The efforts to resolve the Darjeeling stalemate received a major jolt when the West Bengal government decided not to invite the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha to an all-party meeting.
KOLKATA: The efforts to resolve the Darjeeling stalemate received a major jolt on Friday when the West Bengal government decided not to invite the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) to an all-party meeting on June 17. Instead, GJM has invited for a separate meeting with the state administration the next day.
An officer of the chief minister’s secretariat told reporters on Friday Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had sent a letter to GJM leader Bimal Gurung, inviting him to the June 18 meeting.
According to government sources, GJM has not been invited to the June 17 meeting mainly for two reasons. One, the all-party meeting is for political forces with representations in the state assembly and secondly, Gurung had warned of raising the separate ‘Gorkhaland’ demand at the meeting.
However, political observers said it was a tactical move by the CPI(M) to put pressure on GJM to withdraw the demand.
“The government has almost convinced all the major political forces in the state against the ‘absurd’ demand. In the meeting, it would like to ensure a unanimous and official all-party seal on the decision. This would not have been possible had GJM representatives been invited. In the absence of GJM, it would be easy for the government to ensure an all-party seal to put political pressure on the GJM leadership at the June 18 meeting,” a senior political analyst here said.
GJM, however, ruled out both the possibilities. It would neither attend the bipartite meeting on June 18, nor would it backtrack on the demand for a separate Gorkhaland.
“Our representatives will not attend the June 18 meeting. We will also not backtrack on our demand for Gorkhaland. Even if we were formally invited for the all-party meeting, our stand would not have changed. We would have raised the demand there as well. We will continue our movement,” GJM leader Roshon Giri told DNA over phone from Darjeeling.
Meanwhile, the ruling CPI(M) got a boost, with political arch rival Trinamool Congress siding with it on the issue. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday her representatives would attend the all-party meeting on June 17 in the interest of the state. “There is no justification of the demand for a separate ‘Gorkhaland’ state. We will attend the meeting for the sake of West Bengal. However, I feel it would have been politically correct if the government had invited GJM to the meeting,” she said.
r_sumanta@dnaindia.net
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