Darjeeling defies GJM call, shuts down

The writ of Bimal Gurung and the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) did not run in Darjeeling today after the All India Gorkha League (AIGL) president, Madan Tamang, was hacked to death in full public glare yesterday. The GJM, known for its politics of bandh in the hills, tried to “enforce normalcy” by asking people to keep shops and establishments open on Saturday. But there was total defiance, as people imposed a near total shutdown in the hills for the second day today.

If the public mood in the hills was any indication, the writing in the wall is more than clear. The killing of Tamang, one of the oldest votaries of a separate state for Gorkhas, has not gone well with the people of the hills. A handful of vehicles plied between Darjeeling and Siliguri ferrying tourists. Amidst rousing public anger, virtually the entire GJM leadership has left Darjeeling and is camping in Kalimpong.

Since early in the morning, thousands of people marched to Tamang’s house. Many wept inconsolably. The beautiful landscaped house was swamped by mourners even as Tamang’s body was kept in his house and Buddhist monks chanted prayers. By evening there was yet another round of outpouring of sympathy as a candlelight peace procession was taken out in Darjeeling town. Residents said that Darjeeling witnessed such a “non-political, citizen’s protest and peace march” after 1980. Schoolchildren, college students, tourists joined the residents in the march that ended at the spot on Upper Club Side Road, where Tamang was hacked to death yesterday.

Meanwhile, Lachman Pradhan, general secretary of the AIGL, lodged an FIR, naming six top leaders of the GJM for the murder of Tamang. Talking to The Sunday Express, the AIGL secretary said: “Democracy in Darjeeling has been murdered with the killing of Tamang. Normalcy will never return to the hills till we restore the fundamental rights of the people and the freedom to practice any political faith. That will be our tribute to the departed leader.” Not a single person named in the FIR has been arrested so far, complained Pradhan, accusing the West Bengal government of creating this situation of total lawlessness.

The AIGL leaders, as well as other political circles, ruled out the killing of Tamang as a mere spur-of-the-moment incident. Senior AIGL leaders pointed out that if it was so, how would one explain the simultaneous attacks on Tamang’s house, on a hotel run by Tamang’s relative and on the house of Dawa Sherpa — a BJP leader who had joined the Democratic Front led by Tamang and R B Rai.

“This is the true face of the present GJM leadership who had been pledging by a democratic, Gandhian principle to achieve their goals but in reality indulged in the politics of bloodshed and suppression,” said an AIGL leader.

“After yesterday’s murder, people of Darjeeling would press for peace and democracy first and statehood later,” said R B Rai, a leader of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists.

Leaders of many other political outfits, from the Trinamool Congress to the CPM, BJP and Darjeeling-Sikkim Unification Manch, assembled at Tamang’s house today and renewed their plans to re-launch an agitation for restoring the rule of law. There was but one common enemy — the West Bengal Government, for not doing enough to tone up the hill administration and succumbing to the politics of suppression now in vogue in the hills.

“Otherwise, how could one explain why despite early warnings from the intelligence and from the AIGL, the police did not take adequate steps to protect Tamang during the public rally?” asked many.

The IG, North Bengal, K L Tamta, admitted that six senior GJM leaders have been named in the FIR lodged by the secretary of AIGL. The police have detained about 45 people so far.

Senior GJM leader Benoy Tamang said the FIR lodged by the AIGL naming top party leaders was an indication that there was a “pre-planned conspiracy” to defame the GJM leaders.

Source: Indian Express