Morcha plans to shut out Parishad - Hill outfit alleges state hand in Adivasi demand

Darjeeling, April 13: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today indicated that it would abandon its efforts to woo the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad to agree to its demand to include the Terai and parts of the Dooars in the interim authority for the Darjeeling hills.

In the past, the Morcha and the Parishad leaderships had few meetings to arrive at a consensus on this issue. However, the Parishad had always said that while it has no objections to the creation of Gorkhaland, it did not want Dooars to be a part of it.

But with the Morcha insisting that the Nepali-dominated areas of the Dooars should be part of the interim authority, the Parishad had placed a rider yesterday. It said that tribals should also be made part of the talks that has been taking place between the Centre, the state and the hill party.

The Morcha today responded by challenging the locus standi of the Parishad for speaking on behalf of all tribals.

Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri told The Telegraph: “We no longer think that the Parishad is the sole body representing the rights of the tribals in the Terai and the Dooars. This is largely because a large number of people from the tribal community are now with the Morcha in those areas. Who has given them (the Parishad) the authority to speak on behalf of all tribals in the Dooars?” Chhetri even went one step ahead and hinted at a collusion between the Parishad and the state government.

“It is clear that the Left- minded tribal leaders involved with the Parishad are now being controlled by the state government and they are trying to derail our efforts to reach an agreement for an interim set- up. The state is aware that it has much to lose and is now using these tribal leaders who were formerly with the CPM and the RSP to achieve their goal,” said Chhetri.

This marks a break from the previous Morcha stand of appeasing the Parishad leadership and arriving at a consensus.

Even on March 15 this year, the day Morcha chief Bimal Gurung made public his “secret document” for an interim set up, a delegation of the hill party that included Chhetri had held a meeting with the Parishad leaders and had tried hard to press upon them the benefits that the tribals would enjoy if they were part of the interim set-up.

Asked whether the Morcha would oppose the demand for the inclusion of the tribals in the talks, Chhetri said: “Any such call has to be made after holding a central committee meeting. This decision also lies with the Union government. However, the Morcha has been very logical in the demand for inclusion of areas in the Dooars in the interim set-up. We have redrawn the map to ensure that we leave out areas where there is 100 per cent opposition to the inclusion within the proposed set-up. We are not illogical and have demanded only those areas where people, including the tribals, have supported the interim set-up.”

Earlier, the Morcha had demanded that the entire Dooars be included in the area it wanted as Gorkhaland. However, Gurung made a climbdown when in the “secret proposal” he revealed that the Gorkhaland map had been redrawn to include only those parts of the Dooars where there is a significant Gorkha population.

After the submission of the document, the Morcha had made it clear that it would no longer compromise on the revised territory.

Chhetri said: “The Parishad must understand that we also have support in the Dooars which has been proved by the fact that we won the Kalchini Assembly byelections.”

Source: The Telegraph

‘Revenge’ death for tribal leader

Alipurduar, March 23: A leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad was lynched this morning to allegedly avenge a murder that had taken place last month.

Alexander Minj, 36, the vice-president of the Parishad’s Banarhat block, was called out of his house reportedly by workers of the Telepara tea estate around 8.30am, tied with ropes to a tree and was beaten to death, police said.

One person has been arrested. After the incident, alleged Parishad members set up a blockade on NH31 around 11am near Telepara, 75km from here. The agitation was withdrawn at 2.30pm following the police intervention.

John Barla, the president of the Parishad’s Dooars-Terai Coordination Committee, said the body of Baburam Oraon had been found along the railway tracks in Binnaguri on February 22. “No one knows who killed Baburam, but his relatives wrongfully blamed Minj for the murder. Today, about 30 people called him out of his house and beat him to death. We have filed an FIR naming the 30.” He said Parishad men were not involved in the blockade. “I have told the police that they (the squatters) were not our supporters.”

The additional superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri, V.S.N. Kumar, said: “We have arrested a woman. The motive of the killing seems to be revenge for a murder in Binnaguri last month.”

Source: The Telegraph

‘Lalgarh leader’s visit unwanted’

The Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad’s north Bengal leadership today said it would not allow Mr Chhattradhar Mahato, the Lalgarh-based Adivasi leader spearheading the Polishi Santrash Birodhi Manch, to organise public conventions or rallies in the Dooars in support of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha.

