1. Nandigram on the eve of the Panchayet Elections - A MASUM report
2. They insist your show must be cancelled! - cultural coercion in a post-Nandigram Bengal

Nandigram on the eve of the Panchayet Elections - A MASUM report
May 10, 2008. Click here for a cartoon of today’s Nandigram!

On getting information of the continuing disturbances and police inaction in Nandigram, our fact finding team reached violence-torn Nandigram today and has gathered shocking information from the villagers. Since last night musclemen and goons alleged to be supporters of the largest ruling party CPI(M) flaunting red flags resorted to bloody violence in the area. These miscreants snatched away voter identity cards of many villagers and beat them mercilessly even on the mere suspicion of not being supporters of the ruling party. As a result of pre-poll clashes, at least 11 to 15 persons including women were admitted in Nandigram Block Primary Health Centre in critically injured condition.

The fact finding team has found that about 1000 to 1500 persons of village Kalicharanpur (Booth no.148 to 155) were robbed of their voter identity cards in the hands of the goons of the ruling party. Sk. Mojaffar, Giyasuddin Ali Shah, Sk. Malek , Sk. Rajjak, Sahauddin Shah, Saibul Shah, Samad Shah, Sk Basir, Amar Khatua, Mriganka Majhi were among other goons who masterminded and carried the operation in the area at the instance of the ruling political party. Moreover hundreds of villagers of Sonachura Gram Panchayat (Booth no.168 to 176), Gokulnagar Gram Panchayat, Bhangabera Gram Panchayat were also not free from such incidents.

Today at about 11 a.m. in the morning hundreds of villagers whose voter identity cards were forcibly taken away, gathered at the office of the Block Development Officer, Nandigram in order to ventilate their grievance and seeking permission to cast their votes after loosing their voter identity cards in the hands of the cadres and goons of the ruling party. But without any provocation Mr. Debashish Chakraborty, Officer in Charge of Nandigram Police Station with Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel conducted lathi-charge upon the innocent gathering of the people.

The fact finding team of MASUM also visited Nandigram Block Primary Health Centre at about 12 o’clock today i.e.10/5/2008. At that time Mr. N. Saha, Superintendent of Police, West Bengal Human Rights Commission along with Deputy Superintendent of Police and other police officers were also present in the said hospital. They came to meet one Ms. Malati Jana of Satengabari village, a sexually abused victim who was admitted in the hospital on 5/5/2008. But those officers refused to meet with other victims including another sexually abused victim, Ms. Radharani Ari who was accompanying with our fact finding team at that time there.

The series of incidents in Nandigram showed that the free and fair election process is seriously hampered and the ruling party goons are moving freely to scare the voters. All these repressive acts are done in presence of police and administration. It is further shocking and serious event before the election of Gram Panchayat that voter identity cards have been snatched from a large number of people and such maverick incident is defeat to the democratic practice of the society and freedom of expression and thought and belief of the citizens.

The atrocities on victims of recent incidents in Nandigram have not been redressed nor did the administration or police take any initiative to deliver justice in future to the tortured victims.

Just now 2-30 p.m., we find in Nandigram Block Primary Health Center that six injured persons have reached to with two persons having serious bullet injuries. Many bodies are lying in the fields as reported. The officer-in-charge of Nandigram and the Superintendent of Police, Mr. S. Panda of East Midnapur have actually joined with the party goons and under their direction the bodies are prevented to be carried in the hospital.

Under such situation, we severely condemn the conniving acts of the police and the party goons in Nandigram. The left rule has introduced ugly fascist trend and terror. The voters whose identity cards have been snatched must be allowed to vote so that they can exercise their right to franchise in the election. The goons involved in attacking people and perpetrating torture on them in a systematic manner in connivance with a section of police and administration must be apprehended and prosecuted on urgent basis under the penal law. The biased and partisan police officers and administrative officers must be prosecuted and detached from the election process. Numbers of neutral election observers in Nandigram are required to be deputed to see that free and fare election is conducted there. The voters should be given adequate security and safety. Legal proceedings must be initiated against the offenders and conspirators. Now, at Nandigram, the lawlessness is complete by dictum of ruling party and police administration. The right to life and dignity of the villagers are under attack.

We have already filed complaint with State Election Commissioner, Home Secretary, Chief Secretary, DG&IGP of West Bengal by fax and lodged complaint with NHRC and WBHRC.

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Intellectuals to shack up at Nandigram

May 10, 2008

The first phase of Panchayat elections takes off at Nandigram on Sunday.

For the first time, a group of intellectuals from West Bengal will shack up at this controversial place of East Midnapore from Saturday to try and prevent ’state government-sponsored’ violence in the area during polls.

The group consists of filmmaker-cum-journalist Aparna Sen, painters Suvaprasanna and Shipra Bhattacharya, thespians Shaonli Mitra, Kaushik Sen, Manish Mitra et al.

A couple of days back, the same group had taken out a silent procession in protest against the ’slaughter of democracy’ in Nandigram.

Needless to say, these thinking brains of Bengal have lost faith in the government machinery and they fear ‘unprecedented bloodshed will mar the Panchayat elections.
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They insist your show must be cancelled! - cultural coercion in a post-Nandigram Bengal

By Tapas Sinha. Translated by Suvarup Saha, Sanhati

The phonecall came on the 10th of April. One of the organizers of the Champdanga Theatre Festival was on the line. On the receiving end was thespian Koushik Sen, who has been active in the civil society movement of Nandigram.

“We will not be able to host your play. There’s pressure from the party. Look, I am also an activist of the party. But there are others here and some of them are very rough. And they insist that we should not allow you to perform here.”

This invited performance of Bonkubabu-r Bondhu – a Swapno-Sondhani production - was supposed to be held in Champdanga on 17th April. Incredibly, even a Satyajit Ray short story smacks of politics and treason these days. Advance payment for the show had been made by the festival committee on 7th April. This is not an exception; the number of invited performances of ‘Swapno-Sondhani’ in and around Kolkata has declined drastically in recent months.

Let’s go back to 10th December, 2006. The theatre group ‘Pancham Baidik’ organized a protest meeting against Singur atrocities, outside the Academy of Fine Arts. An open Letter was sent to the chief minister demanding concrete information on the issue. It was signed by many citizens. On 24th December ‘Pancham Baidik’ was supposed to perform at a theatre festival in Bansberia, near Kolkata. But one of the organizers asked director Arpita Ghosh to replace their production Poshu Khamar (a Bengali adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm) with ‘something else’.

The cause of the request was some ‘external pressure’.

Since the director declined to acquiesce, Poshu Khamar was cancelled on 20th December. One of the organizing committee members complained that a theatre group has no business in getting into all this ‘protest stuff’. Arpita had demanded for a written reason of cancellation of the show. The organizers never got back to her.

On 21st December, 2006 there was an invited performance of Poshu Khamar. After the first half was done, one of the organizers rushed to the green room and blurted that it was a ‘very dangerous drama’ and ‘there can be law and order problems anytime’. After the Nandigram incidents, one officer in charge of a government theatre house asked Arpita Ghosh if their production had any references to Singur-Nandigram.

November 2007. Just after the successful ‘Nandigram Recapture’, theatre person Debshankar Halder received a call from a Bakreshwar based theatre festival committee. They wanted to know if their production Furut had any political message or reference. Debshankar retorted that it was an Upendrakishore Roychoudhury story, the question of contemporary politics here was ridiculous. After a few days, another call. “Please tell us if there’s Singur-Nandigram in the play. Rumors are flying here and there may be trouble… “. Debshankar tells us that the queries were made with complete decency and humility.

‘Belghoria Ethic’, in association with a century-old library hall, had been producing plays for the last 6 years. Last year, after the 14th March 2007 massacre at Nandigram, Ethic was instrumental in consolidating the indignant voices into a ‘Anti-Genocide Citizens Forum’.

They arranged a convention in Belghoria on this issue. They even produced a play in protest called ‘Pokay Kaata E Duhsamay’ (This Moth-Eaten Time). Within a few days, the Library authority informed Ethic in writing that all the associated theatre groups needed to discuss their productions first with them. They also wanted written word from Ethic that they would indulge in no further ‘political activity’. Ethic was not prepared to budge. This ended the long-standing relationship of five and a half years. Presently Ethic is renting the same library hall to stage their plays. With a difference.

