With the Congress-led UPA government deciding to carve Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Tuesday threatened to intensify its agitation for statehood. The crucial decision taken by the Centre is likely to fuel similar demands for Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Bodoland in Assam and Harit Pradesh in Uttar Pradesh among others.
The GJM has brought Darjeeling in West Bengal to a virtual standstill as its 72-hour bandh entered its second day on Tuesday. “We will intensify the agitation and demand Gorkhaland which is right. After Telangana, the Centre will have to give us Gorkhaland now,” Roshan Giri, GJM general secretary told Express.
A delegation from GJM had met senior Congress leaders including P Chidambaram, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ambika Soni and Ahmed Patel on July 26. The GJM claimed the Centre had assured them that formation of Telangana wasn’t immediately on the agenda.
“When we met the Congress leaders, we were assured that Telangana wasn’t happening any time soon. They asked us to strengthen the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and to inform them if we were facing any trouble in its implementation,” GJM MLA Harka Bahadur Chhetri said.
Ever since the formation of the GTA, the GJM has alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government wasn’t giving it a free hand. “The state government is not giving us autonomy. They haven’t given 60 departments to the GTA. So, the GTA isn’t able to function and we are getting discredited. So long as our strings are attached to West Bengal, we won’t be able to get anything done. We asked them to highlight our issue also when the Telangana issue comes up.’’