PC meet, a territory snub to Morcha

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today failed to get any assurance from P. Chidambaram on its demand for the inclusion of Siliguri, the Terai and parts of the Dooars in the interim authority that is being sought to be put in place to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.

Ministry officials said at the brief 10-minute meeting in Delhi between a four-member Morcha team led by its president Bimal Gurung and Chidambaram, the home minister heard the demands of the hill outfit, but refused to make any commitments.

Instead, home ministry sources said, Chidambaram told the Morcha leaders to talk to the Bengal government as well on their demands.

“The home minister’s plate was too full today and he had a packed schedule,” a ministry official said. “The meeting was too brief to discuss anything meaningfully.”

The Centre’s stand is not unknown — that it is opposed to the inclusion of the areas that the Morcha has been demanding — and has been evident for some time from the tripartite talks both at the bureaucratic as well as the political levels.

However, after the meeting today, the Morcha claimed that Chidambaram had expressed his willingness to consider its demand for additional territory for the proposed interim authority if the Bengal government agreed to it.

“The home minister sounded very sympathetic towards our demand for inclusion of the entire Darjeeling district as well as parts of the Dooars in the interim authority and maintained that the Centre had no major objections to increasing its jurisdiction,” Amar Lama, a central committee member of the Morcha who attended today’s meeting, told The Telegraph.

Lama claimed that Chidambaram had also told them that the Centre would speak to both the Bengal government and the Trinamul Congress on the issue.

But 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. The Centre may also concede more executive powers to it, but more territory was “not negotiable”, he added.

Ministry sources said Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamul is the second largest partner in the UPA, was “totally opposed” to giving additional territory to the interim authority and so the Centre would not even consider agreeing to the Morcha demand.

Jaswant Singh, expelled BJP leader and MP from Darjeeling, was also present during the meeting that home ministry officials described as nothing more than “a courtesy call”.

Source: The Telegraph