The rent is almost as astronomical as a premier Kolkata hall like the ‘Shishir Mancha’.

Ethic used to arrange its rehearsal sessions in a local school in Belghoria. They were soon informed that the group was henceforth unwelcome. They were advised not to oppose the party. After their recent play Sthanakan, about the contemporary issues, was staged, ‘well-wishers’ of the members of the group visited their respective homes and advised them to part ties with the group. Debashish Sengupta of Ethic says that even their regular audience is being ‘advised’ to stay away from their shows.

Let us now look at what theatre personality Bratya Basu has to say. One organizer of a theatre group, in which Bratya also acts, requested him not to speak outside about Singur-Nandigram for sometime. All that the poor fellow wanted was not to lose call-shows! But this was nothing new. In fact in 2003, Bratya’s Winkle-Twinkle (a satire on the present state of affairs of the West Bengal CPIM) was barred from being staged at the last moment at Ashoknagar. Even now, Bratya’s Krishnagahvar (Black Hole) is not getting show requests.

Anirban Bhattacharya of the group Drishyapat has a different tale to tell. An actor playing the central protagonist of their play was a Naxalite at one time. Anirban was summoned by a governmental department a number of times to explain the screenplay of this production. And finally he was asked to change quite a few places of the script. Anirban, who was once an SFI activist, declined to budge. In the last one year Drishyapat never got an invitation to perform.

Last year, around April, Kasba Arghya was requested to stage their production Pandabanee from the drama department of a Kolakata-based University. The play was stopped in the middle under the pretext of a time crunch. Just a month before, the group was actively involved in protesting the Nandigram massacres and the creation of a cultural – intellectual solidarity group. Arghya’s Manish Mitra informed us that from last November till January, they hardly got three call shows. The show requests have gone down drastically.

Debesh Chattapadhyay of ‘Sansriti’ informed us that they are hardly getting any government run theatre halls for staging their productions. In the last three years they never managed a booking of Rabindrasadan, the premier theatre hall in Kolkata. They had captured the Aamlashol deaths in their production ‘Cadavarous’. The last show of ‘Fyatadu’ at Rabindra Sadan was way back in 2004. Now they are staging ‘Fandigram’. Till now, there has been only two shows of this drama being staged. An old activist of the DYFI, Debesh is pretty sure that they cannot continue to perform ‘Fandigram’ for long. They are seeing a real dip in number of invited shows in recent months.

Vocal protests against Singur-Nandigram incidents, resignation from the ‘Natya Academy’ has put Bibhas Chakraborty in a precarious situation. The number of ‘call-shows’ are dwindling. To quote Bibhas “..We are pretty certain now that we will not be getting any more show requests outside Kolkata. So, all our performances will be limited to Kolkata. If anyone dares to call us, they themselves will land in trouble…’’.

The theatre-festival committees, who for long have been patronizing these theatre groups, are backing out. Whatever financial difficulties that the groups incur when they stage a new production are somewhat compensated by the invitational performances. But this is no longer a viable mode of operation for some ‘marked’ groups. A few theatre persons are being targeted. Theatre personality Suman Mukhopadhyay terms all this as ‘old tactics’. Screening of his film ‘Herbert’ was stopped at Nandan in similar fashion.

Yes, the tactics are really old. A renewed version of the British ‘Drama Regulator Act’ was once invoked by the first chief minister of West Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Ray. Copies of 59 plays produced by the ‘Indian Peoples Theatre Association’ were scrutinized by the government. Bidhan Ray detailed this list on 10th November 1953 in response to a question asked by Jyoti Basu, Monikuntala Sen, Monoranjan Hazra.

Goons who used to terrorize people by bombing theatre halls where Utpal Dutta enacted ‘Duswapner Nagari’ (City of Nightmares) would probably have been put to shame by the present form of cutural terrorism.

This article first appeared in The Anandabazar Patrika

While the communists came to power there on the basis of broad and popular public support, over the years they have resorted to bullying, intimidation and scare tactics to remain in power. This has been the history of West Bengal for at least two decades now.

Of course, as is wont to happen, they got cocksure and complacent, and Nandigram happened. Nandigram exposed to the world what people’s power in West Bengal was all about. The communists characteristically tried to bluster their way out, and even succeeded to a large extent. But the ghosts of Nandigram refuse to go away. Here’s an article, a first-hand account of a journalist there. And here’s a video of a telephone spat between the local commie MP and the CRPF DIG. The MP apparently tried to intimidate the CRPF DIG into staying in his camp – obviously so as to allow his boys to carry on their bullying tactics unhindered. With the communists in power for decades now, the state administration is obviously a tool to carry out the party’s diktats. A central paramilitary force, however, is another kettle of fish, and far more difficult to intimidate. They still might succeed in intimidating the weak central government, though. Karat and Yechury need to up their histrionics in Delhi and threaten to withdraw support for this to happen. Which they predictably will! And an officer who tried to do his job will probably have his service record blighted and be shunted to some obscure posting.

Now the commies want the CRPF out of the area, saying the CRPF is not needed there. We can be sure that once the CRPF is out of there, the “boys” will resume their looting, pillaging and raping.

And let us not be fooled into thinking that Nandigram is an aberration. No, Nandigram was only the aberration that got caught…….there are thousands of other Nandigrams in West Bengal where the rights of poor, helpless citizens are trampled under the metaphorical jackboots of communist goons.

Yes, it is amazing how the communists have kept their real image hidden from all of us for so long. And how they continue to manage to do so, courtesy a fawning and conniving media, all the while surreptitiously undermining every fundamental right and every liberal tradition worth preserving.

The Hindu : Front Page : Kolkata Raj Bhavan opts for power cut

The Raj Bhavan observed voluntary power cuts for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening here on Wednesday in view of a decision by Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi that it need not be an exception to the citys electricity supply situation.

Jokes aside, I have veard some great things about this Governor and specifically his columns on Nandigram. He seems to be incredibly progressive.

Enough is enough: Bengal governor

The ardour of Deepavali has been dampened in the whole state by the events in Nandigram. Several villages in Nandigram are oscillating from the deepest gloom to panic. Large numbers of armed persons from outside the district, have, it is undeniable, forced themselves onto villages in Nandigram Block I and II for territorial assertion.

While the developing world is still looking to cater to the basic needs so that people do not become non-existent, the world on the other side of the spectrum is catering to the exquisite needs of the non-existent.

Monster.com Founder Starts Social Networking Site for the Dead

Tributes.com is scheduled for a soft launch in June. It aims to provide a central location to house online memorials for those who have passed on. It's starting with $4.3 million in funding, with The Wall Street Journal as a lead investor.

Isn't this amazing. You can build ghosthouse online. This has to be the best thing that ever happened to humankind since toasted bread.

So inconsolable was the 28-year-old woman that she refused a sari proffered by a police party, following which she was again beaten up in front of the law-enforcers by the political mob, the witnesses added.

The CPM denied such an incident had taken place, and the police said no one was beaten in their presence.

Wild charges do fly when elections are round the corner — the panchayat polls begin on May 11 — but the woman and several people who spoke provided graphic details and a doctor said her body was covered with bruises.

According to the witnesses, around 8am on Monday, about 50 CPM supporters came to Keyakhali village, which houses many people who back the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee that was at the forefront of the campaign against land acquisition in Nandigram.

The group entered the house of Debashish Jana, 35, a farm labourer, and forced him and his eight-year-old son Sanjoy to join a CPM procession. The woman — Jana’s wife —protested, following which the intruders pounced on her and ripped off her sari, blouse and petticoat. Then they rained blows on her.

“I was stripped. My only fault was protesting against the manner in which my husband and son were forced to join the procession,” said the woman, now in Nandigram block hospital. Her husband and son could not be traced after they were dragged to the procession.

While being beaten, the woman rushed out of the house naked and started running towards Brindabanchowk, around 500 metres away. The intruders then chased her in a throwback to last year’s outrage in Guwahati where an adivasi girl was stripped and assaulted. The witnesses said the pursuers kept hurling bombs to keep the villagers at bay.

