On the eve of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the hills at the invitation of Lepchas, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung blamed the state government of playing “dirty politics” and said that its ‘fight’ for a separate statehood was against the central government.
“Bengal is playing dirty politics and we must not be scared. They are training guns at us but we will fight them with the might of the pen. Our fight is not against Bengal, our fight is against the central government,” Mr Gurung said.
Addressing the Opposi-tion as “dangerous” Mr Gurung also asserted that there will be no ‘bloodshed’ in the hills. “Our opposition is dangerous and if they play rough that does not mean we play rough. We should not hide and we must face the agitation. Our agitation is a democratic agitation which will be non violent,” he said. “We will soon start a cultural agitation. There should be no violence from our side. There will be no bloodshed in the hills. There should be no infighting between political parties in the hills. We must respect all political parties including the Lepchas in Kalimpong,” Mr Gurung added. The remarks from him came on a day when GJM decided to intensify its indefinite shut down in hills with an announcement of “Janta Sadak Ma” from September 4. However, GJM chief Bimal Gurung on Sunday asserted that it would keep the educational institutions out of the stir with certain relaxation.
“I am not telling you not to study but agitation is also a part of education. Some relaxation will be announced but all schools must talk about the Gorkhaland issue in the morning assembly as school children must understand the relevance of our demand,” he said.