www.telegraphindia.com

Calcutta/Santiniketan, Feb. 27: The indefinite hunger strike and the bandh in the Darjeeling hills will continue till the Bengal government removes Subash Ghisingh from the post of caretaker administrator of the DGHC and the Sixth Schedule bill is scrapped.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership stuck to this stand after a 75-minute discussion with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings this evening. The Morcha leaders said they would stay put in the city for a couple of days awaiting the government’s decision.

“We are happy with today’s discussion which went well. We got a good response from the chief minister. He said he would discuss our two primary demands with his cabinet colleagues and convey the government’s stand at the earliest. We are awaiting a speedy decision and will stay in the city for the moment,” said Bimal Gurung, the Morcha president.

“The bandh and the hunger strike will continue till our demands are met. Our supporters who are on indefinite fast have given in writing that they are undertaking the hunger strike wilfully,” Gurung said.

However, Bhattacharjee, while leaving Writers’ Buildings, did not elaborate much. Asked about the Morcha’s twin demands, he said: “We had a detailed discussion, but no decision has been taken as yet.”

About Ghisingh, the Morcha president said: “We have heard that he has gone to Santiniketan today. He should remain there.”

Ghisingh has been shut out of Darjeeling since his return from Delhi on February 18. Morcha supporters set up road blockades to prevent his entry to the hills. He was holed up in Pintail, on the outskirts of Siliguri, for four days before he shifted to Calcutta.

However, for the present, the demand for Gorkhaland does not seem to top the Morcha priority list. “We do not want to talk about it now,” Gurung said.

At Santiniketan, around 180km from Calcutta, where he was on a three-hour visit, Ghisingh described the Morcha leader’s movement as “negative”.

“This is Kaliyug. What happened in Iraq? What is happening everywhere? Negative.”

He said the new council to be formed once the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution is amended would have more power. The standing committee on home affairs is expected to submit its report on the special status for Darjeeling in Parliament tomorrow. “The bill will be passed in a day or two and the situation in the hills will become normal,” said Ghisingh.

Asked if he would sit for a discussion with Gurung on the Sixth Schedule status, Ghisingh said: “I am not involved in all this (the dispute over the special status) It is something between the state, Centre and those opposing it. The state government should handle it.”

Ghisingh said he had come to Santiniketan as a tourist. “I also visited Belur Math, a place I never saw before. I will go back to Darjeeling in a day or two.”