As the woman approached Brindabanchowk, a police patrol halted in front of her, Shankar Das, a 30-year-old farmer, said.

“The policemen asked for a sari from a house and gave it to the woman. But she was angry and cried inconsolably, refusing to accept the sari. By this time, the CPM workers had caught up with her. In front of the policemen, she was slapped and beaten with lathis,” Shankar said.

Ashutosh Das, 38, a neighbour who had followed the woman, was assaulted.

Eventually, some women supporters of the CPM intervened. “The women came out from houses belonging to CPM supporters and asked the party workers to leave. I had by then hidden behind a bush. They took me to a house and gave me some clothes,” the woman said.

The women then told the police to take the victim to hospital. “The police took me and Ashutosh Das into the jeep. But they ordered us to get down at Tekhali bridge (about 3km away). From there we took a trekker to the hospital,” the woman added.

The doctor on duty, Susmita Pal, said: “The woman has injuries all over her body. We are treating her.” The block medical officer of Nandigram, Subhabrata Maity, added: “The bruises and swellings indicate she was beaten.”

Paritosh Das, 30, a helper in a bus; Motehar Ali, 25, a farm labourer from adjoining Jambari who was passing through Keyakhali; and Meghnad Mondal, 35, a farm labourer from Brindabanchowk, corroborated the woman’s account.

The police confirmed that a complaint of stripping had been “received”. “We have received a complaint that a woman was stripped and beaten up. We are investigating the matter,” the superintendent of police, S.S. Panda, said.

But he denied any police patrol was at Brindabanchowk when the alleged attack took place.

An East Midnapore district secretariat member of the CPM, Ashok Guria, said such an incident did not occur. “The Trinamul Congress had earlier brought charges of rape against CPM workers but nothing has been proved. Now they have started a new trick. The woman might have had a fall.”

CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar, too, denied party activists’ involvement. [The Telegraph]

Tourists should not visit Darjeeling - the popular hill station of West Bengal - this summer due to unrest!Darjeeling hills have come alive with fresh demands for a separate state for the Gorkha people, with protests threatening tea and tourism industries.

West Bengal Urban development minister, the Don of Marxist gestapo in North Bengal warned amidst High Voltage Tension in Hills with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha declaring separatist agenda. 

We all know the incidents in nandigram where the ruling Left Front depeneded on Laxman Seth. CPIM not only gave Seth freehand to acqire land for a Chemical Hub for notorius Salem group in Indonesia allied with Dows, the specialists of Chemical warfare. We all know the results.

But the Gorkhaland issue happens to be more suicidal not only for the ruling Hegemony in Bengal , but also for the nationstate India. Indian Foreign Policy always has been dictated by US Imperialism after the disintegration of Soviet Union. We have virtually no friends in neighbourhood. Particularly, Indian ruling class did its best to try for the impossibl survival of Hindu monarchy in Nepal. New delhi never had the vision to see the wall writing and at last the Maoist romped home with landslide Victory.

Mind you, Naxal Bari insurrection failed not politically, but militarily. Indian statepower had the deadly strikepower to crush the maoist Insurrection. Even in North east, the insurgency is dealt with some trouble because the Militants have hardly any lifeline as they enjoy in Kashir or they enjoyed in Punjab. The scenerio has changed. Naxalites had no outside help. Naxal leadersd visited china and china did not oblige.

In the Himalayan region, it has to be noted, Gurkhas, Kumaoonies, garwalies, Nagas and other militant nationalities do happen as the supply line of manpower in Indian Defence forces. you may get so many of them expert in Military affairs. If they get a lifeline opened via Nepal, thgey are militarily capable for playing Havoc this time. forget seventies and eighties. This awesome challange is underestimated by Delhi as well as Kolkata. The marxist Gestapo is well equipped to crush any popular Insurrection like nandigram, true. But it is not well efficient to cope with any Military Challange. The maoist have proved that  in different parts of Bengal.Even the statepower has to face unwanted complications to deal with Civil war like situation in Mid himalaya zone as it is already engaged in Kashmir and entire North East. Since Independence, Indian State never addressed the nationality issue and always opted for Military solution like continuing AFPSA alon the Himalayan zone. rather the tried to sort out the problems relating Nationality movements in three parts of mainstream India. The Ruling class led by Sangh Pariwar, the torch bearer of Hindu Nation, created three minor states to dilute nationality Movement in Jharkhand, chhattish gargh and Uttarakhand.But the Ruling class have miserably failed as the Nationality movement continues in all the three states led by Maoists!

It is quite a vague affair why the Ruling marxist Hegemony depend so much on gestapo Heads like laxman Seth and Ashok Bhattachary?

Thus, the Ruling marxist Hegemony neglecting central advice for dialogue, treats the Hills, Gorkhland a foreign territory. The situation is well fit for another Armed Forces Special Power act zone as the State Power is well accustomed of. Bizarrely, it was a television show, India’s version of American Idol, that lit the fire of Gorkhaland in September, two decades after the end of an insurgency among ethnic Nepalis in eastern India that left more than 1,200 people dead.Frenzied canvassing for a local boy, ethnic Nepali, or Gorkha, policeman Prashant Tamang, metamorphosised into a political upsurge that has ushered in a new king of the hills. Politician Bimal Gurung surfed the wave of ethnic pride unleashed by the television contest and now is hoping it will carry his people towards Gorkhaland, a separate state carved out of West Bengal they have been demanding for many decades.

“We are anticipating political unrest revolving around the fast-till-death resolution of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) supporters starting Thursday in demand of organising political meetings and rallies at Siliguri town in Darjeeling district. Tourists are requested not to visit Darjeeling this summer, or else they will have to face problems like scarcity of water, black outs and frequent road blockades,” Bhattacharya told IANS.

“The GJM supporters led by Bimal Gurung have asked the hill people to stop paying all taxes, electricity and telephone bills. So there is every possibility that the communication between the hills and the plains in the district will suffer,” he added.

The morcha supporters want complete statehood for Darjeeling instead of a Sixth Schedule status that has granted greater autonomy for the region since 2005.

Gurung was expelled from Subash Ghisingh’s Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) for “anti-party” activities.

“This is the last fight,” the 44-year-old Gurung said. “Till the last drop of my blood, I will fight this battle until we have a Gorkhaland state for the Gorkhas.” The green, white and yellow flags of his Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) fly from homes, shops and cars all around Darjeeling and nearby towns, bunting criss-crosses above the main streets.

In what would only add to the state government’s trouble on the Darjeeling Hill issue, the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha has called for non-payment of all sorts of central and state taxes including the BSNL telephone and electricity bills across the Hills from 1 May.
The GJMM’s call to boycott taxes comes as a mark of protest to the state government’s persistent de-nial in allowing the GJMM to hold a public rally in Sil-iguri in favour of its Go-rkhaland demand.
The Hill party has also called for an indefinite hunger strike on the same issue from 1 May, which is to be simultaneously carried out in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Siliguri and the Dooars.

In December 2007, the Central Government deferred the consideration by Parliament of a Constitution Amendment Bill to create an autonomous self-governing Gorkha Hill Council in Darjeeling reportedly under pressure from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The government has referred the Bill to a Parliamentary Standing Committee as demanded by the opposition.

GNLF launched the agitation for a separate state in 1980, but dropped the demand for Sixth Schedule after New Delhi agreed to confer partial autonomy in 1988 for the Nepalese-speaking people.

