As initiatives have started for another round of meetings for a permanent political solution in the hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong in north West Bengal
A court in Mumbai has directed Shenpenn Khymsar, a Darjeeling-based filmmaker, to repay more than Rs 3 crore that he had allegedly borrowed from a person in Portugal for making a film.
A former GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) activist Bhawesh Bhujel, resident of Kalimpong, has informed the President of India Droupadi Murmu that a group of Gorkhas will start 'fast unto death' under Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) area demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland from 22 August. Mr Bhujel has written a letter to the President Droupadi Murmu seeking her intervention in resolving the issue amicably.
After facing a disaster in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in the recently concluded panchayat polls in West Bengal, the BJP seems to be heading for yet another complication with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supremo Bimal Gurung hinting at distancing his party with the saffron camp unless the latter announces its definite standpoint on the issue of separate 'Gorkhaland' state.
Notably, Mr Sharma had met the Joint Director of the CBI in Kolkata on 16 June, and appealed him to investigate the alleged illegal appointment of teachers in governmentaided schools under the GTA.
There is a fatigue setting among the Gorkha voters with the BJP for its inability to do anything concrete for the community
"I have thought about it a lot, and people might think I would speak on the issue of Gorkhaland today, but I will not. Every time I speak on it, someone else benefits and comes to power here. It is not the leaders that should benefit, but the people are the ones who should gain."
"All three of them attended the meeting in Kalimpong and they have now united to take forward the people's aspirations or the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state,"
Briefing the press after the meeting, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said, "We will be forming our party units in different states of the country, which has a Gorkha population and in some months we will form a national body of our party. This body will also hold a meeting after its formation for which the venue is yet to be fixed."
Citing examples of how the BJP government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, resolved the Bodoland issue, put an end to Triple Talaq, and introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Labour Reforms he added, "I am confident that issues concerning Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars too will be resolved in the coming days."
