Vikas Parishad ready to joint movement to get the entire Dooars and Terai under set-up

Adivasi and Morcha leaders at the meeting in Nagrakata on Sunday. Picture by Biplab Basak Nov. 27: Rebel tribal leaders in north Bengal today said they would stand by the Mongpong agreement, indicating that the state leadership’s apparent flexibility and its divide-and-rule policy in dropping charges against four of the five dissidents had done little to make them change their stand. The five leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today sent out a message that they were ready to launch a joint movement to get the entire Dooars and Terai under an administrative set-up proposed for the hills. The state leadership of the Adivasi outfit led by Birsa Tirkey yesterday dropped all charges against four of the leaders but tried to isolate the fifth, John Barla, by announcing that a decision against him would be taken 20 days later. But the rebel five stuck together and announced that they would go ahead with the plan to join the Morcha for the development of the region. Parishad leaders from the organisational units in the Terai and the Dooars threw their full support behind the five rebels at European Club grounds in Jalpaiguri’s Nagrakata this afternoon. One after the other, the local leaders spoke of their support. Before today’s meeting started, Barla said the people of the region would no longer listen to the state committee leaders. “We are in touch with the central committee. The state committee has failed miserably to read the minds of the tribals in the Terai and the Dooars,” Barla said. Sharing the dais for the second time with the Parishad leaders after the October 30 agreement reached between the two sides at Mongpong, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said they would place their demands before the state and the Centre next month. “We will meet the chief minister and the Union home minister by the first week of December and demand the formation of a Gorkha Adivasi Territorial Administration (GATA) for the overall development of the hills and the plains. Today’s public meeting was necessary to send a clear message to our supporters that we are at one with our Adivasi brothers as far as the development of this region is concerned,” the Morcha general secretary said. Around 3,000 people from both the Gorkha and the Adivasi communities had gathered for the meeting held on the 136th birth anniversary of revolutionary tribal leader Birsa Munda. Morcha MLA from Kalimpong Harka Bahadur Chhetri said a lot now depended on Mamata Banerjee. “The earlier government hardly paid heed to any issue raised in north Bengal. The situation has changed now. The new chief minister is looking at the region with equal importance as the rest of the state. We are confident that she will hear and accept our demand for the formation of the GATA,” Chhetri said. The Parishad leaders also impressed upon its followers that the stand of state committee president Birsa Tirkey — that the Adivasis were not with the Morcha — was incorrect. “The negative stand of the state leadership had created some confusion among the Gorkhas as well as the Adivasis. We clarified our stand today and assured our people that we still stand by the Mongpong agreement. The presence of senior Morcha leaders has helped us a lot to drive home that point,” said Sukra Munda, the chairperson of the Parishad’s Progressive Tea Workers’ Union. Asked about the Morcha's renewed statehood agitation to be launched by its youth wing, Munda said: “The Morcha was free to agitate for the development of the hills, while in the Terai and the Dooars, the Parishad will have the last word.” Chhetri said the statehood agitation was being renewed by the Gorkha Janmukti Yuwa Morcha with the concurrence of the Morcha leadership. “The ultimate decision will, however, be taken by our central leadership on any matter,” Chhetri said.  TT