Meanwhile,Vete-ran Naxalite leader and the CPI-ML general secretary, Mr Kanu Sanyal has come down heavily on the state government for persistent-tly denying permission to the Gorkha Jan Mukti M-orcha for holding a public rally in Siliguri.
“This is completely an undemocratic decision and the way the CPI-M led state government is beha-ving, it feels like as if we are living in an autocracy,” the Naxal veteran said today.
Terming the denial to GJMM to hold a public rally in Siliguri as a CPI-M ploy to ‘incite communal tension’, Mr Sanyal alleged that the ruling party was ‘trying to exploit’ the issue for electoral gains in the ensuing panchayat polls in the state.
“I don’t think that the sky would break upon if the GJMM holds a public rally in Siliguri. If the administration is apprehensive of a law and order situation in view of such a meeting, it can always de-ploy additional force to ward off the same. But by making law and order an excuse, the democratic right of peaceful gathering can never be curbed,” Mr Sanyal said.
Carrying on his criticism at the CPI-M, Mr Sanyal alleged that the CPI-M ru-led Siliguri Municipal Corporation had also denied the CPI-ML to organise a public meeting at the Baghajatin Park in Siliguri on 23 April, despite the fact that a permission was sought almost a week before.
“In that case, we had organised the meeting right at the Venus More in the town. It resulted in public inconvenience, but we had no other option to give a befitting replying to the autocratic gesture,” the CPI-ML general secretary said.
Announcing the boycott in a Press conference at the DGHC resort ‘Pintail Village’ in Siliguri this afternoon, the GJMM president Mr Bimal Gur-ung said, the tax and bill boycott program would continue unless and until the state government granted the GJMM permission for a rally in Siliguri.
Adding further on the issue, the Darjeeling Hill’s new strongman said, in ca-se of telephone bills, the b-oycott would be applicable only to the BSNL landpho-ne, while the state-run telecom giant’s mobile services would be spared.
Reacting to a query as what would happen if the power-supplying agency disconnected the lines due to non-payment of the bills, Mr Gurung said: “In that case, we would cut off the main supply lines that carry power to the plains from the various power plants located in the Hills.”
Alleging that it was the state urban development minister and the Siliguri MLA, Mr Asok Bhatt-ach-arya who was actually instrumental in not allowing a GJMM rally in Siliguri, the GJMM president cautioned that if the state government does not budge from its stand, the people of the Hills would come out on the streets and thus a grave law and order situation would be created.
Mr Gurung also deman-ded that the state urban development minister sh-ould seek a public apo-lo-gy for allegedly referring the Hill people as ‘foreigners’.
“Instead of making indirect comment that he has not termed the Hill people ‘foreigners’, let Mr Bhattacharya seek a public apology for the remark and once he does that, he would be free to move anywhere in the Hills and carry out public meetings,” Mr Gurung said. Referring to the proposed indefinite strike slated for 1 May, the GJMM president today said, in case of Siliguri, the fasting venue would be the Siliguri SDO office campus. Earlier, the party was planning to organise the Siliguri leg of the hunger strike near Darjeeling More in the town.
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung  threatened to blackout Siliguri by disrupting work at the hydro-electric plants in the hills that feed the trade hub’s power lines.In Darjeeling, Morcha secretary Roshan Giri said the party had postponed its march to Calcutta with 10,001 supporters. It will be held after May 25, when the matches of the Indian Premier League get over.Tourists to the hill town had to make last-minute changes to their travel plans today as taxi syndicates in Darjeeling decided to take a large part of the day off to espouse the cause of Gorkhaland.

With the party's stakes high in the next month's panchayat elections in West Bengal, the CPI(M) on Tuesday said 'anti-Marxist forces' were ganging up to thwart it and the Left Front to retain control in the zilla parishads and the panchayats.

"The Polit Bureau heard a report on the forthcoming panchayat elections in West Bengal. All anti-Marxist forces are combining in a mahajot (grand alliance) to fight the Left Front," Karat told reporters after a Polit Bureau meeting.

His comment came in the backdrop of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, BJP and other opposition forces in the state striking ground-level adjustments in several districts for the three-tier panchayat polls, though Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was against a tie-up with Congress or the BJP.

The CPI(M) has already alleged that the Trinamool Congress had links with Maoists in Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapur and Birbhum districts.

He said the Politburo strongly condemned the killings of CPI(M) cadre, and activists by Maoists.

"What is most disturbing in the panchayat election campaign is that the self-styled Maoists have now started killing important cadres and activists," he said, adding that 13 had been killed this year.

With Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year, the panchayat elections are crucial in the Left-ruled state where the Marxists dominate most of the zilla parishads and gram panchayats and panchayat samities with a stronghold in the countryside.

Subash Ghisingh also took his rivals’ line in demanding Gorkhaland, trying to pave the way for a comeback to Darjeeling a day before putting in his papers as the hill council’s caretaker administrator. His party, the GNLF, had been harping on statehood since it realised how the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was making use of it to muster support.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Ghisingh’s “subject” reads: “Carving out separate state of Gorkhaland within the framework of Constitution of India.”

Meanwhile, the man who has earned the wrath of the Morcha the most urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharjee appealed to the agitating hill leaders to come to the negotiating table both with the centre and the state. He said agitations and violence would not solve problems and pointed out that the state chief minister was always ready for a dialogue. The minister has become persona non grata in Darjeeling because he called the Morcha leaders ‘outsiders’. The minister was elected from North Bengal and is in charge of CPI (M) affairs in the hill district.

Gorkaland is the name given to the area around Darjeeling and the Duars in north West Bengal in India. Residents of the area, mostly Gorkhas have long demanded a separate state for themselves to preserve their Nepali identity and to improve their socio-economic conditions.

Historically, Darjeeling and its surrounding terai areas formed a part of the then Kirat kingdom called Bijaypur. After the disintegration of the Bijaypur kingdom, it fell to Sikkim and Bhutan. From 1790-1816, Darjeeling and its immediate contiguous area were overrun by the Gorkhas of Nepal. After the Anglo Nepalese War (1814-1815), Treaty of Sigauli was signed between the Gorkhas and the East India Company. Darjeeling was wrested back from the Gorkhas of Nepal by the Britishers and handed back to the Sikkimese after the Treaty of Titaliya. In 1835, Col Llyod became the representative of East India Company for Darjeeling. During his tenure Darjeeling was annexed into the British India Empire. However the original map of Darjeeling came into existence only after the induction of Kalimpong and Duars area after the Anlgo-Bhutanese war of 1864 (Treaty of Sinchula). Darjeeling as we know of today was organised in 1866. The ethnic identity "Gorkha" comes from the district of Gorkha within Nepal which was the kingdom of the Prithvi Narayan Shah.

By the start of the twentieth century, Gorkhas made a modest socio-economic advance through government service, and a small anglicized elite developed among them. Following this in 1907, the first ever demand for “a separate administrative setup” for the District of Darjeeling was placed before the British government by the “leaders of the hill people”. The “Hill people” here referred to the Lepchas, Bhutias and the Gorkhas. Their main reason for doing so was the superior attitude of the Brown Sahibs (from Dhaka and Calcutta) shown towards the people of the hills and their growing sense of insecurity against the educated hordes of the plain. The demand was ignored. In 1917 the Hillmen's Association came into being and petitioned for the administrative separation of Darjeeling in 1917 and again in 1930 and 1934. In 1923 the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (All India Gorkha League) was formed at Dehradun.It soon spread to Darjeeling. On 15 May 1943, All India Gorkha League came into existence in Darjeeling. It gained additional support after World War II with the influx of ex-soldiers from the Gurkha regiments who had been exposed to nationalist movements in Southeast Asia during service there.

On 19 December 1946, the party's heart and soul, D.S. Gurung even made a plea in the Constitution Hall before the Constituent Assembly for recognition of Gorkhas as a minority community "Sir, the demand of the Gurkhas is that they must be recognized as a minority community and that they must have adequate representation in the Advisory Committee that is going to be formed. When the Anglo-Indians with only 1 lakh 42 thousand population have been recognized as a minority community, and Scheduled Castes among the Hindus have been recognized as a separate community, I do not see any reason why Gurkhas with 30 lakhs population should not be recognized as such."

But leaders within its own ranks such as Randhir Subba, were not satisfied with this meagre demand. Soon after the death of D.S. Gurung, Randhir Subba raised the demand for a separate state within the framework of the Indian Constitution called Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand could be comprised of the following options.

Darjeeling district only or
Darjeeling district and Sikkim only or
Darjeeling district, Sikkim, Jalpaiguri, Dooars and Coochbehar or
Darjeeling district, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar
This movement was discussed even by the masses. Initially Randhir Subba was in favor of a militant movement but was dissuaded by other leaders. Sadly the movement never gained momentum as its leaders were moblised to other purposes.

