Thousands of Gorkhas march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar

When was the last time you went to participate in a political rally with your entire family?

May be you would have read about the entire family working together for a political cause in books and heard of late in Egypt and Tunisia. But for those demanding Gorkhaland, it comes naturally. Since, for Gorkhas, their identity itself is at stake.

That’s happened for the last 14 days in Delhi, that’s happening in Darjeeling and Kalimpong for months now, and that is going to happen for, may be years in the times to come.

As the Gorkhas’ agitation in Delhi demanding Gorkhaland enters day 15, it has only become more widespread and determined. On Sunday, March 13, 2011 more than a thousand strong Gorkhas, from Delhi, UP, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Darjeeling, Sikkim and as far as Manipur, Nagaland and Assam, participated in the 7 km march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar. Senior BJP leader and the current Loksabh MP from Darjeeling Jaswant Singh, wife of GJM President Bimal Gurung and Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha President Asha Gurung, Delhi Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Uttam Chhetri and Ex MP and President of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh Dil Kumari Bhandari were present during the march.

The entire leadership of GJM Delhi including media secretary Ranjan Sharma, GJM Youth wing’s Pankaj Chhetri, Robin Pradhan and Delhi GJM Nari Morcha’s Anu Das apart from others actively participated in mobilizing people for the demonstration.

Today’s march saw huge participation from young Gorkha boys and girls who work in call centers, restaurants and beauty parlors. “For them Sunday doesn’t mean a holiday. Many of them who are here will have to forego a day’s salary. Loss of a day’s earnings is more painful for those whose salary is less”, said Pankaj Chhetri who himself works in a call center. “In a world where money is everything for many of us, they all have come. Many of my friends jeer at me for all this but this is a struggle of our identity.”

After the march reached Jantar Mantar, GJM leaders in their speech repeated their demand for Gorkhaland and CBI enquiry into Sipchu killings. Senior GJM Delhi leader Uttam Chhetri stressed on the need for Gorkhas to keep the struggle on. In his fiery 18 minute speech Mr. Chhetri called Gorkhas to remain united. Uttarakhand Gorkha Janmukti Morcha General Secretary Aashu Lama said in her speech that Gorkhas won’t let Jaswant Singh until their demand for Gorkhaland is fulfilled.

The former Defense Minister and one of the most successful External Affairs Ministers of India, Jaswant Singh said that the demand for Gorkhaland is a just demand and he would serve the cause as long as he lives. When asked that how have things changed since when he first went to Gorkhaland in 1962 as an army officer, Mr. Singh said, “I find a terrible deterioration between 1962 and now. I do charge the Left Front for deliberately neglecting the hill areas of Darjeeling. It is a great pity and a great regret. I believe it’s an act of deliberate omission on the part of Bengal government.”

The above story was published on iSikkim.com

We are not safe in Bengal: Gorkha leader Roshan Giri

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha National General Secretary Roshan Giri tells Tilak Jha on the sidelines of Gorkha meet in New Delhi that Gorkhas don’t want to be part of West Bengal.

How today’s meeting come about?

Today’s meeting is to pay homage to the martyrs who gave their life for the Gorkhaland. Our people were indiscriminately shot dead by the West Bengal Police. We are demanding CBI enquiry into this matter.

Now that the unfortunate incident is almost two weeks old and the government has not yet responded. What will you do now?

We have asked our people to be prepared for massive protests at any time. We are also demanding the separate state of Gorkhaland. So, the protest will be for Gorkhaland and for justice to our people.

The Gorkhaland movement is more than a hundred years old. Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council was formed in between. Is it going to happen?

It has to be because we don’t want to be part of West Bengal. We are in West Bengal by an accident of History. The land was never part of West Bengal. Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) has become redundant. I don’t want to tell anything about Subhash Ghising. (Subhash Ghising was the leader of DGHC) and the way he handled our people. He was a sold leader. Over last three years after Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was formed, we have brought the movement alive. We are going to have our Gorkhaland sooner than later.

Should ethnicity alone be the reason to demand a separate state?

It’s related to our identity. India is a union of states. Our problems can’t get solved until and unless we have a separate state. It’s a quest for Gorkha identity.

You are now demanding Gorkha dominated areas in Dooar and Siliguri. There are many people in these regions who do not want Gorkhaland.

