CPRM calls for pan-India statehood movement

The Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist today called for a pan-India movement to achieve a separate Gorkhaland state even as it accused other political parties of the hills, including the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, of compromising with the statehood demand.

Speaking on the second day of the All India Left Coordination Committee (AILCC) programme at Chowk Bazaar, CPRM president RB Rai stressed the necessity of taking the statehood demand to other regions of the country to make inroads.

“The struggle for a Gorkhaland state should not be for only a handful of people or limited to the Darjeeling hills. The entire Gorkha community spread across the length and breadth of the country and abroad should reap the fruits of such a state. The need of the hour therefore, is to focus our activities in other parts of the country in order to achieve statehood,” the CPRM president said.

Rai said in the initial phase the party will organise a number of activities in the national capital.

“It must be remembered that Delhi is where things happen. We must not limit our statehood movement to the hills here but concentrate on Delhi instead,” he remarked.

Accusing the GJM of compromising with the statehood demand by going back to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to appease a belligerent state government, the CPRM chief said, “The Trinamool Congress is anti-Gorkhaland, the Congress has put on a dual face, while the BJP is under pressure from its Bengal unit. Despite these facts, the GJM has reverted to the GTA leaving the joint action committee for statehood in the lurch.”

The Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee (GJAC) was formed in August comprising nine outfits including the GJM and CPRM to take forward the statehood movement.

“The GJAC was formed with the understanding that the GJM would scrap the GTA. But the party broke the promise perhaps under pressure or to appease the TMC-led state government,” maintained Rai.

The CPRM had on Saturday held an indoor meeting of the AILCC to deliberate on the forthcoming Lok Sabha election keeping the statehood demand as the focal point of discussions. The party contesting the polls was also mulled over with support from AILCC constituent members from Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Karbi Anglong, Maharastra, Kolkata and Siliguri.

The CPRM rally today from the Railway Station to Chowk Bazaar culminated with a public meeting. The CPRM president also touched upon the issue of the illegal arrests of statehood activists saying the state government used terror tactics to curb the statehood voice.

“We are not in solidarity with the GJM, but the arrests of its activists have violated human rights and democratic norms, especially the transgression of clause 29 of the GTA accord,” said Rai.

He alleged the state government is using the police to snub the statehood demand.

“The state government is indulging in ‘tanaasahi’ as we are not even allowed to put up posters supporting the statehood cause. Political parties here are not being allowed to carry out their activities. As for this programme, we were given permission at the very last moment,” he said.

One of the speakers at the meeting was Uday Bhatt, general secretary of the Maharashtra-based Lal Nishan Party. He lauded the CPRM’s efforts and promised to extend all possible support to the Gorkhaland demand.

“Today’s meeting could be the turning point in the politics of the hills as the actual demand for statehood will now be raised. Visitors to the hills only harp on the region’s beauty and the Kanchenjunga. But I will take the Gorkhaland demand back and ensure it reverberates in Maharashtra. Our party will extend all possible support,” said Bhatt.

Other AILCC members also echoed Bhatt and promised full cooperation to the CPRM in taking forward the statehood demand.(EOIC)