Friday, Jun 03, 2005
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News Analysis
Marcus Dam
THE WEST Bengal Government's draft proposal seeking constitutional guarantee under Article 371 for the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), 16 years after its formation, comes as an affirmation of the need to grant greater autonomy to a region whose recent history has been marked by bouts of political uncertainty. The draft, distributed to political parties for endorsement, is being supplemented by an approach paper. Under preparation by the State leadership of the Communist Party of India [Marxist], the approach paper seeks to address the questions of ethnic aspirations and sub-nationalist passions which determine local political coordinates, govern public discourse and run deep in the collective psyche of the people.
Chinese experience
Interestingly, the approach paper draws on the experiences of China and the erstwhile Soviet Union in handling issues related to regional autonomy and self-determination springing from the demands of ethnic communities without compromising on national sovereignty. That the long-running agitation for a Gorkhaland state in the hills was propelled by ethnic and linguistic passions cannot be denied. A lesson the West Bengal Government appears to have picked up from history is that these passions can often turn disruptive unless adequately addressed. Hence there is a need to amend Article 371 to provide a constitutional guarantee to the DGHC rather than continue to accept its functioning under a State Act. There is also a need to formulate an approach paper at the political level seeking to safeguard the interests of the Gorkhas as a dominant ethnic community with a distinctive social and linguistic identity.
Renewed demand
All this comes at a time when the stirrings of a renewed statehood demand threaten to rupture the fragile peace in the Darjeeling hills. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Government earlier this year took the wind out of the sails of the protagonists of Gorkhaland by agreeing to invest the DGHC with greater powers. And even as the matter was left for constitutional experts to ponder over, the CPI (M) re-assessed the political situation in the hills and acknowledged that the ethnic compulsions suffusing the body politic are just as cogent as the economic imperatives. Subash Ghisingh's Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) — the leading political force in the hills — has rejected the State's proposals to give constitutional guarantee to the DGHC (of which Mr. Ghisingh has been Chairman since its formation), even before the other political parties had time to react. This could be ominous. The statehood bogey is being raised again; the only acceptable alternative to the GNLF is the DGHC's inclusion in the Sixth Schedule. The Centre appears to be undecided. As for the West Bengal Government, its preference is clear — greater regional autonomy and no talk of Gorkhaland.
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