Mamata meets Gurung today
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has promised to resolve the Darjeeling issue in three months, would hold a one-to-one meeting with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung at the Writers’ Buildings on Monday evening. This meeting assumes significance as it would be the first interaction between Ms Banerjee and Mr Gurung since the former has taken charge of the chief ministership on May 20. Ms Banerjee has repeatedly announced that the state would not be divided further, a stand which is completely opposite to the separate statehood demand of the GJM. At this backdrop, the meeting between the chief minister and the GJM president is going to take place on Monday. “It will be a courtesy meeting,” Mr Gurung quipped before leaving for Kolkata on Sunday.
After a meeting with a GJM delegation on May 26, the chief minister had said, “The government wants to resolve the Darjeeling problem. The chief secretary will call a meeting on this issue in the next few days. The issue will be resolved through discussions.” During the meeting, the GJM also extended its support to the government unconditionally and offered to sit on the treasury benches to show solidarity to the government.
On being asked about the content of discussions in the meeting on May 26, GJM central committee member Harka Bahadur Chhetri, who was also present there, said, “It was a courtesy meeting and was held in a cordial atmosphere.”
It is expected that the chief minister would discuss about the demands of the GJM in her meeting with Mr Gurung and would set the direction of the tripartite talks later. “Though the GJM wants Gorkhaland, a separate state would not happen under any circumstances. The Centre is the final deciding authority on the creation of a new state and it would not agree on Gorkhaland after considering the Telengana issue. Because once it agrees to the creation of Gorkhaland, demand for Telengana will immediately resurface which will create further problems to the Centre,” state government sources elaborated.
Anticipating the mood of the Centre, the GJM has also restrained itself from militant agitation, demanding Gorkhaland. “They are also feeling that the Centre would not agree to its demand. The GJM now wants to negotiate on the proposed autonomous hill authority as proposed by the Centre with some more power and more area under the jurisdiction of the authority. The state government may agree to include the Nepali-dominated areas of Dooars under the jurisdiction of the proposed authority, besides the three hills sub-division: Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. The GJM may also demand to release their leaders and supporters who are now in custody and the state government is likely to agree on it,” sources added.
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