Dooars News | Tribal face-off in garden- Parishad rebels’ bid to unveil statue triggers tension

Jan. 27.TT: A forcible attempt by the dissident group of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad to unveil the statue of an adivasi leader met with resistance from workers loyal to the official faction in a Dooars tea garden today.

The statue of Birsa Munda was erected by the Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, a wing of the Parishad, on Beech Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri district. The union had invited Parishad state committee president Birsa Tirkey to unveil the statue tomorrow.

However, a group of rebel leaders led by Raju Bara decided to unveil the statue. The dissidents thought the statue unveiling by Tirkey would lead to the consolidation of the state committee’s base in the Dooars.

But the tea union leaders in the garden got wind of the move and called police.

“All of a sudden, some PTWU leaders who are against Parishad’s state committee, reached the garden this morning and said they would not let Tirkey unveil the statue tomorrow and do it themselves. We opposed the move and said the state president of the Parishad would unveil the statue tomorrow,” said Biren Kuzur, a union leader in the garden.

As an altercation ensued between the groups, Kalchini block development officer and the subdivisional police officer of Alipurduar B.C. Thakur reached the spot. The police asked Bara and his supporters to leave the estate.

“These people (Bara and his followers) did not have the permission to enter the garden or unveil the statue. There were protests from people who had erected the statue. Apprehending a law and order problem, we asked them to leave the place,” said Thakur.

Bara owes his allegiance to John Barla who was dismissed as the president of the Dooars-Terai regional committee of the Parishad. The state committee had taken action against John Barla after he had signed a pact with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to include the entire Dooars and the Terai in the autonomous council proposed for the Darjeeling hills.

As the pressure from the police mounted on Bara to leave the garden, he called up John Barla and other rebel leaders like Sukra Munda and asked them to come to the Beech garden, 70km from Siliguri. But the police pressed for Bara’s retreat and after an hour or so, he left the estate with a passing remark “we will see them at Nagrakata on Sunday”.

The police suspect that the remark was with reference to separate meetings convened by the state president and the rebels in Nagrakata on Sunday. “It is evident that the rebels will try to abort the meeting called by Tirkey to prove that he lacks support in the Dooars,” said a police officer.

Tirkey, who reached New Jalpaiguri by train today, said the rebels were trying to intimidate people by creating tension. “Our programmes will be held as scheduled. The onus is on the police to maintain law and order,” he said.