Outside Bimal Gurung’s house on Thursday. Partha Paul
CRITICISING THE police raid at GJM party office in Darjeeling, the Opposition on Thursday said that such “repressive acts” would further complicate the situation in the hills. The CPM demanded both all-party and tripartite meetings among the state government, Centre and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration to resolve the issue.
“The repressive act of the state government will only complicate the matter in Darjeeling hills. Instead of provoking the GJM, it must find ways to resolve the issue. Why was the residence of GJM chief Bimal Gurung raided by security forces? What was the immediate concern? The police said arms and explosive were recovered. But if the police raid the house of any Trinamool Congress leader at any given time, similar things would be recovered,” CPM Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Salim said.
“Even if I do not agree with the politics pursued by GJM, the raid on its chief’s house is unacceptable. If this is the way to silence Opposition’s voice, then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking a leaf out of the Modi government’s book… as the Delhi chief minister’s office was also raided. Let there be a tripartite meeting among the Centre, state government and the GTA. Before that can happen, the state government must convene an all-party meeting to resolve the issue,” he added.
The CPI, meanwhile, blamed Mamata for the “violent” agitation, saying her “unnecessary promise” earlier was the cause for the fresh round of protests. “Unnecessarily, Mamata Banerjee has given them some sort of hope on statehood earlier. That’s the reason it (the agitation) has again come up,” CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told PTI.
“Real issue is: unnecessarily, promise given by her (on statehood)… and I think that created this kind of problem,” he said. “Otherwise, during the Left Front government (in the past in West Bengal), this (agitation for separate Gorkhaland State) was not violent, except for one time,” he added. Reddy said the Left parties were opposed to the statehood demand from the very beginning.
Also taking on Mamata, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said her government was indulging in “politics of revenge”.
“How come the government raids the house of a political leader without a warrant? This is just politics of revenge, which the government is pursuing to provoke the GJM leadership. Trinamool Congress has created this fight between Bengalis and Nepalis to find a strong political platform in North Bengal. The government does not intend to resolve the issue, as it wants to take political mileage out of it,” Ghosh said.
He also said that there was a need to hold a tripartite meeting to understand the problems of the people of the hills and why they chose to launch a movement. The Congress, too, held Mamata responsible for the situation in Darjeeling.
