Gorkhaland: a steep climb up the hills for GJM

The steaming Darjeeling tea which takes shape in fine porcelain cups across the world has turned into a hot property for both the West Bengal government and the Centre.

The indefinite shutdown called by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in support of their demand for a separate Gorkhaland state has not only ruined most of the famed Second Flush tea (nearly the entire post-Second Flush crop is exported) of Darjeeling, but has dealt a severe blow to the tourism industry.

Along with Seemandhra, Bodoland, Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Harit Pradesh, the renewed demand for Gorkhaland gained steam after the UPA government decided to split Andhra Pradesh and create Telangana.

But the initial rumblings of discontent were first heard in 1907 when the Hillmen’s Association of Darjeeling submitted a memorandum to the Morley-Minto Reforms Commission demanding a separate administrative set-up for the hills. In 1917, the association again submitted a memorandum to the Viceroy.

The British didn't pay much heed, but the demand kept coming back – in 1929 before the Simon Commission, in 1941 to the chief commissioner and in 1952, when the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League met then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Kalimpong and demanded separation from Bengal.

The string of petitioning ultimately turned violent with the campaign of Gorkha National Liberation Front led by Subash Ghising from April 1980.

The blood-stained movement ended in August 1988 with the formation of an autonomous body - the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), but not before heavy boots of paramilitary forces broke the bleary silence of Darjeeling and the violence claimed as many as 1,200 lives.

Ghising became the sole caretaker of the council, but the separate statehood issue kept simmering and in 2004, he demanded the council area be brought under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Those who know the nuances of Sixth Schedule provisions will agree that it was indeed a step towards fulfilling Darjeeling’s aspirations for self-governance without any fresh round of insurgency.

It would have definitely been a compromise of sorts for the Gorkhas’ statehood demand, but nowhere in the Constitution there is any mention that an area governed under the Sixth Schedule can’t become a full-fledged state at a later stage.

But Ghising’s political rivals misinterpreted the implications of the Sixth Schedule and the idea was shelved. Discontent started brewing within the GNLF and Ghising’s dictatorial style of functioning, coupled with a dismal road network and drinking water problem made people disillusioned with the DGHC.

By 2007, a split in GNLF was evident and the person who emerged as the front-runner was one of Ghising’s trusted lieutenants, Bimal Gurung.

Interestingly, Gurung was accepted by the people in Darjeeling after he garnered massive support for a local crooner, Prashant Tamang, for a reality TV show, Indian Idol.

Tamang won Indian Idol, GNLF split and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) came into existence.

In the 2009 general elections, GJM supported BJP’s Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, which he won. But the NDA was defeated and along with it, the renewed aspirations for a separate state were blown.

Left with fewer options and assembly elections closing in, Gurung resorted to what he knew and inherited best from his predecessor, Ghising – violence.

In February 2011, the police opened fire on agitating GJM supporters when they tried to enter Jalpaiguri during a ‘long march’ led by Gurung from Garubathan to Jaigaon. The ensuing violence in the hills was followed by a nine-day long bandh.

The assembly elections of 2011 was a watershed moment for Bengal when Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress ended the 34-year-long rule of the Left Front. GJM won all three hill seats – Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong and was firmly placed in the state legislature.

During her election campaign, Mamata had promised to solve the Gorkhaland issue and hoped of turning the hills into ‘Switzerland’.

In July 2011, a memorandum of agreement was signed between the GJM, West Bengal government and the Centre for formation of a semi-autonomous administrative body – the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

The assembly passed the GTA bill in September and in 2012 when elections for GTA office-bearers were held, GJM won 17 seats and bagged the rest 28 seats unopposed.

But the GJM-TMC relationship was never going to last long. Riding on her support base in the plains, Mamata placed two of her ministers to oversee governing bodies of several health and education institutions, where in letter and spirit, the GTA should have been the final word. Misadventures led to frequent confrontations and the honeymoon was over by July 30, 2013 with Gurung resigning from GTA.

The Z-reverse

Much water has flowed down the Teesta since. Mamata marched back to power in Bengal after the 2016 polls. Trinamool even pulled out a victory in the Mirik civic body from right under the nose of GJM. But when an ambitious Mamata Banerjee reached Darjeeling on June 8 to hold a cabinet meeting, all hell broke loose.

Indefinite shutdowns have returned to haunt Darjeeling. Mamata has opted for a hard stance, with her police rounding off several top Morcha leaders, forcing Bimal Gurung to remain on the run. The threat of a split looms large on GJM, with serious differences cropping up between the moderates and hardliners.

For the moment, Bimal Gurung’s shutdown politics might have a sway. But when Franklin Prestage first laid the railway tracks in Darjeeling in 1879, he devised a unique concept called the ‘Z-reverse’ to scale the heights.

The train first climbs up a slope, stops and then moving backwards, climbs a steeper incline and reaches the other end higher up, resuming its onward journey. The mainstay behind the ‘Z-reverse’ concept is – when forward movement is not possible, it’s better to retreat and find a new way ahead.

Gorkhaland seems to be an improbable proposition as of now with the Centre unlikely to constitute another States Reorganising Committee anytime soon. For both Mamata and Bimal Gurung, the ‘Z-reverse’ concept could be an eye-opener. Politics is seldom a straight drive!