhaland, was led by Binay Tamang.

Bimal Gurung, GJM supremo, was cold-shouldered by the CM and he kept away from the meeting. When Tamang, on his return to Darjeeling, asked for ending the shutdown in the hills (in force since the middle of June), it was scuttled by Gurung.

Gurung expelled Tamang from the GJM and announced that shutdown would be called off only if the Central Government talked to the GJM on the issue of Gorkhaland. While the official GJM led by Gurung has announced a six-member team for participating in the talk tomorrow, it is not clear whether they have received any invitation at all from the Chief Minister for taking part in the meeting tomorrow.

Tamang, on the other hand, has claimed he has been invited by the Chief Minister for the meeting. Tamang has also named four others besides him who will take part in the dialogue tomorrow. Ahluwalia, who is here with visiting BJP chief Amit Shah, said political dialogue was the most useful tool for finding solution to a political issue. But if one tries to create a rift among the agitators or tries to intimidate them by resorting to police action, such methods are not going to work.

Ahluwalia, who is also BJP’s national vice-president, said since Gorkhaland agitators wanted a separate state within India, they should not be treated as secessionists or terrorists. “They are patriots,” he said.