Round II brings uncertainty to hills - Women mess up ABGL meet

Darjeeling, June 16: The ABGL today could not hold its scheduled meeting at Chowk Bazar here after members of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha thronged the dais just before Madan Tamang was about to address the crowd.

The move has raised several eyebrows with many questioning the Morcha’s posturing about democracy. However, Bimal Gurung's party has claimed that “they had just come to listen to the public address”.

The meeting was scheduled to start from 11am but just before the ABGL leaders arrived, a large number of Nari Morcha supporters came and squatted on the steps leading to the dais.

“This is a rumour aimed at maligning us. We had only come to listen to the speeches,” said Urmila Rumba, the convener of the Nari Morcha (central committee), the women’s wing of the Morcha.

At the root of the indefinite bandh that resumed from 6pm today is the refusal of the administration to allow the Morcha to hold a public meeting in Naxalbari. Gurung has accused the administration of throttling democracy. “Now, it is the Morcha, which is doing the same thing,” said Tamang

“I would not have talked about anything else but only pointed out that the Morcha must understand that no provision within Bengal can be accepted,” he added.

Tamang was referring to a buzz doing the rounds in town that the Bengal government was willing to create a separate administrative unit called the Gorkhaland Autonomous Council. Political observers believe that the word “Gorkhaland” is being mulled as a solution to the hill people’s demand for identity.

The Morcha, however, has invited the ABGL along with the CPRM, Congress and the BJP to an all-party meeting to be held at Gymkhana Club tomorrow at 10am. “We have called the meeting to pass a resolution in favour of Gorkhaland,” said the party’s media secretary, Binay Tamang. Sources said the CPM and the GNLF have not been invited.

Tamang said he was yet to get an invitation and despite today’s incident, he would decide on attending the meeting only after he gets it. Govind Chhetri, a central committee leader of the CPRM, said his party would join tomorrow’s meeting though a formal invitation was yet to come.