On April 6, 1947, two Gorkhas Ganeshlal Subba and Ratanlal Brahmin members of the undivided CPI (Communist Party of India) submitted a Quixotic memorandum to Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Vice President of the Interim Government for the creation of Gorkhasthan – an independent country comprising of the present day Nepal, Darjeeling District and Sikkim (excluding its present North District). The demand was more of an attention seeker. It never was genuine.

During the 1940s, the Communist Party of India (CPI) organized Gorkha tea workers. In presentations to the States Reorganisation Commission in 1954, the CPI favored regional autonomy for Darjeeling within West Bengal, with recognition of Nepali as a Scheduled Language. The All India Gorkha League preferred making the area a union territory under the Central government. In all from the 1950's to the 1985, first the CPI (1954), then the Congress (1955), then the triumvirate of Congress, CPI and AIGL (1957), then the United front (1967 & 1981), then again Congress (1968) and finally CPI(M) 1985 dangled along with the carrot of Regional Autonomy for Darjeeling

Gorkhaland movement
The Gorkhaland movement has its roots in the demand of Gorkhas living in Darjeeling district and Duars of West Bengal and the aspirations of all Gorkhas within India and abroad, who see India as their motherland, for a separate state for themselves, within the constitutional framework of India. The Gorkhaland National Liberation Front which led the movement in the 1980's, was the first party ever to use the proper noun Gorkhaland for the desired dream. The movement disrupted the district with massive violence between 1986 and 1988. The issue was resolved, at least temporarily, in 1988 with the establishment of the Darjiling Gorkha Hill Council within West Bengal.

The Gorkhaland movement distinguished Darjeeling Gorkhas from nationals of Nepal legally resident in India, from Nepali-speaking Indian citizens from other parts of the country, and even from the majority in neighboring Sikkim, where Nepali is the official language. The movement was emphatic that it had no desire to separate from India, only from the state of West Bengal. Gorkhaland supporters therefore preferred to call the Gorkhas' language Gorkhali rather than Nepali, although they did not attempt to claim there is any linguistic difference from what other people call Nepali. The 1981 census of India, whether in deference to this sentiment or for some other reason, called the language Gorkhali/Nepali . However, when the Eighth Schedule of the constitution was amended in 1992 to make it a Scheduled Language, the term Nepali alone was used.

In 1986 the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front, having failed to obtain a separate regional administrative identity from Parliament, again demanded a separate state of Gorkhaland. The party's leader, Subhash Ghising, headed a demonstration that turned violent and was severely repressed by the state government. The disturbances almost totally shut down the districts' economic mainstays of tea, tourism, and timber. The Left Front government of West Bengal, which earlier had supported some form of autonomy, opposed it as "antinational." The state government claimed that Darjeeling was no worse off than the state in general and was richer than many districts. Ghising then made lavish promises to his followers, including the recruitment of 40,000 Indian Gorkhas into the army and paying Rs. 100,000 for every Gorkha writer. After two years of fighting and the loss of at least 1200 lives, the government of West Bengal and the central government finally agreed on an autonomous hill district. In July 1988, the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front gave up the demand for a separate state, and in August the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council came into being with Ghising as chairman. The council had authority over economic development programs, education, and culture.

However, difficulties soon arose over the panchayat elections. Ghising wanted the hill council excluded from the national law on panchayat elections. Then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government was initially favourable to his request and introduced a constitutional amendment in 1989 to exclude the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, along with several other northeast hill states and regions (Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and the hill regions of Manipur), but it did not pass. However, in 1992 Parliament passed the Seventy-third Amendment, which seemed to show a newly serious commitment to the idea of local self-government by panchayats. The amendment excluded all the hill areas just mentioned except Darjeeling. Ghising insisted this omission was a machination of West Bengal and threatened to revive militant agitation for a Gorkhaland state. He also said the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front would boycott the village panchayat elections mandated by the amendment. A large portion of his party, however, refused to accept the boycott and split off under the leadership of Madan Tamang to form the All India Gorkha League, which won a sizable number of panchayat seats.

In 1995 it was unclear whether the region would remain content with autonomy rather than statehood. In August 1995, Sherpa complained to the state government that Ghising's government had misused hill council funds, and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu promised to investigate. Both Gorkha parties had showed a willingness to use general shutdowns to forward their ends.

In May 2005, the organisation organised a huge rally to revive the dormant demand for a separate state but failed to go forward on the issue since then.

“We have decided not to pay any tax or bills due to the government from May 1 and they include electricity bills. If power supply to households in the hills is disconnected for non-payment of dues, we will stop work at all the power generating plants that feed Siliguri,” Gurung told reporters at Pintail village on the outskirts of Siliguri this evening.

“Rammam, Jaldhaka and a number of other hydel projects are located in the hills, along with transmission networks through which power flows into Siliguri. In the hills, we may have to light candles after dark, but the people of Siliguri will have to do the same,” Gurung added.

In Darjeeling, Morcha supporters picketed the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd to prevent people from paying their power bills. The Morcha-affiliated All-Transport Joint Action Committee, too, has said its members would not pay road taxes until the condition of the roads improve.

The Morcha chief added that his supporters would definitely sit in an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Siliguri subdivisional office from May 1. The Morcha called the fast in protest after the Bengal government refused to give it permission to hold political programmes in Siliguri.

“Let us hold one meeting in Siliguri and we are sure that the political equation of the town will change overnight,” Gurung said.

The Morcha will also start changing the number plates of vehicles across Darjeeling district from “WB” to “GL (for Gorkhaland)” from July 7, said Gurung. “We have assigned serials A, B, C and D for the three hill subdivisions and Siliguri,” he said.

“We have also sorted out our differences with the Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP Atul Roy-faction) and Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party about the boundaries of the separate states that we are demanding. We will not disclose the boundaries right now but Siliguri will be in Gorkhaland,” Gurung added.

No hired vehicles were available here from 10am to 2pm as members of the All Transport Joint Action Committee, an affiliate of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, brought out a procession and held a public meeting at Chowk Bazar.

“The meeting is being held to strengthen Bimal Gurung’s stand in the Gorkhaland agitation. We also want to tell the administration to stop harassing our drivers in Siliguri and improve roads,” Narbu Lama, the president of the committee, said.

The Morcha had earlier insisted that unlike the Gorkhaland agitation in the 1980s, its movement for a new state would not inconvenience tourists. However, the scenes in Darjeeling today told a different story.

Abhijit Majumdar from Calcutta was one of those who cut short their trips and left Darjeeling before 10 in the morning. “We have to board a bus from Siliguri in the evening and were supposed to start off from here in the afternoon. But we have decided to push off right away instead of taking a risk later in the day,” said Majumdar as he boarded a vehicle around 9am.

Others who were planning to go on local sight-seeing trips were also disappointed.

“I came to know about the transporters’ meeting last evening. Although I could go to Tiger Hill early this morning and visit places like Batasia Loop and the Dali monasteries, I had to give the nearby tourist spots a miss. Since we are going off to Gangtok tomorrow, it was quite a waste of a day here,” said Sikna Brahma who had come from Bongaigaon in Assam.

Tourists usually visit places like the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, the Darjeeling zoo, the rock garden and the nearby tea estates during the day. “The driver said I could visit some of the places in the evening but after a tiring walk, I do not feel like going out,” Brahma added after he had trekked 3km up hill to the Peace Pagoda.

The transport business is heavily dependent on visitors to the hills, particularly during the tourist season. Tourism is also one of the pillars of the hill economy.

Tour operators are still bullish about the prospects of the next few months. “It is true that there were some cancellations during the first week of April, but business has been picking up from the third week. We are expecting a good tourist inflow in May,” Pradeep Tamang, the secretary of Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents, said.

Tamang, however, added that it was time to take up new forms of protest.

“In Darjeeling, everyone is in favour of Gorkhaland. Every community is supporting the cause. Perhaps it is time to look beyond rallies and meetings in Darjeeling. The transporters had earlier made an appeal to political parties asking them not to call strikes during the tourist season and I think we should all act accordingly,” he said.