We are not demanding something new. This has been our demand since 1907. You see the Amra Bengali, Jan Chetana Manch, Jan Jagaran Manch and another association called Bangla Bhasha Bachao Samiti…the very name of all such organisations suggests that they are only concerned about Bengali language. Bengali is a very rich language but you can’t ignore the rest.

You have been living with the same Bengalis for hundreds of years now.

Tomorrow also, after Gorkhaland will be formed, they will be living with us. West Bengal will always be our neighbouring state. I don’t see any harm in that. When Uttarakhand can be carved out of UP, Chhatisgarh can be carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand can come out of Bihar, what’s the harm if Gorkhaland is formed out of West Bengal.

What would you say to those who are concerned that their rights might be harmed in case Gorkhaland is formed?

Their rights will not be harmed. A Bihari, a Bengali or a Muslim will be entitled to similar rights as enjoyed by the Gorkhas in the new state. Now also they are with us. Many minority fronts of these communities are working under the banner of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

West Bengal elections are nearby. What will be your stand during this election?

There is still sometime for elections to happen. We have not yet decided about that. Whatever decision is taken by the central committee, we will follow that. We are concentrating on the demand for Gorkhaland.

It might happen in this election that Left Front government will not come back. Do you see greater hope from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress?

Let the result come first. Anything can happen.

Do you believe that media has been unfair?

We feel that our movement is being portrayed in a different way. It’s a communal movement. It’s a violent movement. But that has never been the case.

But there have been case of violence.

It’s is not the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. Some people with vested interests create problem and blame us. We are a demanding for Gorkhaland as per democratic means and according to the provisions of the constitution.

As a leader of the movement, did you feel at any point of time that there has been too much of violence and that you should give up?

You see the Sipchu incident. Unprovoked firing. Our people were carrying the national flag. What was the need of killing them? What was the need of imposing Section 144? We are not safe in Bengal. How can we give up?

The story was published on iSikkim.com

Gorkhas call for sacrifice

It was shock. It was shame. It was anger. And it was determination. The mood in the Gorkha camp in the meet on last Sunday at the Gorkha Bhawan in New Delhi was of the need to not let the sacrifice of those killed go in vain. Gorkha Janmukti Morcha national general secretary Roshan Giri called in his address for sustained and peaceful demonstration for Gorkhaland.

A week after his call, Gorkhas have started 45 days demonstration from 28th of February here at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Simultaneously dharnas (peaceful demonstrations) and hunger strikes are being organised in at least 8 sub-divisions of Darjeeling apart from Kolkata, Varanasi and at all other places where Gorkhas are present.

Around two hundred Gorkhas are sitting on dharna from this Monday at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Of them there are Gorkhas who have come from Darjeeling and all across India to express solidarity with the movement.

Priya Diskshit is an English teacher in Darjeeling. When asked about her non-Gorkha name, she said that, “My great grandparents migrated from UP to Darjeeling. Somehow this title crept into but I am a Gorkha.” Why has Priya come all the way from Darjeeling to New Delhi on her own expenses? She says, “West Bengal government never listened to us. I participated in peaceful demonstration back home in Darjeeling but we were met with force. Many of our children were brutally shot dead. So it became necessary to express our demand from other forums.” As her eyes become moist with tears, she adds, “My grandfather was in the army. My brother is in the army. We have fought for this country as anybody else. May be we will not have Gorkhaland now, but our future generations will rest in peace. We are not going to rest before we have it.”
Priya is not alone. The Gorkhas from across the country and cross section of society are in agreement with her.

Kishore Labar, originally from Darjeeling, is associated with Studio 55, an art gallery and has lived in Delhi for the last 13 years. He fell in love with a UP girl, married her and is settled in Delhi. How does he feel now about the demand of Gorkhaland now that he is practically an outsider? “I am not an outsider. I am still a Gorkha and would love to go back whenever I have an opportunity.” How does he feel working in the world of art where there are a number of Bengalis, the community with whom Gorkhas are in a tussle for Gorkhaland? Labar says, “It also applies to the Bengalis. I have some very good Bengali friends. Even they understand our sensibilities. They are not against it.”

Every single Gorkha who is sitting at the dharna has a story and a reason. It’s surprising why India’s oldest struggle for statehood never struck a chord with the policy makers of India.

