“Time for the BJP to start looking at our 2014-to date
the party’s organisational culture. In many. States we had made promises
we could not keep. Gorkhaland is top priority. Must make it a Union
Territory as promised,” the Rajya Sabha member tweeted in the morning.
The BJP had not promised a separate state of Gorkhaland or Union territory status for the Darjeeling hills.
“We
are committed to work towards finding a permanent political solution to
the issue of Darjeeling Hills, Siliguri, Terai and Dooars region,”
reads the 2019 general election manifesto by the BJP.
Swamy’s tweet has been hailed by most hill parties, but BJP leaders
in the plains were trying to distance themselves from it given the
sensitivity of the issue vis-à-vis politics of the rest of Bengal.
Bengal
BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who had in the past spoken against the
statehood demand, could not be contacted as several calls made to him
went unanswered. BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha declined comments.
A
senior Bengal BJP leader admitted that they were caught in an awkward
position and added that the party had “never mentioned that a Union
territory would be constituted to meet the demand of residents of the
Darjeeling hills”.
“This is something on which somebody in the
national leadership should comment. We had seen earlier that his
(Swamy’s) remarks left the party in an awkward position and it seems to
have happened again,” he added.
Neeraj Zimba, GNLF leader who won the recent Darjeeling Assembly bypoll on a BJP ticket, welcomed the tweet.
Another tweet to Swamy had questioned: “Sir if BJP makes Gorkhaland then whatever it has in Bengal will vanish!”
Swamy replied: “Gorkhaland is not being given to Pakistan. It will be still part of India like Bengal.”
https://www.telegraphindia.com
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