Lathicharge probe

The second phase of the inquiry into the police lathicharge on a rally of Morcha-affiliated ex-servicemen near Siliguri on April 9 will begin from May 5 at the Darjeeling Circuit House, the information and cultural affairs department said on Tuesday. Anyone wishing to submit a written statement on the issue should do so on May 4 between 2pm and 5pm at the circuit house. The deposition will start at 10am on May 5.

The Guardian 30 April, 2008
http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve08/1363india.html
Achievements of Left Front in India

defence of secularism and national unity

a democratic transformation of agrarian relations and land reform

an economic system which would develop the productive forces in a way to maximise employment and reduce economic and social disparities

a democratic and federal political system

defence of the rights of working people to a higher standard of living

access to health and education services and social security

social justice and protection of the rights of women, dalits (untouchables), minorities and tribal people

an independent foreign policy.

The population of West Bengal is 80 million, Kerala 32 million and Tripura just over three million. These three states are led by Left Front governments. The all India population was 1,129 million in July 2007.

INDIA-TERROR

India among countries worst affected by terror: US report

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, Apr 30 (PTI) India was among the countries

worst affected by terror with militant attacks in Jammu and

Kashmir and in the northeast, strikes by Naxalites and attacks

elsewhere in the country taking a toll of more than 2,300

lives in 2007, the US State department said.

The State department, in its annual report on terrorism,

said terrorist activities along the Line of Control in Jammu

and Kashmir are on the decline but Pakistan-based militant

outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other terrorist groups

continue to plan attacks in the valley.

"Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and other Kashmir-focused

groups continued regional attack planning. In 2007,

Kashmir-focused groups continued to support attacks in

Afghanistan, and operatives trained by the groups continued

to feature in Al-qaeda transnational attack planning,"it said.

The report said Indian government's counterterrorism

efforts remained hampered by outdated and overburdened law

enforcement and legal systems.

"The Indian court system was slow, laborious, and prone

to corruption. Terrorism trials can take years to complete.

Many of India's local police forces were poorly staffed,

lacked training, and were ill-equipped to combat terrorism

effectively," the report said.

Noting about the attack on Samjhauta express in February

last year, the report said, it was carried out by extremists

who tried to incite anger among the Hindus and Muslims.

"These attacks, which killed and injured both Muslims

and Hindus, were probably conducted by extremists hoping to

incite anger between the Hindu and Muslim communities.

"Indian officials claim that the perpetrators of these

attacks have links to groups based in Pakistan and Bangladesh,

particularly Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and

Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, among others," the report said.

"These groups also have links to terrorist activity in

Jammu and Kashmir. The number of civilians killed were

approximately half of that in the previous year.

"In May, the Indian government acknowledged that the

level of infiltration across the Line of Control had fallen,

but noted that insurgents had in some case shifted routes to

enter India through Bangladesh and Nepal," it said.

The report also took note of the formation of the

anti-terrorism mechanism between India and Pakistan to

coordinate and exchange information on terrorists.

"Pakistan's leaders took steps to prevent support to the

Kashmiri militancy, and the number of violent attacks in

Kashmir was down by approximately 50 per cent from 2006,

according to public statements made by the Indian Defence

Minister," the report said.

The report also took note of the US-India Joint Working

Group on Terrorism (CTJWG) which has so far met nine times

since its formation in 2000.

India participated in CTJWGs with 15 other countries,

and in multilateral CTJWGs with the EU and with the Bay of

Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic

Cooperation, an organisation that promotes economic

cooperation among Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka,

Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

In October, the Indian government held the second

round of consultations with Pakistan under the bilateral

counterterrorism joint mechanism, and hosted a ministerial

level meeting of the South Asia Association for Regional

Cooperation on Counterterrorism," it said.

PANCHAYAT-PARTNERS

CPI(M) putting up dummy candidates against official nominees

of partners

Kolkata, Apr 30 (PTI) With the panchayat elections in

West Bengal just 11 days away, two Left Front constitutents,

Forward Bloc and RSP, today accused alliance leader CPI(M)

of putting up dummy candidates.

"There is a confrontation among Front partners in all

districts over seat-sharing and dummy candidates have been put

up on a large scale against official nominees even though we

have been talking about on Left unity," state general

secretary of Forward Bloc Ashok Ghosh told reporters here.

For instance, he said, in Cooch Behar zilla parishad in

North Bengal where FB has a strong support base, it was agreed

earlier that it would contest nine seats and have friendly

fights with CPIM) in the remaining two seats.

"But dummy candidates have been put up against the nine

FB nominees. Is this an example of Left unity?" he said

without naming CPI(M).

RSP leader and PWD minister Khiti Goswami claimed there

was no seat seat adjustment in 85 per cent cases because of

CPI(M)'s 'high-handedness and intimidatory tactics'. PTI

THE STATES/WEST BENGAL

Smouldering hills

SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

 http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fline/fl2424/stories/20071221501702700.htm

ARUNANGSU ROY CHOWDHURY

Bimal Gurung, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha leader, in Darjeeling.

A FRESH spell of political uncertainty looms over the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal following a renewed call for a separate Gorkhaland State. Only, this time the campaign is being spearheaded by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), a breakaway faction of the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) which agitated for Gorkhaland in the 1980s. Sporadic disturbances, which even prompted the local administration to requisition the Army on standby duty, and strikes and counter-strikes by the two rival parties have rekindled memories of the crippling violence associated with the Gorkhaland movement of 1986.

At a public rally in Darjeeling on October 7, Bimal Gurung, once considered a close associate of GNLF supremo Subash Ghising, announced the formation of the GJM, a new political outfit, and gave a fresh call for a separate State of Gorkhaland, seeking the united support of people cutting across party lines. The huge turnout at the rally gave a clear indication that Ghising’s supremacy in the hills was finally facing a challenge. On the dais, Gurung was joined by representatives of the All Gorkha Students’ Union, GNLF rebels and leaders of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist, a breakaway faction of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

According to knowledgeable sources, Gurung’s expulsion from the GNLF on the grounds of anti-party activities has weakened the party and fuelled speculation that all is not well within the GNLF. It has also further strengthened the anti-incumbency sentiment among the hill people. “People are fed up with Ghising and want a change for the sake of change, which is not a healthy sentiment,” an informed source told Frontline. Moreover, since the disbanding of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), the GNLF has lost direct contact with the masses through its elected councillors and, as such, its support base has suffered serious erosion.

The GJM does not support the GNLF’s demand for an autonomous Gorkha Hill Council, Darjeeling with greater powers under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution in place of the DGHC established in 1988 by a statute. (On November 30, the Union Cabinet approved the creation of the Council under the Sixth Schedule.) The DGHC was wound up in March 2005 when the GNLF called for the formation of a new council with constitutional instead of statutory status. Gurung, a former councillor of the DGHC, called Ghising’s demand “a betrayal of the promise made to the hills people by him in 1986 for a separate Gorkhaland State”.

Meanwhile, the rising popularity of the GJM has prompted the GNLF to hold public meetings to “educate” the people about the benefits of the Sixth Schedule. The Front decided to call a 48-hour general strike across the hills from November 6 to pressure the Union government to pass the Sixth Schedule Bill in the winter session of Parliament, which began on November 15. The strike was, however, withdrawn in view of the festival season. Instead the GNLF called a 108-hour bandh in Kalimpong on November 22. Ghising was reported to have stated that the inclusion of the council in the Sixth Schedule was better than the creation of a separate State, as it would promote greater equality among the people and help establish a more egalitarian government.

The GJM retaliated by calling a 96-hour bandh in the Darjeeling hills on the same day to protest against the implementation of the Sixth Schedule and State Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s scheduled visit to attend the CPI(M)’s three-day conference in Darjeeling from November 23. Gurung called off the strike when the venue of the conference was shifted to Siliguri in North Bengal. A five-member GJM delegation led by K.S. Ramudamu, the party’s vice-president, went to New Delhi on November 22 to garner the support of top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj, against according Sixth Schedule status for the hills.

Inclusion in the Sixth Schedule is expected to lead to the establishment of a 33-member council, in which 10 seats would be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and 15 for non-tribal communities. Three seats would be open for all communities and five members would be nominated by the State Governor from the unrepresented sections.

