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The Telegraph

Dec. 27: Gorkhaland supporters choked traffic on three national highways for several hours today and threatened to stall trains from tomorrow as the administration ruled out using force to stop them.

Most trains to the region from other parts of Bengal go through New Jalpaiguri and are unlikely to be hit but the Sealdah-bound Kanchankanya Express, which uses the Sevoke line along the foothills, could get delayed if the protesters stick to their noon-to-4pm threat.

The train is popular among tourists on their way back from the Dooars, a big draw since the unrest in the hills. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Dec. 26: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s student wing today threatened to paralyse traffic bound not only for Darjeeling but also Sikkim and the Northeast.

All the three national highways in the region will be blo-ckaded from noon to 3pm on Sunday, the outfit announced, adding that it was an “indefi- nite” agitation, meaning the traffic trauma could be an everyday affair. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Dec. 23: Hill residents came in droves as soon as liquor shop shutters went up this morn- ing, many with porters to carry the bottles, making it evident how stifled the “ban” on booze had made them feel.

With the shops opening after almost a month and a half, if only for a few days, and with the festive season upon them, they were not content buying just a bottle or two. They bought by the carton. (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, Dec. 23: ABGL president Madan Tamang today accused the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Centre and the state government of entering into an “understanding” and planning to “impose” another council like the DGHC on the people of the hills.

The charge came a day after he lauded the fourth round of tripartite talks for taking the demand for Gorkhaland in the “right direction”.

Tamang, known for his diatribe against the Morcha, this time decided to air his reactions to the December 21 talks at a media conference here.

“Outcome of the so-called tripartite meeting and the information we have with us indicate that the Morcha and the two governments are into an understanding and trying to make a fool of the hill people. They are trying to impose another council on us and bury our aspirations,” Tamang said. “It is interesting to note that the Morcha raised Gorkhaland at the fourth round of talks and not earlier. We consider this as a victory of the hill people as their pressure prompted the Morcha leaders to raise the issue.”

The ABGL leader demanded that Morcha chief Bimal Gurung and leaders like Roshan Giri and Amar Lama take part in hunger strikes. “It is a question of supreme sacrifice. No GLP (Gorkhaland Personnel) was raised and no dress code was imposed in Telangana but the integrity of the top leadership in Andhra made the Centre sit up. Why can’t Gurung and others take the same route instead of forcing common supporters into the hunger strike?” Tamang said.

On one side, the Morcha leaders were asking the student wing to resort to hunger strikes, while, on the other, their own children are studying in Delhi, Bangalore and other places, the ABGL chief alleged. “The leaders should bring their children to Darjeeling and ask them to start an indefinite fast to prove their integrity.”

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www.indianexpress.com
Wednesday, Dec 23, 2009 at 0226 hrs

It was an occasion filled with admiration, nostalgia and a rare display of teacher-student bonding. For Bernard T Brooks, who turned 80 on December 21, a late evening birthday celebration at a banquet in Free School Street found him basking in the warmth of the gratitude and affection of his students whom he had taught decades ago.

Brooks, who was the headmaster and later principal at Dr Graham’s Home, a reputed boarding school in Kalimpong, for 30 years (1958-88), found students from all across the world coming to wish him on his 80th birthday.

There were 18 among the nearly 40 students who had flown in to Kolkata just to meet their teacher. The list of his Brooks’ students include Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigmey Thinley and its Chief Justice Sonam Tobgye as well as Norman Hutchinson, a painter in a UK court.

To Brooks, both Thinley and Tobgye who are now at the helm of affairs in the tiny mountain country next door are the Captain and the Vice-Captain of his school. Tobgye had sent an emissary to be part of the celebrations here.

“I am here because he has been a wonderful teacher to me. He taught me chemistry, biology and geography. He was a strict disciplinarian but he never scolded us,” said Sarkissian Arshak, (73) who has come all the way from the UK to attend his teacher’s birthday celebrations. Incidentally, Arshak is not a student of Dr Graham’s Home, but of St Paul’s School where Brooks taught from 1951 to 1957.

When the 40-odd students met their teacher on his birthday, Brooks remembered how the doors of Dr Graham’s Home were opened for students other than that of the Anglo-Indian community. Truly, he had an eclectic mix of students from various countries from Bhutan, the UK, Europe and Australia.

“When I joined the school, 99 per cent of the students were from one community. When the doors of the schools were opened, it became one of the most cosmopolitan schools in the country when the first batch of students appeared for the Senior Cambridge examination in 1963,” he says.

“Today teachers are more interested in the subject than the child. This should not happen. Child should be at the centre of learning,” Brooks said.

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The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Dec. 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today upped the ante and declared that the Centre had to “agree in principle” that the demand for Gorkhaland was genuine for the talks to move forward “smoothly”.

