The Hindu : National : Ghising revives Gorkhaland demand

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Ghising revives Gorkhaland demand

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: In a move that has taken local political circles in West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills by surprise Subash Ghising, chief of the Gorkha National Liberation Front, has reverted to his old demand — first raised in the mid-1980s — for a separate Gorkhaland state to be carved out of the region and certain areas contiguous to it and sought a dialogue with the Centre on the issue.

“A delegation of senior GNLF leaders led by Mr. Ghising called on the Prime Minister today and suggested talks on the statehood issue between the Centre and parties [including the GNLF] that are demanding the creation of Gorkhaland,” Dipak Gurung, president of the GNLF Darjeeling branch committee, told The Hindu over telephone from New Delhi on Wednesday. The move to grant Sixth Schedule status to the Darjeeling hills that Mr Ghising has been pursuing since 2005 has “now been dropped,” he added.

These developments come at a time when leaders of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), who consider Mr. Ghising their principal political adversary, are also lobbying in the capital for the Gorkhaland cause.

A delegation of senior GJM leaders led by the party’s chief, Bimal Gurung, met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and reiterated its demand for the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state.

“That is our principal demand. We also expressed to Mr Patil our opposition to giving Sixth Schedule status to the Darjeeling hills and emphasised the need for Subash Ghisingh to resign by March 10 as the people have rejected him,” a member of the delegation said.

“We shall concentrate on agitational politics, not electoral politics, till our demands are met,” GJM spokesperson, Benoy Tamang said.

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