Mamata’s Hills visit ploy to break GJMM

Kolkata, 20 October 
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s three-day visit to the Darjeeling hills from 23 October is mainly intended to steal the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha supremo Bimal Gurung’s thunder and neutralise his influence in the Hills the way she has tamed the Maoists in the Junglemahal area in south Bengal.
In a marked contrast to the CPI-M’s strategy to gain control of the Hills during the Red regime, Miss Banerjee is going ahead with her plan to break the backbone of the GJMM’s support base, engineer defection and dissension in its ranks and strengthen the ruling Trinamul Congress’ base in the hills. The CPI-M bought peace with the Gorkha National Liberation Front chief Subash Ghising by letting him enjoy power in the Hills in return for his support to the Marxist government.
The feelers sent by the three GJMM MLAs to the Trinamul and their meeting with the latter’s all-India general secretary Mukul Roy in Kolkata yesterday ostensibly seeking the state government’s cooperation for the development of the Hills are but signs of the undercurrent of tension and simmering discontent within the GJMM being fomented by the Trinamul using the state apparatus.
Reports indicate a schism is developing between Mr Gurung and his camp followers, including Mr Benoy Tamang (now behind the bars), the new chief of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) on the one hand and the three MLAs and Mr Roshan Giri, till lately a close confidant of Mr Gurung, on the other. Serious differences, sources said, have developed between the two groups on the question of whether the GJMM should make a strident pitch for a separate Gorkhaland state after the Central nod for the creation of the Telengana state.
While Mr Gurung passionately advocates separate Gorkhaland state in the midst of Miss Banerjee’s stiff opposition, his detractors in the party want to shelve the issue so that the GJMM can use the GTA as a tool for development. The latter believe neither the Centre nor the state would at this stage concede the statehood demand and advise the leadership to buy peace with Miss Banerjee and concentrate on development since the chief minister is aggressively pursuing the policy of slapping cases on GJMM leaders and activists in a bid to throw the GJMM into disarray.
Already, many GJMM activists are joining the Trinamul. Word is the chief minister is going to win over state employees and teachers supporting GJMM by offering them the option to join the Trinamul and avoid the disciplinary action of pay cut for participating in the GJMM’s call for staying away from work during the recent agitation for a separate state.
Some of the GJMM top leaders, it is learnt, are being intimidated with threats of arrest in cases, including the killing of Madan Tamang. And it is this section which is mounting pressure on Mr Gurung not to quit the GTA and play into the hands of the Trinamul chief who is bent on capturing the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat to further increase her bargaining power after the upcoming Lok Sabha poll.
Mr Gurung's latest Facebook post of 7 October insisting on dialogue rather than on violence to achieve statehood is a belated realisation of the threat Miss Banerjee is posing to the GJMM.(SNS)