The Trinamul Congress feels that the Centre may provoke pro-Bimal Gurung Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) activists ahead of the parliamentary elections.
The ruling party has come up with such an observation two days after a delegation of 10 Morcha leaders of the fugitive leader Bimal Gurung camp, met Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba at North Block in Delhi on Friday.
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The leaders claimed that Mr Gauba assured them of sending a fact-finding team to the Hills to look into allegations that the administration and the police ‘misused the law and order machinery.’ According to them, the home ministry also assured them that it would seek to hold tripartite talks after the Pujas.
Chairman of the board of administrators of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Binoy Tamang, has also questioned the Delhi meeting.
READ | Hills erupt as Binoy debarred in Delhi
Darjeeling district Trinamul Congress president and state tourism minister Gautam Deb said that the Centre may provoke them, people against whom many court cases have been slapped.
“Those who are booked under various charges including the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, should surrender before the law. By meeting them, the Union home ministry can encourage them before the Lok Sabha polls. People of the Hills will not tolerate this and resist any such attempt. They can hold meetings at North Block or South Block, and that would hardly create any impact,” Mr Deb said.
Asked whether Mr Gurung, who is on the run after being booked under the anti-terror law, UAPA Act, for violence during the last round of agitation for statehood that rocked Darjeeling in June last year, may try to return to the Hills, the minister said “let him first follow the law.”