The Father of Modern Gorkhaland Movement turns into a Stepfather
On that Sunday,
I was as usual honing my football skills, when I heard shouts of many people.
Running to see what the matter was I could only see serpentine line of vehicles
with black flags but I was too young to make a sense of it. Returning home I
could over hear some older people talking about Gorkhaland. For the first time
in my young life I was introduced to an issue that would remain with me for the
entire life. It was in 1986 that I was introduced to the demand of Gorkhaland
as a young school going kid and the issues of identity and our status in India.
My young mind could grasp the importance of it even then and was excited,
enthusiastic about participating in the movement and have done in my own way.
This was the
phase of ‘Modern Gorkhaland Movement’ and the father of the movement was none
other than Subhas Ghising. He was loved and treated like a demi god by one and
all for raising the issue. The issue of Gorkhaland was raised by other
political parties before him as well but none were successful in mobilising the
entire hill population and resisting the CPM and its brutality like him.
Ghising was able to organise the movement and give proper structure to it. Men,
Women, Youth, Students all participated in the movement under the aegis of
GNLF. Every individual in the hills (except the CPM cadres) participated and
supported the movement in their own ways. The contribution has been immense.
Ghising enjoyed
unprecedented support and was able to motivate and mobilise people with his
inspirational speeches and deeds. There was not a single soul who doubted his leadership.
People went hungry but made sure that the 40 days bandh called by GNLF was a
success. People challenged the CRPF and fought them with little or no resources
only for the creation of Gorkhaland and more importantly because they thought
that Ghising would not fail to deliver his promise. In this endeavour people
lost their lives, property, loved ones and youth. Officially the loss of lives
was conservatively estimated to be 1200, but there have been many unaccounted
loss of lives and crores of rupees worth of property not for any other cause
but for the cause of Gorkhaland. However, Ghising did not deliver his promise
and left the people low on confidence and self-belief. What he did has instead
dented the solidarity and peacefulness of the region.
For Ghising the
metamorphosis from being the father of Modern Gorkhaland Movement to being a
stepfather started with the signing of the tripartite agreement with the state
and the central government for the creation of DGHC in 1988. DGHC was an
arrangement to stop the century old movement for the creation of homeland for
the Gorkhas. It was not constitutionally recognised and no constitutional
amendment took place and neither did it have any executive nor legislative
powers worth mentioning. Any power that was vested upon it was only attempts to
eye wash the folks of the hills. The years of sacrifices people had made and
the aspirations people had was lost with that signature on the dotted line. The
process of transformation to stepfather gathered momentum with the issue of
sixth schedule for Darjeeling hills which many individuals in the hills
vehemently opposed and took it as a betrayal on the part of Ghising and GNLF
for their loyalty and support towards them. As a stepfather, he did not accept
any dissent and voice of discontentment from anyone, from within and outside
the party, leading to political victimization and murder of leaders. During his
reign there was chaos, might was right, in short Darjeeling was in a barbaric
stage.
The power got
into his head and from being a charismatic leader with authority he soon
transformed into a traditional authority. The party and the patriarch became
undemocratic. Democratic space in the hills of Darjeeling was systematically
squeezed until it became non-existent. Dissent and opposition was crushed with
heavy hand. The political discourse in Darjeeling under the stepfather was
destined to become an utter failure. And it did fail. DGHC had become defunct
and only Ghising remained as a caretaker. As all despots and dictators Ghising
did not understand that his sway over the public and Darjeeling no more
existed.
He became the
absolutely loathed and ostracized stepfather when he failed to support a local
boy participant in a reality TV show when the public at large saw his
participation as an issue of ethnicity and identity. The pride and ego led to
his eventual downfall. The stepfather was shown the door, never to return, by
the family.
Like a
stepfather full of vengeance he has been plotting strategies to dampen the renewed
enthusiasm, hope and aspiration of his family to achieve the long desired goal
of Gorkhaland. By floating the GNLF again he is trying to break the collective
consciousness and solidarity of the gorkha community. He is doing his best to
unsettle and confuse the people. He is doing all this, and mind you, under the
guidelines of the parties who are against the creation of Gorkhaland and have
time and again reiterated collectively that West Bengal will not be divided. If
not then he would not have been staying in the rented house in jalpaiguri
amidst the people with whom he, throughout his political career, was at
loggerhead.
The large family
which dispossessed him should beware the stepfather and his designs, as he is
trying to hit back a hit back hard. Stepfather has found some space among those
who could not gain materially from the new family structure. The gorkha family
will do itself good if the stepfather and his cohort, the GNLF, who are at the
moment confused when every individual is euphoric at the positive prospect of
their long cherished dream coming true, is outrightly rejected and not allowed
to dictate terms once again and be visible in the vicinity of the house, as it
was them who took away 25 years of our life, dignity, development and movement.
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