The honeymoon between the Mamata Banerjee government and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership is over. After a marathon meeting of the GJM central committee in Darjeeling on Wednesday it was decided that a six-member delegation GJM would be sent to Delhi on Friday to urge the UPA government to sympathetically consider their demand for a separate Gorkhaland because it has accepted the Telengana state demand.
However, Bimal Gurung did not find it necessary to send a similar delegation to Kolkata to talk to the chief minister to avert a crisis.
Mr Gurung in fact sent his resignation as the chief executive of the GTA to governor M.K. Narayanan on Tuesday night. Ms Banerjee or the North Bengal affairs minister Gautam Deb did not even once try to persuade Mr Gurung to withdraw his resignation. In fact the chief minister hurriedly accepted the resignation.
He first called a three-day bandh (today was the last day) and now has given a call for an indefinite bandh. Instead of persuading him to call off the bandh the chief minister has warned that she will deal with any attempt to disturb the peace in the Hills with an iron fist.
Mr Gurung had complained that the state government had never allowed the GTA to function smoothly.
Clearly both the state government and the GJM leadership are on a collision course. “By declaring a war at Writers’ Buildings against the GJM will not bring peace in Darjeeling. The chief minister should immediately call an all-party meeting and should seek a solution through negotiation,” Leader of the Opposition Suryakanta Mishra suggested.