ARUNANGSU ROY CHOWDHURY

Subash Ghising, GNLF leader.

However, according to sources in Darjeeling, people of the hills are confused about the Sixth Schedule. “Nobody really knows what the Sixth Schedule is all about and it has polarised the community totally on ethnic lines,” a prominent citizen of Darjeeling told Frontline. Ajay Edwards, convener of the GNLF youth wing, agreed that the Opposition now led by the GJM was successful in mobilising a large section of the people against the Sixth Schedule. “The GNLF failed to reach out to the people in time and inform them of the benefits of the Sixth Schedule,” he said. Conceding that it was still the dream of the hill people to have a separate Gorkhaland, he said: “We have to be practical. We are still smarting under the impact of the agitation for Gorkhaland. An entire generation was practically lost in that struggle. Now, whatever the problems may be in Darjeeling, at least there is peace. Gurung is precipitating a repeat of the bloody agitation of the 1980s.”

Edwards’ words found an echo in a peace march organised on November 27 by citizens of Darjeeling. Residents of the town from all walks of life participated in it and demanded a “bandh-free” Darjeeling. Neeraj Lama, one of the main organisers of the march, said: “The turnout was overwhelming. We expected barely 50 people, after all it was during an indefinite bandh called by Subash Ghising; but more than 5,000 people participated. Earlier nobody would step out during a GNLF strike. This was a clear sign of the frustration among the people of the hills. They have had enough of bandhs.”

A few thousand members of the GJM’s women’s wing, the Gorkha Janamukti Nari Morcha, joined the march holding pens in their hands, in contrast to the GNLF’s “khukuri march” in Kurseong on November 23, following a khukuri (knife) attack on party leader Kul Bahadur Gurung in Darjeeling that morning, allegedly by some GJM activists.

The GJM, however, denied any hand in the incident. The incident was followed by clashes between supporters of the two parties in which 11 persons were injured and houses of GNLF activists were ransacked. Anticipating major violence, the local administration requisitioned the services of the Army. The GNLF again called for an indefinite strike from November 24. The strike was called off on November 27.

Any move to carve a separate Gorkhaland out of West Bengal may create a public reaction that the CPI(M)-led Left Front government will find hard to withstand, for the memories of two unfortunate partitions in the past – first in 1905 and then in 1947 – are still alive. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sought to quell the agitation when he said at the CPI(M) conference in Siliguri: “We want unity between the hills and the plains … The Sixth Schedule means that the council’s powers will be further enhanced; it will be a constitutional body with consequential permanence in status. It will mean also that Darjeeling and Siliguri will stay together in peace and friendship.” •

WEST BENGAL 

CPI (M) Wants Democracy To Return In  

The Hill Areas Of Darjeeling 

 B Prasant 

BENGAL CPI(M) has declared unequivocally that its strongly demands the restoration of democracy in the hills of the Darjeeling district. The elections to the Darjeeling hill council approach fast; and yet, the unpopular and discredited chief of the GNLF, Subhas Ghising clings to his way of pressurising the state government into agreeing to a postponement of the elections that he knows he is sure to lose in a massive manner.

Following the meeting between Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the union home minister, Shivraj Patil on February 24, Ghising kept up his blustering mood in Darjeeling where he again said that the “people of the hills yearns for ‘Gorkhaland.’” When pressed further on this score by media persons, Ghising lost his temper (something he does quite often now, whether by design or otherwise) and cried out that “nobody either in the hills or on the plains gets to be harmed if Gorkhaland is formed,” before crying off and stalking away from the press meet. 

In the circumstances, the district secretariat of the Darjeeling unit of the CPI(M) met on February 25 and discussed the situation in the hills in some detail.  Elsewhere, at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata the same day, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), Jyoti Basu said that there would be an election held for the hill council and he rejected the idea of a ‘Gorkhaland.’   

Basu dubbed as an unqualified and motivated lie the misinformation Ghising had been engaged in spreading about how Basu had supported the ‘Gorkhaland’ idea back in the mid-1980’s when the separatist agitation first began under Ghising’s tutelage and which could be checked only by the determined efforts both of the Bengal Left Front government that Basu headed as chief minister, and the CPI(M) many of whose workers were martyred at the hands of the separatist extremists. 

From the secretariat meeting, the CPI(M) leaders, Sandopal Lepcha, Ananda Pathak, and Jibesh Sarkar emerged to tell the media that peace and development and not ‘Gorkhaland’ constituted the principal issue for the people of the Darjeeling district, now as earlier. The CPI(M) leadership were firm in their opinion that should elections be postponed for any reason to the hill council, the term of the council must not be extended, and that even if an administrator was appointed, the polls should never be deferred for too long a period. 

On February 26, a meeting of five political parties was held on the emerging issues in the hills of Darjeeling.  Held at Siliguri, the participating parties were: CPI(M), CPI, CPRM, Gorkha League, and GNLF (CKP). Ananda Pathak presided over the meeting. The leadership present included: Ananda Pathak, Sandopal Lepcha, and Ashok Bhattacharya of the CPI(M), Dawa Lama and Saon Rai of the CPRM, Ujjwal Chaudhuri and Harisadhan Ghosh of the CPI, Madan Tamang of the Gorkha League, and D K Pradhan and C K Pradhan of the GNLF (CKP). 

Explaining the decisions of the meeting, Ashok Bhattacharya said that the leaders of the parties desired that elections to the hill council should be held as early as possible. Ghising would never be accepted as the administrator of the council.  Ghising, the meeting felt, had no right to cling to his hill council chairmanship.  Ghising must take part in the polls or tender resignation as the chairman of the council. Decisions of the meeting were arrived at based on full consensus, the leaders of all the parties taking part in the meeting assured representatives of the media. (INN) 

Trouble in the “Queen of Hills” Pushpita Das http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/PushpitaDas140308.htm

March 14, 2008

Peace in the picturesque town of Darjeeling and adjoining areas has been shattered for the last month by an agitation demanding a separate Gorkhaland and the removal of Subhash Ghisingh from the post of Chairman of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). The agitation is part of a protest movement against the Indian government’s plan to grant Sixth Schedule status to the region. The movement is led by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJMMM), which gave a call for an indefinite bandh on February 13 in support of these demands. It has been reported that the movement is being supported by many regional parties that are opposed to the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front (GNLF) led by Ghisingh. A prominent player in the ongoing agitation is the Bharatiya Gorkha Bhutpurba Sainik Morcha, an organisation that was recently formed under the aegis of the GJMM by the roughly 40,000 strong Gorkha ex-servicemen who are settled in and around Darjeeling. Interestingly, the services of these ex-servicemen were earlier utilised by Ghisingh (himself an ex-serviceman) during the Gorkhaland agitation in the mid-1980s. But on February 13 they changed their allegiance from Ghisingh to the newly formed Morcha. Faced with popular opposition, Ghisingh resigned as the caretaker administrator of DGHC on March 10. But his resignation is unlikely to restore calm because the demand for a separate state including not only Darjeeling Hills but also the Dooars is getting shriller. The ongoing agitation for a separate state has its roots in history. Darjeeling and the surrounding areas were part of Sikkim in the seventeenth century. They were overrun by Gorkhas during the reign of Prithvi Narayan Shah. After the Anglo-Nepal War of 1814-1815, the British wrested Darjeeling from Nepal and restored it to Sikkim. But in 1835, this area was incorporated within British India and subsequently Darjeeling district was created, comprising of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, within Bengal. The district is predominantly inhabited by Gorkhas, Lepchas and Bhutias, collectively called the “Hill People”. During the course of the next few decades, the Hill people, especially the Gorkhas, became increasingly dissatisfied with the administrative system. Unhappiness with the patronising attitude of administrative officials in Calcutta and a growing sense of insecurity against plainsmen led the Gorkhas to demand a separate administrative set-up for Darjeeling District as early as 1907. In 1917, they organised themselves under the banner of Hillmen’s Association and repeatedly petitioned for the administrative separation of Darjeeling District from Bengal Province. The formation of the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) in 1943 provided a sense of direction to this movement and support began to gather pace with the return of ex-soldiers from World War II. Over the years, the demand for a separate administrative set-up gave way to the demand for a separate state of “Uttarakhand”. From independence till 1985, the movement was peaceful and it was intermittently courted by many political parties who proposed different alternatives. The Communist Party of India favoured regional autonomy for Darjeeling within West Bengal. AIGL demanded the status of Union Territory. The Congress, the United Front and the CPI (M) all supported the demand for a special status for Darjeeling district within the Indian Union. In 1980, Subhash Ghisingh formed the GNLF and revived the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. By 1986, the movement had not only intensified but also turned violent claiming some 1200 lives. It also severely crippled the District’s economy, which is based on three Ts – tea, tourism and timber. The movement was wound up in July 1988 after the Government and GNLF reached an agreement on the setting up of a hill district council. In August 1988, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) came into existence with Ghisingh as the Chairman. Subsequently, in 1992, Nepali was included as one of the languages in the Eighth Schedule. But matters did not rest there and tensions between the Council on one hand and the West Bengal and central governments on the other soon rose on the issue of panchayat elections. The Seventy Third constitutional amendment of 1992, while exempting all other autonomous hill councils in the Northeast, stipulated that panchayat elections should be held in DGHC. Ghisingh, who was opposed to the holding of any elections in what he saw as his domain, blamed the state government for the omission and refused to participate in these elections. He also threatened to revive the demand for a separate state. The issue of panchayat elections generated a split within the GNLF. A faction led by Madan Tamang broke away and formed a new party called the All India Gorkha League (AIGL), which participated in these elections and won a sizeable number of seats. In due course of time, the AIGL also became a platform for airing public grievances against Ghisingh for his allegedly autocratic and corrupt ways. In May 2005, the AIGL organised a massive rally to revive the demand for a separate state, but failed to mobilise mass support.

