OTHER LANDS

The “Gorkhaland” movement in the Darjeeling hills was always as much about identity as about territory. Subash Ghisingh once wanted parts of the Terai and the Dooars to be included in any administrative set-up for Darjeeling just as Bimal Gurung does now. Two factors have always been cited in support of this demand. First, the Terai and the Dooars are contiguous to Darjeeling and have sizeable Nepali-speaking populations. Second, any restructuring of Darjeeling’s territorial limits is supposed to be incomplete without an extension to the foothills. Mr Gurung has now come up with a rather specious argument in favour of the inclusion of the whole of the Terai-Dooars region in the proposed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. He argues that the region, inhabited mostly by adivasi people, is as economically backward as the Darjeeling hills. This is a bogus argument because several other areas of North Bengal are equally backward. Mr Gurung’s concern for the economic status of the adivasi people may be genuine. But his demand for the inclusion of the Terai-Dooars area in the GTA is primarily inspired by his ambition to have a separate Gorkhaland state. He clearly wants to prove to his followers that the Gorkhaland of his dream is not to be confined to the Darjeeling hills.

However, Mr Gurung’s dream is not necessarily good for the region’s peace and prosperity. It may not even be good for the adivasi people whom he is so anxious to woo. If anything, his move to link the whole of the Terai and the Dooars to the GTA may upset Mamata Banerjee’s plan for a new deal for Darjeeling. The chief minister kept her promise for Darjeeling by agreeing to the GTA within weeks of assuming office. Her government made other gestures too in order to restore peace and governance in Darjeeling. She also set up a committee to examine Mr Gurung’s demand for the inclusion of some of the adivasi-inhabited areas in the Terai and the Dooars in the GTA. Mr Gurung should have done nothing to force the issue before the committee completes its findings. Ms Banerjee obviously has to wait till the committee submits its report. She has to consider the political and other impacts of any territorial restructuring of the GTA. What Darjeeling needs are not ill-conceived bargains over territory but concrete plans of action for lasting peace and the economic rejuvenation of the region.

-TT