At the same time, buoyed by the fact that it managed to bring Gorkhaland to the negotiating table for the first time, the Morcha felt that it was time to cheer and decided to lift its ban on sale of liquor during the festive season. All liquor shops will remain open till December 25.

Sale of liquor, other than local brew, had been banned in the hills to deprive the state government of excise revenue earnings. (more…)

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, Dec. 21: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to renew its agitation from the day after Christmas with party president Bimal Gurung blaming the Centre for “taking the talks too lightly”, referring to the three-hour fourth round of tripartite discussion held here today.

However, there will be a relaxation in the Morcha agitation from tomorrow. “Keeping in mind the Christmas celebration, we will not hold any programme until December 26,” said Gurung.

The Morcha, while suspending the fast-unto-death on Saturday, had threatened to restart the hunger strike from December 22 if the talks failed. The hill party has not termed the talks as an outright failure but it has also not described it as a success. “We should neither be too happy nor too sad today,” Gurung said, summing up the party’s mood.

Hundreds of people today thronged Chowrastha, located a mere 150 metres from Mayfair Resorts where the meeting was taking place, since 11 in the morning. There was no scheduled public meeting but anxious people simply sat through the three hours until the Morcha delegation reached Chowrastha to brief Gurung, who was present at a nearby hotel.

With the crowd anxious to hear the outcome of the meeting, Gurung took his senior leaders on stage and announced his next phase of agitation.

“Three members each from the Gorkha Primary Teachers’ Organisation, Janmukti Secondary Teachers’ Organisation, Janmukti Karmachari Sangatan, contractual workers of the DGHC, Sishu Siksha Kendra and the contractors’ association will sit for the hunger strike,” announced Gurung.

The leader said an agitation, involving the students’ wing would begin from December 27, but refused to spell out its details.

Last week, Gurung had threatened to take five students each from every school in the hills and start an indefinite hunger strike along NH55 and NH31A the roads that connect Darjeeling and Gangtok with Siliguri from December 22 onwards. It is, however, not clear whether he would stick with the same programme on December 26.

Even though state and central government offices, which had been shut down by the Morcha since December 16 will remain open from tomorrow, Gurung said these offices would once again be shut down one the new phase of the agitation starts.

Gurung said his party was formed “only for Gorkhaland” and that its members were not interested in becoming ministers. “The Morcha is there only till Gorkhaland is formed,” he said, adding that if the Centre could grant Telangana because of reported suicides, his youths could commit suicide en-masse for a separate state.

“Do not come to us with development. You have nothing to show as far as development is concerned apart from the infrastructure that were created by the British. We are now talking about human development (sic),” said Gurung in his message to the governme

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www.indianexpress.com

Tuesday , Dec 22, 2009 at 0247 hrs
Darjeeling

Asim Rai, a student of Class XII who had come from Miju near Darjeeling along with his friends, had been standing outside Mayfair Hotel, the venue of the tripartite talks, since 9 am.

“We are alienated from the people of the plains. We do not get jobs even though there are umpteen promises. The best schools in our country are here in Darjeeling and we don’t have a place there. It is full of children from outside Darjeeling. We believe once we get Gorkhaland, all these problems will be solved,” said Rai, one of the thousands of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters who stood and waited outside the venue in anticipation of the outcome.

While all those The Indian Express spoke to said they were waiting for the day when Gorkhaland became a reality, some even threatened self-immolation for a separate state.

“If Gorkhaland is not carved out this time, we will start self-immolations. During the earlier agitation (the one spearheaded by the GNLF), so many of our people laid down their lives. I can’t understand how many sacrifices the Central government needs for giving us our separate state, which is a legitimate demand,” said Shanti Chhetri. (more…)

The Economic Times

21 Dec 2009, 2225 hrs IST,
Debasis Sarkar, ET Bureau

SILIGURI: The fourth tripartite meeting involving the Centre, the state government and the GJM on the Gorkhaland issue ended inconclusively here on Monday. While the government side assured initiation of the process for political level discussions, the GJM decided to relax its agitation till December 25. The hunger strike will resume on December 27 in which students will take part.

Though the state government had announced earlier that no discussion on separate statehood would take place, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said after the meet, “The discussion was on Gorkhaland statehood only.”

“All our deliberations centered around our demand for Gorkhaland state. We want political level talks within the next 45 days,” Mr Giri added.

Addressing reporters after the meet, Union home secretary GK Pillai said: “We had detailed discussions on the various aspects of formation of Gorkhaland. But there was no political consensus.”

Noting that the GJM had indicated that it would like the next round of talks to be held at political level within 45 days, Mr Pillai said it would be placed before the respective governments and we will revert to the GJM by 45 days.”

