Morcha student threat - Ghisingh hill return faces hurdle...//Tea deadline...//Parishad poll list on Sunday

VIVEK CHHETRI

The rally organised by the Vidyarthi Morcha in Darjeeling on Thursday. Picture by Suman Tamang

( From The Telegraph)
Darjeeling, March 17: The student wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today vowed to stop GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh from returning to the Darjeeling hills, a threat which will, in all probability, be thwarted by the Election Commission.

The Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha has issued the threat, saying Ghisingh had spoiled the future of the students in the hills during his rule as the chairman of the DGHC.

Ghisingh had already announced that he would be camping in Darjeeling to campaign for the GNLF after publishing the names of the party’s candidates for the three hill seats on March 22.

“We are not concerned with the stand of our party (Morcha). The students of the hills will, however, stop him from coming to Darjeeling as he has spoiled the future of students during his rule,” Nima Sherpa, the spokesperson for the Vidyarthi Morcha, told a student rally here.

The rally was organised to protest the police firing at Sibchu last month, in which three Morcha supporters had been killed.

“Ghisingh’s return is being orchestrated by the state government and this is a conspiracy to create chaos in the hills. We will not tolerate such a move,” said Sherpa.

The Vidyarthi Morcha’s threat is unlikely to have any impact as the Election Commission has always ensured a level playing field for all parties during the polls.

Sources said the poll panel could take steps if such an atmosphere is not created.

The steps will range from the transfer of government officials who have failed to take action against those who tried to scuttle campaigns to the reprimand of the political party involved in the violation of the model code of conduct. “It has to be seen how seriously the students go ahead with the threat,” said an official.

Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the spokesman for the Morcha, had earlier said the party was not interested in scuttling Ghisingh’s return to his house along Dr Zakir Hussain Road in Darjeeling. He called the once powerful leader of the hills a “non entity”, probably aware of the Election Commission’s mode of operation.

Observers, too, believe that Ghisingh’s decision to climb up to the hills only after announcing the party’s candidates is a calculated move to force the administration into providing him with a safe passage.

“In this way, the administration will be duty bound to ensure his safe passage as he would then be seen as going to Darjeeling to canvass for the votes,” said an observer.

In fact, the GNLF had already written to the Election Commission, the inspector-general of police, north Bengal, and the Darjeeling police chief to ensure a congenial atmosphere in the hills for Ghisingh’s campaign.

The GNLF had chosen not to contest the last parliamentary elections in 2009 and Ghisingh stayed put at his rented residence in Jalpaiguri. He had to flee the hills on July 26, 2008, a day after a Morcha member had been killed by a bullet allegedly fired from the house of a GNLF leader. Since then, Ghisingh has not returned to Darjeeling.

Tea deadline

Darjeeling, March 17: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today set a deadline of March 31 for tea planters in Darjeeling to come up with a decision on the party’s demand for a hike in workers’ wages. The Morcha has been enforcing an embargo on the dispatch of the first flush of Darjeeling tea since March 4 to fulfil a charter of demands, including an increase in the wages from Rs 67 to Rs 120-150. “We have set a deadline of March 31 for the planters to come up with a decision as the present wage agreement expires on that day. Till then, the embargo on the movement of made-tea from the Darjeeling gardens will be in force,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, the spokesperson for the Morcha. The ultimatum came after no breakthrough could be achieved at a meeting between the Morcha and the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations — an apex body of all tea producers’ bodies in India — here today. The planters said it would be difficult to honour the deadline and no deal could be inked separately from Dooars and Terai gardens.

Parishad poll list on Sunday

BIRESWAR BANERJEE

Flexing muscles: A Parishad rally in Siliguri Siliguri, March 17: The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has decided to publish its candidate list for six Assembly constituencies in north Bengal on Sunday as the Congress is yet to ink a deal with the Trinamul Congress on seat sharing for the coming polls. The tribal outfit had earlier announced that it would fight from five seats in the Dooars and one in the Terai. But the party had said it would wait to see whether the Congress wanted to field candidates in any of these seats. “After holding talks with the Congress leaders in Delhi, we had declared that we would contest from five Assembly seats in the Dooars and Phansidewa in the Terai and extend support to the Congress-Trinamul alliance. Our supporters were excited about the decision, as if these candidates become MLAs, there will finally be a change in the socio-economic conditions of the community after decades of misery,” Tezkumar Toppa, the state general secretary of Parishad, said today. “However, the delay on their part to reach on a consensus on the seat sharing has left us concerned. As we cannot wait any more, we have started the selection process. Even if the two parties do not arrive at a decision, we will announce the names of the candidates for the six seats on Sunday,” said Toppa. The adivasis comprise more than 70 per cent of the voters in the six seats reserved for scheduled tribes. Kalchini, Kumargram, Birpara-Madarihat, Nagrakata and Malbazar are the five seats the Parishad plans to contest from in the Dooars. Leader arrested Rajesh Lakra, the secretary of Dooars-Tarai Adivasi Vikas Parishad, was arrested from his home in Nagrakata on Thursday morning and remanded in 14 days’ judicial custody in connection with two arson cases pending against him. The law caught up with the leader of the breakaway faction of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad after the Election Commission had instructed police to execute all arrest warrants before the polls.