Morcha rally today
www.telegraphindia.com
Kalimpong, Jan. 27: The president of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Bimal Gurung, is scheduled to address party supporters at a rally at Mela Ground here tomorrow.
This will be Gurung’s second visit to the Kalimpong subdivision after forming the party three months ago. He had made the first trip to address a public rally at the adjoining Motor Stand on October 31 last year.
Unlike last time, when there was not much participation from local people, tomorrow’s meeting could see massive turnout because the Morcha has gained a lot of ground since then. In the last three months, the party has set up units practically in every nook and cranny of the subdivision.
“These days getting people to attend our meetings require very little effort. The mere presence of Bimal is enough to draw crowds,” said Harka Bahadur Chhetri, a member of the Morcha’s central committee.
Chhetri said the meeting has been called as part of the Morcha’s continuing effort to create public opinion against the granting of Sixth Schedule status to the hills.
“If the people take a stand against accepting the Sixth Schedule, no government can ignore their will,” said Chhetri.
Gurung and other top Morcha leaders addressed a public meeting in Mungpoo in the Kurseong subdivision today.
“We are educating the people on the submission we made before the parliamentary standing committee (which has been given the task of examining the Sixth Schedule bill) and the response we got from it,” said Chhetri.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Hope the people of Darjeeling hills understand that by declaring this area as tribal area does not necessarily means all the nepali community would be considered as tribal.It seems that poor masses of DGHC have been mislead by Mr. Ghisingh by creating an illusion of benefits of inclusion in scheduled tribe status by accepting sixth schedule.Let me make it clear that it is only demarcated land which will be considered as tribal land but not all the hill people.Yes, it is true that as far as power of council is concerned it will certainly increase with more funds from central government but for the common masses it will not make any difference.
POINT TO PONDER: IF MR.GHISINGH IS SO CONFIDENT ABOUT THE SOCIAL STATUS OF ALL GORKHAS THAN HE SHOULD FIGHT FOR INCLUSION OF ALL GORKHAS IN SCHEDULE TRIBE LIST IN LINE WITH WHAT GUJJARS ARE DEMANDING IN RAJASTHAN BUT NOT FOR DECLARING LAND AS TRIBAL LAND, WHICH REQUIRES ONLY MAJORITY OF TRIBAL POPULATION, NOT ALL IN THAT AREA.