Asked if the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), set up in 1988, would continue to function, Mr Pillai said in the last tripartite meeting on August 11, it was agreed that DGHC would be abolished and an alternative framework come up in Darjeeling. Neither the GJM nor the West Bengal government had finalised their views on an interim arrangement but the Centre had a proposal which was not placed at the tripartite talks, Mr Pillai added.

However, GJM supporters have started celebrating considering the outcome as highly positive. But the hills as a whole remain under uncertainty

Meanwhile, despite negligible picketing, the plains of Darjeeling district looked deserted due to the bandh called by anti-Gorkhaland political forces. The Kamtapur Peoples Party activists blocked NH31A, demanding a separate Kamtapur state. Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party will launch a hunger strike on Tuesday to push their demand for a separate Greater Cooch Behar state.
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BBC News – India
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

A meeting called by India’s government to discuss the creation of a separate state in the tea-producing Darjeeling hills has ended without a breakthrough.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which is demanding a separate state and fair treatment for Nepali-speaking Gorkhas, has agreed to continue the talks.

Its campaign was boosted when ministers said they would allow a new southern state of Telangana earlier this month.

Gorkha volunteers ended a protest fast ahead of the talks.

This followed an appeal by India’s Home Minister, P Chidambaram.

‘Agreed to wait’

The government was represented by Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai and West Bengal Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti in the tri-partite talks.

“We have said that the next round of talks should be political, it should involve the Indian home minister and the state chief minister and we are hopeful this will happen,” said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri after the talks.

Mr Pillai said he had agreed to “forward” the GJM’s request for political talks to the “appropriate level”.

“I have told the GJM that I will forward their request to the home minister and revert back to them within 45 days. They have agreed to wait,” the home secretary told a press conference after the talks.

Mr Giri described Monday’s talks as a “big step forward for our movement”.

“The only agenda for discussion today was Gorkhaland, nothing else was discussed. We made it clear we will settle for nothing short of it,” he said.

Even as the talks were taking place in Darjeeling, Bengali groups who oppose the Gorkha campaign were setting up roadblocks on the road to Darjeeling that passes through the plains of north Bengal.

A day-long strike called by them paralysed life in the northern Bengal town of Siliguri and areas around it.

Passions are running high amongst the Gorkhas in the hills and the Bengalis in the plains over the proposed state of Gorkhaland.

All major political parties in the state also oppose the move.

But the GJM and other Gorkha groups say they will not rest until a separate state is created for them.

Long struggle

However, there is no indication that either the Indian government or that of West Bengal will accept the demand for a separate Gorkha state.

“All such contentious issues can be resolved by discussions. But nobody should try to impose their agenda on the others,” Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya has said the government was willing to give “more autonomy” to Darjeeling.

“But a separate Gorkhaland is out of the question,” he said.

The Gorkhas in Darjeeling ran a long campaign for a separate state in the 1980s but then settled for considerable autonomy.

But now their leaders say the autonomy deal has not worked and they blame the Left coalition government of West Bengal for its failure.

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BBC News – India

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

A meeting called by the Indian government to discuss the creation of a separate state in the tea-producing Darjeeling hills has begun.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) is demanding a separate state and fairer treatment for Darjeeling’s Nepali-speaking Gorkha community.

The movement got a boost after the Indian government announced a new state of Telangana earlier this month.

Gorkha volunteers ended a protest fast ahead of the talks.

This followed an appeal by the federal Home Minister P Chidambaram.

“We responded to his appeal to create an appropriate atmosphere for the talks,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said. (more…)

Save The Hills has won the 2009 Manthan Award South Asia in the Environment Category.

Congratulations.

The STH delegate in Delhi is pictured below receiving the award. (L to R: Praful Rao, Aanchal Tamang, Bhushan Chettri, Hemkar Rana)

The Statesman

SILIGURI, 20 DEC: The fourth tripartite talks on a Gorkha outfit’s demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland carved out of West Bengal will be held tomorrow even as the Centre warned that the situation might turn critical if its leadership remained inflexible and stuck to its position.

Though the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM) has demanded that crucial talks here should be held at the political level the meeting will be attended by only officials. The GJMM has been pressing for creating Gorkhaland state from Darjeeling hills and portions of the adjoining plains. (more…)

The Statesman

KURSEONG, 20 DEC: A day before the proposed tripartite talks, excited GJMM supporters’ organised huge rallies, in support of Gorkhaland at different places across Darjeeling today. In the meantime, hoping for a positive outcome in the talks and in support of Gorkhaland, frontal organisations (including minority communities) of the GJMM staged ‘Mahayagya’, ‘Hawan’ and an all religion prayer meeting at different places in Darjeeling.

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