01 February 1998

Ghisingh goes global

  http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980201/03250614.html

Come elections and the Gorkha supremo of Darjeeling, Subash Ghisingh, lets fly his kites high above the hills. This time he has shown nothing but disdain for the polls, saying he is right now busy with the far more important issue of the ``legal and constitutional status'' of Darjeeling. He has raised the issue before but what is unique this time is that he has taken it to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

Ghisingh got six lawyers from Nepal last October to file a petition at the international court, pleading that not only Darjeeling but also Kalimpong and the Dooars, in both West Bengal and Assam, could not be called Indian territory because of anomalies in India's treaties with Nepal and Bhutan.

The lawyers from Nepal had first tried to involve the Nepal Government in their effort. They belong to the Nepal Gorkha Rashtriya Mukti Morcha, a fraternal outfit Ghisingh helped set up in that country.

Last July, leader of the Nepal outfit, Nagendra Lama, approached the Nepal Governmentto take up the issue of Darjeeling's status at the international court.

After the Nepal Government refused to oblige, some of NGRMM leaders came to Darjeeling and met Ghisingh. Soon, the Darjeeling leader publicly lent his support to the cause. At a function in Darjeeling, he even promised to support China and Pakistan if these countries helped him internationalise the Darjeeling issue. And, when the elections were announced, he seized the opportunity to drive it home.

He now shows no interest in the elections, saying he is too busy with the case at The Hague. He has turned down proposals from Mani Shankar Aiyar and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, two leaders of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, that he support their candidature from Darjeeling. He brushes aside all questions about the polls and would not spell out if his party, the Gorkha National Liberation Front, will once again boycott them. Boycott calls have come too easily for Ghisingh ever since he launched his crusade for a separate Gorkhaland statecomprising the hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. During the 1982 Assembly elections, voters in some parts of the hills sent empty ballot boxes for the first time in response to the GNLF's boycott call to press its demand for a separate State.

Ghisingh repeated the boycott calls during the 1984 parliamentary polls and the 1987 Assembly polls. By the time the 1987 Assembly polls came, the Gorkhaland agitation was at its peak and Ghisingh had sent all other political parties in the hills, including the ruling CPI(M), scurrying for cover. His total command of Darjeeling politics was proved when the three hill subdivisions returned 460 empty ballot boxes out of a total of 510. Only diehard CPI(M) activists cast their votes in the party's last few strongholds.

By the time the next elections came, Ghisingh had settled for a truce, having signed the Dargeeling accord with the Centre and the West Bengal Government in August 1988. But the statehood demand never quite died down. It has been thecornerstone of Darjeeling's politics since the early 1950s. In fact, the first poll boycott call, in support of the statehood demand, was given way back in 1968 by the Blue Flag party.

All this time Ghisingh was claiming that Darjeeling was never part of West Bengal and should now be made a separate state. But at the time of the 1991 general elections he went one step farther. Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the Dooars region in Bengal and Assam, he now said, had no legal and constitutional validity to be part of India. His argument runs like this. The East India Company got Darjeeling from the Nepal Government by virtue of the 1815 Treaty of Segouli. But when the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty was signed in 1950, it ``cancelled'' all previous treaties. So Darjeeling, to him, is a ``no-man's land'' and he has repeatedly urged the Union Government to properly ``incorporate'' Darjeeling into the Indian Union.

Similarly, he argues that Kalimpong and the Dooars regions continue to be ``leasehold'' lands becauseBhutan ceded these territories to the British Government only on lease in the 1865 Treaty of Sinchula. Bhutan still retained sovereignty over these territories and received annual payments from India for the lease.

Ghisingh says he has tried to serve the national interest by focussing on the issue. He set ultimatums to successive Union Governments to take up the issue but received no response. When he moved the Supreme Court on the issue in 1994, the apex court turned down his plea, calling it a political issue.

In disgust, he asked three GNLF MLAs from the hills to resign from the West Bengal Assembly. They had been elected from the three constituencies of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong when the GNLF took part in the Assembly polls of 1991. That year and also in 1989, the GNLF supported Congress candidate Inderjit from the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency. But in 1996 the GNLF boycotted the polls again in protest against the Centre's ``failure'' to clarify the ``status'' of the Darjeelinghills.

Every time the boycott call benefited the CPI(M). With the GNLF not in the fray, the Marxists practically had a walkover, the Congress being merely a signboard in the hills.

But the CPI(M) too has had its share of problems in Darjeeling. The party split several times and its MP in the last Lok Sabha from Darjeeling, R.B. Rai, was expelled from the party after the latest show of rebellion of the hill comrades. The party has this time put up veteran Ananda Pathak who will take on another old warhorse of the region, Dawa Narbula, who left the Congress and joined the Trinamool Congress. Still hoping to strike a deal with Ghisingh, the Congress has not yet announced its candidate.

Curiously, no political party or group has spoken up against Ghisingh for taking the Darjeeling issue to the international court. Both the CPI(M) and the State Government have repeatedly gone out of their ways to avoid another confrontation with him. The party's poll campaign so far has also steered clear of the issuesraised by him.

During a visit to Calcutta last month, Nepal's Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa described Ghisingh's issues as a ``load of rubbish''. Although the Indo-Nepal treaty of 1950 would now be reviewed, Thapa was emphatic that there was no question of the new treaty addressing Darjeeling or any other territorial issue.

His critics say Ghisingh has kept these issues alive to divert the people's attention from the failures of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council of which he has been the chairman since its inception in December 1988. They have also levelled charges of corruption at the council. The other view is that he has sought to attract international attention only to cover his old demand for the separate state. Ghisingh has consistently compared the present status of Darjeeling with that of Goa and Sikkim before these two were incorporated into the Indian Union. Their statehood followed their incorporation into India. After all, there has always been a method in the maverick Gorkha's madness.

The hunger strike is being observed in Darjeeling, Kurseong, Mirik, Bijanbari, Gorubathan and Kalimpong at the CPRM's women and youth wings.

Apart from the main demand of Gorkhaland, the other two demands include a fair trial of Chattrey Subba and five others in Jalpaiguri jail, arrested in connection with the assassination attempt on GNLF chief Mr Subash Ghisingh in 2001 near Kurseong and an increase in the compensation of the martyrs of the Gorkhaland agitation of 1986.  Condemning the “step-