The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership on Saturday announced that they would not take part in the ongoing tripartite talks for the formation of any interim set up in the Darjeeling Hills. After their meeting with Centre’s interlocutor Lt. Gen. (retd) Vijay Madan at Kumani, the party chief Bimal Gurung said that his party would not accept any
thing short of a separate Gorkhaland. “We can participate in the talks only if Terai and Dooars region are also included in the separate homeland plan,” the GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said.
The GJM leaders said that the killing of party supporters in police firing had forced them to review their entire stand. Lt. Gen. (retd) Madan failed to persuade Mr Gurung and his associates to withdraw the indefinite bandh in the Hills which entered the fourth day. The only concession the GJM made was announcing the withdrawal of the bandh from the plains (Terai and Dooars). In any case, the bandh had no impact in the plains, in the first place. Meanwhile, one more GJM supporter Rina Khawas who had suffered bullet wounds succumbed to her injuries on Saturday, taking the death toll in the police firing on Tuesday to three.
Mr Gurung voiced his resolve to launch a padyatra in the Dooars. He is camping with hundreds of his workers at Kumani, chalking out his future strategy. “When CPI(M) leaders can address meetings in Mall of Darjeeling why can’t I take out a padyatra in the Dooars?” Mr Gurung asked. Mr Giri said that the state government would have to lift the prohibitory order and allow the GJM to take out the padyatra.
In Kolkata, the state home secretary G.D. Gautama said that the state government would not succumb to any GJM pressure. He was commenting on Mr Gurung’s threat that if he and other top leaders of the party, against whom FIRs had been filed, were arrested then the Hills would burn. Meanwhile, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee once again renewed his appeal to the GJM leaders to shun the path of violent agitation.