Role of media

The role of mainstream media has also come under severe criticism from the Gorkhas and their leadership. The national media has been projecting the agitation of Gorkhaland as a violent secessionist movement. The ground reality has been markedly different. Despite sharing borders with the northeast, known for its insurgency movements, and open support from Maoists, the struggle for Gorkhaland has been largely peaceful, constitutional and democratic. “There have occurred sporadic incidents of blockade of roads and railways. Some of us have resorted to violence at times but those have been reactionary rather than deliberate. When West Bengal police resorts to indiscriminate violence, it is natural that some might get agitated. Even under Gandhi , some resorted to revolutionary methods”, said Ranjan Sharma, the media secretary of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Delhi.

The fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and success of Maoist in Nepal in uprooting monarchy has been an inspiration for the Gorkhas. As the struggle for Telangana threatens to create a Tehreer Square in Hyderabad, Gorkhas do have the wherewithal to do one in Kolkata.

The story was published on iSikkim.com

Gorkhaland: Hyphenating identity from basic needs

There is a thin divide between Gorkhaland supporters, Maoists in Nepal and West Bengal and insurgency in northeast both geographically and ideologically. The line will remain thin but we can ensure that it remains there for the good of all.

A few days ago I was in a lecture on the crisis of Manipur by Pradip Phanjoubam, the editor of Imphal Free Press. In his wonderful lecture, one anecdote he quoted was that the people in Manipur blame that when Indian paramilitary forces come for searching homes, they steal their chickens. Pradip said that similar was the blame on Manipuri paramilitary forces who went to Chhatisgarh.

The hunger for chicken is same in the military, wherever they are from. Human nature has a wonderful stubbornness to stick to small, fickle habits. Let’s not blame anyone. We all have our own fickleness. Big demands often come out of basic necessities of life. Interestingly they sustain and build upon the basic necessities as well. But the solutions of identity and nationalism lie in talk, discussion and developing a mutual understanding with an open mind.

Give a man all the luxuries and freedom and most, if not all, of the ideological demands would be solved. But block your neighbour’s water supply and ask for a discussion on identity and you would be thrashed. It’s in the nature of human being. We can’t live without water so we start blaming that we are denied our identity. And if ten such families gather, you can do anything in India.

Most often than not, the demand for identity in case of Gorkha or a Naga or even a Chhatisgarhi or Purvanchali (parts of eastern UP and Bihar) originates from the basic needs of life. There has been a demand for separate state in all of these zones which have also been the most backward places of India. The demands for a right to self determination are not new to northeast, nor are the methods adopted to achieve or solve it.

The Naga insurgency which is the mother of all separatist movements in the northeast India has also witnessed the same kind of development. But India has been a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society since times immemorial without such sustained armed conflicts. Why it happened to the India post 1947?

Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindra Nath Tagore, the two great personalities who form the pillars of the Indian thought defined the idea of India in a very inclusive and “anti-national” way. Tagore is known for his abhorrence of nationalism. For the Mahatma, patriotism was same as humanity. He said, “Through the freedom of India I hope to realise and carry the mission of brotherhood of man.” Both talked of the Samaj (society) “which is self-administered and self-reliant”. Many people blame Tagore of not including any northeast state in the national anthem. For that matter Tagore didn’t include most of the present day states in India by name. We need to understand his consciousness of inclusiveness. Tagore included Punjab and Bengal but they went through phases of turmoil as well.

Coming back to the question of Gorkhaland, let’s not say that “India has failed to invent its unity in diversity”. Albeit, there is no denying that in the case of northeast, it could have what it should, without most of the animosity, bloodshed and violence.

It’s the conscious of a Gorkha or a Naga that talk separation. The subconscious and the unconscious, across the northeast, are as Indian as in any person from any other state of India. It’s the denial of basic necessities of amenities and the right to self identity and self-determination that has brought them to a point where many term them secessionist; which they are not. The lack of inclusiveness, dialogue and underdevelopment has ensured that the basic necessities of life have begun to determine the stubbornness with which Gorkhas seek identity.

Gorkhas after all are demanding Gorkhaland within the framework of the constitution. It’s time to hyphenate basic need from ideology in Gorkhaland, northeast and the rest of India and give them their identity harmoniously. That will realise the great potential that the young men and women from this zone have and bring the much needed thaw in talks.

The article has been published on isikkim.com