Little did Mamata Banerjee know what lay in store. As Didi was packing her bags to leave for Darjeeling to hold her first Cabinet meet in the hills, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung was busy giving final touches to the strategy which would well set the Queen of the Hills on fire. Yet again.
The warning signs were palpable. But the West Bengal government, which had been toeing Didi’s line that the “Hills are Smiling”, chose to turn a blind eye.
Ever since Mamata Banerjee announced that Bengali would be made compulsory for all students, political temperatures started rising in the cool climes of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong. And for Bimal Gurung this was an opportunity he wouldn’t want to miss in a lifetime. Outsmarted by Didi in the recently concluded civic polls in the hills, where the Trinamool Congress (TMC) managed to wrest its first electoral victory in Mirik municipality, Gurung saw this as a handy tool to whip up passions and reclaim his lost ground. And for Gurung, a man who led sustained protests in the hills demanding a separate state, it wasn’t an uphill task to mobilise party cadres and hit the winding streets rejecting the stand of the Mamata Banerjee government.
Protests against force-feeding Bengali started echoing in the hills, with students, teachers, linguistic experts and Nepali scholars joining in, along with the young and old. Massive “Jai Gorkha” rallies snaked through the hill subdivisions, with an announcement of a two-hour “batti bandh” protest in the evenings to coincide with Mamata’s scheduled visit for the Cabinet meet.
Even as Mamata and her ministers were busy chalking out the North Bengal “Development Plan” inside the sheltered confines of the British-era Raj Bhawan, GJM cadres went on a rampage, hurling bombs, attacking police outposts, torching buses, shutting shops and setting Didi’s effigy on fire. Tourists panicked, restaurants and eateries shut down, taxis went off the roads. Darjeeling was up in flames.
But the locals, egged on by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, had no complaints. The same people who had accused Bimal Gurung of softening his stand on the demand for a separate state after joining hands with the BJP, were all on his side. The anti-Bengali protests saw a spurt of posters in and around the Mall Road and markets demanding a “Pradesh for the Gorkhas”. Gorkhaland was on Darjeeling’s menu yet again. For sure, Gurung—a connoisseur of Darjeeling—was having his cuppa. In peace.
And to add to his glee was the Gorkha National Liberation Front or the GNLF. At loggerheads with GJM and allied to the TMC, GNLF too questioned Didi, accusing her of “divisive and undemocratically” bulldozing Bengali on the hill population.
Under fire, Mamata got down to douse the flames. The same Army which was accused of staging a coup six months back in West Bengal, was sent an SOS to bring back normalcy. Six columns of Army—each comprising 43 personnel—were rushed in.
Didi hit the streets herself to assure locals that “all is well”, deployed state buses to escort stranded tourists, besides shunting out the young superintendent of police, who had been handpicked for Darjeeling for his exemplary track record at the Special Task Force. “Experienced” officers were called in to “identify” troublemakers.
And to soothe frayed nerves further, Didi announced Bengali would be an “option” in the Darjeeling hills. Her flip-flop and the turn of events have given the edge to GJM-BJP combine, which is armed with the same ammunition for attacking the Chief Minister, which is used by her to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi—infringement of fundamental rights and personal space.
But it’s a tightrope walk for the BJP as well. While Mamata has tried her best to create an ethnic divide in the hills by creating multiple tribal developmental boards, the BJP is yet to spell out its stand on statehood for the hills. With BJP riding piggyback on the GJM, it would be significant for them to watch their steps on slippery ground. Charred, battered and bruised, Darjeeling—which has paid the price for indefinite shutdowns in the past over the statehood cry—is bracing up yet again for tumultuous times.
Thanks to Mamata, Gorkhaland is alive again. And kicking.