Mungpoo: Rally plan for statehood - Siliguri among venues of Morcha meetings

Mungpoo, Dec. 18: The youth wing of the Gorkha Janmuki Morcha today announced a series of public meetings to “strengthen its grassroots” and a signature campaign, as part of its statehood agitation.

The agitation programme till February unveiled at a Yuwa Morcha public meeting in Mungpoo does not have any strikes or blockades, though it includes a meeting in Siliguri.

The rallies in the hills are expected to be free of trouble, especially when the Morcha, jointly with the government, is trying its best to woo tourists to the hills.

The Darjeeling Tea and Tourism Festival has been lined up from December 20 till January 5 to extend the winter tourism, which is usually confined to the Christmas-New Year calendar.

But the meeting in Siliguri on January 29 might stoke up tension as in the past. Any attempt by the Morcha to hold a public event in Siliguri had been ruled out by the administration, on the fear that it would face local resistance.

Observers believe there will be no breach of peace if the Yuwa Morcha decides to hold the meeting in Pintail Village or any other place on the outskirts of Siliguri. “It all depends on the selection of the venue,” said an observer.

The youth wing’s posturing at the Mungpoo meet was more directed at the Centre. “We are trying to send a message to the Centre and they should take our agitation seriously. Else, this small agitation (today’s meeting) could turn out to be something unmanageable,” Yuwa Morcha general secretary Priyabardan Rai told the rally. “The Morcha cannot be fooled like other parties. In the past, hill leaders had accepted the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council only to see three new states of Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh being formed.”

Asha Gurung at the meeting in Mungpoo on Sunday. Picture by Suman Tamang

The Yuwa Morcha has lined up its public meetings in Kurseong on January 7 and Mirik on January 15. The Kalimpong rally will be held on January 22. The last meeting in this phase of the agitation will be in Darjeeling on February 5.

At the meeting, Rai said: “Our agitation will start by strengthening our grassroots and we will hold a series of public meetings across the hills. We have not yet forgotten the Sibchu firing (in which three Morcha supporters were killed) and the lathi-charge on our ex-servicemen (in Siliguri). “We will also start a signature campaign across the hills and the plains for a month from January 1 (for statehood).”

Party president Bimal Gurung and other senior Morcha leaders like Roshan Giri were absent from the Mungpoo rally. But prominent faces of the Nari Morcha, including Gurung’s wife Asha Gurung, were on the dais.

The Yuwa Morcha had announced its plan to renew the Gorkhaland movement on November 22 after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly passed a resolution for the division of state into four.

Jiten Rai, the vice-president of the Yuwa Morcha, said: “It must be understood that the demand of Gorkhaland is the oldest in the country; much older than the cry for Telangana.”

VIVEK CHHETRI

The Telegraph