Hills are alive

Bengal never solved the “Gorkhaland” problem, which in its current edition is the most complicated. To the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha’s (GJM) indefinite bandh, the Amra Bangali and Jana Jagaran have responded with indefinite counter-bandhs. Trucks carrying provisions have been ransacked, tourists and residents attacked and asked to leave. On Thursday, clashes between Gorkhas and non-Gorkhas in and around Siliguri necessitated alerting the army. The demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland was lying dormant even as Subhas Ghising made a mockery of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and the Bengal government used him to neutralise the popular mood and shirk its own responsibilities. The Centre’s attempt to include Darjeeling in the Sixth Schedule late last year was the catalyst, and a very strong one, that triggered the present crisis. Today, north Bengal is back at square one, with the GJM, headed by Ghising’s former disciple, Bimal Gurung, redrawing the map of Gorkhaland to include Siliguri and the Dooars.

The idea of smaller states is not in itself a bad one. As the division of a few big states in the last decade has shown — Jharkhand being the exception — smaller states are easier to administer. The problem with the demand for Gorkhaland is that such division of territory on ethnic grounds is dangerous. The danger arises from the misuse of identity for political ends. The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the GJM have already done this. Now the quasi-militant Bengali splinter groups are doing the same. Notwithstanding the CPM’s successful use of the sub-regional Bengali identity, the party, as the mainstay of the government, cannot afford proximity to these groups.

The all-party talks on June 17 and tripartite discussions between the Centre, the state and the Gorkha representatives are the only means to pursue. The end of the GNLF’s violent agitation in 1988 had been a genuine opportunity for the hills to enjoy both politico-cultural autonomy and economic development — an opportunity wasted. Dialogue and development, complemented by a separation of identity from local politics, is the difficult but only positive option.