Ghisingh to Delhi

Feb. 6: Subash Ghisingh today left for Delhi to depose before the Standing Committee on Home affairs amid black flag protests.

Twenty-nine supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha were arrested for showing him black flags at Bagdogra Airport.

They were later released.

The parliamentary committee, which is currently scrutinising the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2007 drafted to include the Darjeeling hills within the Sixth Schedule, has cancelled its three-day visit. Instead, the members have called Ghisingh for a hearing on the Sixth Schedule status.

Representatives of other hill parties had met the panel members earlier.

This is the first time that the GNLF chief — the main architect of the special status — will meet the members of the committee after the bill was referred to it by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

“The committee members will also meet the chief secretary of Bengal,” Ghisingh told reporters at the airport. He is hopeful that the bill will be passed in the coming budget session. “I have found the Centre and the state’s attitude positive.”

Comparing the opposition parties in the hills with cattle, Ghisingh said: “Separate statehood is not a simple thing that anybody can buy from a shopkeeper or a market. They should have done what they are doing now before the signing of the memorandum of settlement.”

Sources said Ghisingh could stay in Delhi for almost a week as he is also looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, home minister Shivraj Patil, Opposition leader L.K. Advani and members of the Planning Commission. It is, however, yet to be confirmed if the meeting with senior leaders in Delhi has been fixed.

Had the standing committee visited Darjeeling today, the sources said, Ghisingh would have met the committee in Calcutta along with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on February 8. Bhattacharjee, too, is in Delhi. Ghisingh, however, refused to say whether he would meet the chief minister or not.