Mr Mahato reportedly assured a GJMM delegation recently of visiting the Dooars on their invitation and attending public conventions and rallies in the region. According to GJMM secretary Mr Roshan Giri, Mr Mahato supported their issues and promised to respond to their call. “We have not yet fixed the date of his visit but Mr Mahato assured us of visiting the Doors and participating in conventions and rallies on the Gorkhaland issue,” Mr Giri confirmed today. MORE...

Adivasis stick to condition

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has refused to budge from the pre-condition that it had set for talks with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

The outfit wants the hill party to drop the demand for the Terai and Dooars as part of Gorkhaland before they sit for discussions to bring peace in the region.

The Parishad members today deliberated on Medha Patkar’s offer to mediate between the two sides that have been clashing with each other for the past two weeks. On February 7, two persons were killed in the violence.

“We discussed in detail the proposal and unanimously consented that the precondition we mentioned to her yesterday should be met before we sit in any meeting with the Morcha,” said Rajesh Lakra, the secretary of the Terai-Dooars Coordination Committee of the Parishad. “We will initiate the peace process on our own.” MORE...

GJMM supporters join Adivasi Parishad

A large number (stated to be 1000) of Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha supporters including the party’s Binnaguri unit president Mr Naresh Sarki joined the Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad at Binnaguri in Jalpaiguri district today.

Claiming this, the Terai-Dooars Coordination Committee president of ABAVP, Mr John Barla, said: “The GJMM supporters of the Dooars have started to realise the futility of their movement in the area. The GJMM leadership should understand it and withdraw its movement from the Dooars.”

Switching sides today, the GJMM Binnaguri unit president, Mr Naresh Sarki, said that they desired peace in the Dooars. “Several people have been victimized due to the ongoing turmoil in the Dooars and we want an end to it. Today I along with a large number of GJMM supporters conveyed our support to the ABAVP to restore peace in the Dooars,” he added. MORE...

Tribal body ready for talks

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) has given its nod for dialogue with the rival Gorkha JanMukti Morcha (GJMM) for restoring peace and normalcy in the Dooars.

The development follows a talk offer sent across by the GJMM leadership through the media this afternoon. “We want peace in the region and hence, are ready for talks with the GJMM only if the dialogue is meditated by the state administration,” the ABAVP Dooars-Terai secretary Mr Rajesh Lakra said over phone from the Dooars. MORE...

Camps to deter tribal youths from joining GJMM

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) has decided to hold village level camps across the Dooars to ‘free’ a section of the adivasi youths who have succumbed to the GJMM clutch.

According to the ABAVP sources, there are about 550 adivasi youths who recently joined the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP) ~ a voluntary force being raised by the GJMM to strive for a separate Gorkhaland state. “GJMM activists were luring youths from different parts of the Dooars with false assurances. By holding camps at every village/tea garden, we would try and let them know the sinister design of the GJMM and the negative consequences of supporting it,” the ABAVP Dooars-Terai secretary, Mr Rajesh Lakra said. MORE...

Anti-Morcha stand to stay

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad said today it would continue the campaigns against the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the Terai and the Dooars despite an assurance by the chief minister that the government would not sit idle if violence recurred in the region. MORE...

Dooars peace appeal from Buddha

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad today reiterated before Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that it did not want the Dooars to be part of the Gorkhaland while drawing his attention to the various problems being faced by the tribals of the region.

The chief minister appealed for peace and promised to send the secretaries of the backward development and school education departments to the Dooars to look into Adivasi grievances. MORE...

Dooars & rest of Bengal to figure in talks

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad will not only discuss the recent ethnic clashes in the Dooars in its first meeting with the government tomorrow but voice concern about other “common” problems being faced by the tribals of Bengal as well.

A 15-member delegation of the party will meet chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings in Calcutta. MORE...

Darjeeling bandhs off - Gurung wants Gorkhaland mark on tea packets

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJMM) today lifted its hill bandh but not before party chief Bimal Gurung said every packet of Darjeeling Tea would have to carry a Gorkhaland label.

The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), which had called a Dooars strike yesterday, also lifted the bandh but after several clashes with Morcha activists.

At Nagrakata, an area in the Dooars in Jalpaiguri district, thousands of tribal activists of the Adivasi outfit set fire to five houses, all of alleged Morcha supporters, and a shop at Chadar Line in Jalpaiguri town. The Morcha supporters managed to flee. MORE...