Morcha returns without promise

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today failed to wangle any assurance from Union home minister P. Chidambaram on its demand for the inclusion of Siliguri, the Terai and parts of the Dooars in the interim authority being planned to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.

Home ministry officials said at the 10-minute meeting in Delhi between a four-member Morcha team led by its president Bimal Gurung and P. Chidambaram, the home minister heard the Morcha demands but refused to make any commitment or give an assurance that he would consider them.

Instead, home ministry sources said, Chidambaram told the Morcha leaders to talk to the Bengal government. “The home minister’s plate was too full today and he had a packed schedule,” an official said. “The meeting was too brief to discuss anything meaningfully.”

But the known stand of the Centre, as has been evident in the tripartite talks at the bureaucratic and political levels, is that it is opposed to the inclusion of the areas that the Morcha is demanding.

However, after the meeting, the Morcha claimed that the home minister had expressed his willingness to consider its demand for additional territory if the Bengal government agreed to it. “The home minister sounded very sympathetic towards our demand… and maintained that the Centre had no major objection to increasing the interim authority’s jurisdiction,” Amar Lama, a Morcha central committee member who attended the meeting, told The Telegraph.

Lama claimed that Chidambaram had also told them the Centre would speak to both the Bengal government and the Trinamul Congress on the issue. A senior home ministry official dismissed such claims. “The Morcha leaders can claim whatever they want to,” the official said. “Our line has been consistent: no additional territory.”

The official said the Centre had promised “sufficient” development funds for the interim authority and more executive powers, but not more territory.

Source: The Telegraph