It was 2007. People threw away Subas Ghissing to the ground, from their shoulders, where they beholded him as the king for long twenty one years. His effigy was burnt. Suppressed voices since twenty one years became louder. The political winds of change started blowing in the hills. People started digging the sweet potatoes out of the soil, where those were left alone in 1986, as Subas Ghising had ordered not to grow those. People were in the streets. Strikes occured, street meetings took place.
Then came 2009. Entire country was warming up for the parliamentary elections. The marks of wounds in the hands of the Gorkha ex-army personnels were yet to vanish, which were acquired in police lathicharge in Siliguri while taking out rally of the ex-servicemen, in support of the demand for separate state. The oppressive policies of the state government to suppress the movement were rendering people into increasing anger. Strike and street meetings were continuing.
Everything was going on steadily. There was a need just for dialogue. It was required to have an argument in details with the central government, about separate statehood. The result of the meetings with the state government showed no indication of yielding any fruitful result. The necessity of some strong mediator to convey messages from here was strongly felt by the people, the politicians and the intellectuals of Darjeeling hills.
The political track record of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) was good, if the matter of formation of small states is concerned. Three small states had been formed in the tenure of Vajpayee's rule. Bimal Gurung got excited about this idea and in the following election, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha arranged lion's share of votes to elect Jaswant Singh, the heavyweight leader of BJP, and send him to the parliament, as the MP from Darjeeling constituency. Moreover, the so-called revolutionary Marxist party CPRM, whose positions themselves diametrically opposite to the disputed ultra-hindu nationalist politics of BJP, also supported Jaswant Singh, keeping apart their core ideology. It was a single-point agenda, the separate state.
But things didn't proceed as was thought. BJP failed to form the union government then. The people of Darjeeling consoled themselves accepting this hard fact. The movement in Darjeeling slackened after 2010. And following the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement, signed among the central government, state government and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, at the Pintail Village Resort, the Bimal's front did almost unofficially declare the end of the movement.
Then came 2014. Another Lok Sabha election. The country-wide Modi wave on the one hand, and the Congress government's anti-people policies and repeated news headlines of their involvement in scams on the other, helped people lean towards BJP this time. Here, at that time, another heavyweight leader of BJP, Mr. S. S. Ahluwalia, got ticket for the Darjeeling constituency and moved along with the local party GJM, addressing public meetings at various places, in support of the demand for separate state. Narendra Modi, the poster boy of BJP, came to Sukuna while his country-wide tour to address public meetings. In his own cunning style of 'killing a snake & showing the stick', he uttered his words-- "The dream of the Gorkhas is the dream of mine." The profound aspiration of people for separate state did automatically the rest of the job, exactly as the BJP wished.
BJP rode to the central power. Some government policies changed. The government earned some fame in the name of extremist Hindu nationalism. And defame too. But Darjeeling was not interested in all these things. After the Bharatiya Janata Party rode to power in the central government, S. Ahluwalia, the MP from here, delivered in Parliament a comment in ten minutes about the long standing demand of people for separate state. But, his speech contained potential U-turn, that was overlooked by common people. The movement demanding separate state is due to the atrocities of the Bengal government on the hill people. He said so. It was a partial truth. But profound observation reveals that the ongoing movement is not only due to this reason. The main impetus for the movement is that of the long drawn identity crisis faced by the Indian Gorkhas in the country. Whereas he talked about things like proper development programs in the hills if taken, along with newer schemes, can help to pacify the movement. This time too, the people understood the statement of Ahluwalia exactly as the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted. The snake was killed. The stick was shown again!
Darjeeling today. Peoples' aspirations for separate state can stay suppressedly. For twenty-one years of Ghising's rule, people did suppress this issue in their hearts. This feeling of the public can be used to build vote-banks. So far it has been so. The people can vent out their anger only when the leaders, who carry out their 'politics' bunking upon the demand for separate state, fail to stick on to their words. People did such things earlier too. But here, there is a special thing. The aspirations of the people for separate state percolated undiminishedly, from one generation to other, for more than a century. This feeling can't be wiped out completely. It will search for spaces to express itself.
This feeling got space to express itself again. Immediately
after the announcement of the policy of implementing Bengali language as one among three languages, across the whole state,
people came down to the streets. The state tried to cope with this protest using police-force. But the fury of people that started from language changed to that of the demand for separate state.
The hill is stressful since then. Strike is continuing. People are in the streets. Police atrocities are on havoc since people took to the streets. The government used force to suppress the people angry with the government. They killed so many people.
Now, the people and also the political parties of the hills, carrying the agenda of separate state, are looking towards the centre. But the central government is dumb. The MP, Mr. Ahluwalia, who was sent to the parliament by large share of votes by the people, after much debate and hopefullness about effective steps on separate state, is badly missing from the scenario. Why?
The reason is clear. Bharatiya Janata Party is eager about their entry in Bengal. The party is busy in building favourable grounds in Bengal. So, it is awkward for them to openly support or even nod for the division of Bengal. Because most of the people in rest of Bengal don't want the split. In such a situation, by supporting the demand of separate state they would antagonise those majority people, and will have to face the blow.
Amidst their silence about the demand for separate state, the central government is definitely searching for some newer technique to kill the snake and show the stick! But, the huge faith exhibited by the people of hills, while sending Ahluwalia to the Parliament and the loyality shown, with hopefulness from the Bharatiya Janata Party till date, is facing severe injustice.
As the MP and his party is complete failure in doing right things at right moment, when will the patience of the hill parties breach? Is it not the time to ask for resignation of Ahluwalia as MP, who failed to speak in favor of separate state due to his commitment to the party? It is a prompt question for the people too.
The movement has reached the crossroads to take a new turning, beyond the occupancy of the political parties and the promises of their electoral manifestos. People have loaded the movement on their shoulders. Now whatever meaningful can be done, it can be done only by the people.
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