Hill outfit gets new ally

Siliguri, Nov. 12: A frontal organisation of the CPI (Maoists) has expressed solidarity with the statehood movement spearheaded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the hills.

Led by state secretary Raja Sarkhel, a three-member team of the Ganapratirodh Mancha today said they were with the Morcha and would continue to extend support to the organisation even if the ongoing non-violent movement adopted armed struggle.

“We support the Gorkhaland movement as we believe that people of every community have the right to have power delegated among them for development,” Sarkhel said. “We met two top Morcha leaders in Darjeeling yesterday and told them about our stand and support.”

Introducing themselves as representatives of “a people’s forum supporting the Marxist, Leninist and Maoist” ideologies, the leaders said they were with groups like the Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party and KPP, two organisations in north Bengal fighting for separate states.

“Like we have done in south Bengal, we want to form a conglomeration of such groups. We would also provide them with a platform to discuss issues like boundaries,” said Prasun Chatterjee, a state committee member of the Mancha. Citing an example, Chatterjee said the territory proposed by the Morcha for Gorkhaland and the one marked for Kamtapur have several common areas like Siliguri.

“The Morcha leaders told us that they would achieve Gorkhaland by 2010. If the governments refuse to grant them the state by then and as a result, the agitators want to change the course of movement, we are ready to stand by them even if it means that arms struggle will commences in the hills.”

The Mancha wants to involve intellectuals and has planned protest programmes in Calcutta to mount pressure on the state government.

“We had organised similar programmes on Singur and Nandigram,” Chatterjee said. “There is also a plan to open units in the region.”

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri confirmed that a meeting with the Mancha had taken place yesterday.

“They had been to our office and expressed support for our demand,” Giri said. “They are also ready to campaign for us in the state capital.”