With Bengal Polls on the Horizon, BJP Rakes up Demand for Gorkhaland Again

Kolkata: With around eight months to the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, issues surrounding the state's hilly regions have made their way into the news cycle as usual.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Darjeeling, Raju Bista on September 19, on the floor of Lok Sabha, said, “I requested the Union government to expedite the process of ascertaining Permanent Political Solution to fulfil the long pending demand of the people from Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars region. I requested the parliament to take cognisance of the fact that the demand for Gorkhaland state is a long-pending demand of the people from Darjeeling Hills, Terai, and Dooars.”

In the 2019 Sankalp Patra (the party manifesto), the BJP had said, “We will recognise the 11 left out Indian Gorkha sub-tribes as Schedule Tribes. We are also committed to implementing reservation in the legislative assembly of Sikkim for Limboo and Tamang tribes. We are committed to work towards finding a permanent political solution to the issue of Darjeeling Hills, Siliguri Terai and Dooars region.”

Earlier in 2014, the saffron party in its general election manifesto stated that it would “sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long-pending demands of the Gorkhas.” The same was mentioned in BJP’s 2009 poll manifesto.

Former cabinet minister and BJP leader Jaswant Singh had been elected from the Darjeeling constituency in 2009. In 2014, S.S. Ahluwalia won the seat by defeating Indian footballer Bhaichung Bhutia and in 2019, Raju Bista won the seat with a whopping margin of over four lakh votes.

Protesters rally on the streets of Darjeeling demanding Gorkhaland. File photo. Photo: PTI

The BJP has won successive elections to the Darjeeling parliamentary seat since 2009 but has failed to keep its poll promise. This has irked the regional parties, one of which is an ally of the BJP. In August this year, the Bimal Gurung and Binoy Tamang faction of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) skipped a tripartite meeting called by the Union home ministry to review the “Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) system.”

Also read: BJP's Backing Gives Strength to Those Agitating for Gorkhaland

The Bimal Gurung faction of GJM is an ally of BJP while the Binoy Tamang faction joined Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool.

"Gorkhaland demand always makes an appearance during elections in the Hills, whether it is panchayat, civic body, assembly or parliamentary election. Politicians are apprehensive that if they do not raise this issue, they will not get votes. This has become the trend in the Hills. With elections, all will be out with the ‘Gorkhaland-jhola’ (bag) seeking votes. But for how long?” Anit Thapa, the Gorkha Territorial Administration chairman, told The Wire. Thapa is the GJM (Binoy Tamang faction) general secretary.

Thapa further said that, "We (Gorkhas) are emotional people. People here kept trusting BJP...not once but thrice, the hills voted for BJP. Now they feel cheated. They feel used."

BJP’s U-turn on Gorkhaland

Regional parties from Darjeeling have generally trusted New Delhi as the right to create new states is the Centre's prerogative. The parties especially trusted the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government because it had created three states when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

Before 2014, BJP was a nonentity in the state's politics and, on multiple occasions, had supported the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. During the general election campaign in 2014, prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had famously said, “Gorkha ka sapna, mera sapna (dreams of Gorkhas are my dreams)".

Just before the 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP's candidate for the Darjeeling seat, S.S. Ahluwalia, who went on to win the seat, supported the formation of a separate state of Gorkhaland. “The BJP has always supported creation of smaller states as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and was in favour of Telangana and so Gorkhaland should also be formed,” Ahluwalia said.

Politics has since changed drastically. After the 2019 general election, the BJP has emerged as the principal opposition to the TMC in Bengal. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the party is very well aware that it can never win a majority in West Bengal by supporting the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. Hence, the volte-face on the issue.

Also read: A People's Account of the Ongoing Struggle for Gorkhaland

Earlier this year in February, in an exclusive interview to The Wire, BJP's West Bengal president and MP, Dilip Ghosh, on the subject of Gorkhaland said, “We don’t believe in the idea of a separate state for Gorkhaland. We are looking for a permanent solution for the Gorkhas, their language, tradition, social-economic status and the like.”

Ghosh further said that the “Gorkhaland issue was harboured by a very small regional party (GJM)” and that the party was currently facing an ‘existential crisis’. “Neither have they had leaders nor any ideology. I admit they are our election partners and in the last assembly election, they contested with BJP symbol. They have placed their demands and we are currently working on it,” Ghosh said.

BJP's Dilip Ghosh. Photo: Twitter/@DilipGhoshBJP

Agitation of 2017

Since 2017, the hills of Darjeeling have been rocked by agitations for statehood – witnessing a record 104-day strike and shutdown in support of the demand for Gorkhaland. BJP and it's then MP from Darjeeling, Ahluwalia, had to face criticism from Gorkha residents for not supporting them during their hour of crisis.

In fact, the circumstances changed so fast that for 18 months, the BJP could not enter Darjeeling and initiate any political activity in the hills as the people were enraged at the BJP and accused the party of using them for political purposes.

Later, the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) extended support to the BJP and joined hands with the Bimal Gurung faction of GJM. This change in political equation helped the BJP field a candidate for the Darjeeling seat. Ahluwalia, however, was removed.

As Bengal is gears for the upcoming polls, the current Darjeeling MP Raju Bista has once again raised the issue of Gorkhaland. However, the party is now facing questions over its intent and lack of attempts to resolve the issue despite being in power at the Centre for over six years. Call made by The Wire to reach Raju Bista went unanswered.

Also read: Why the Gorkha Homeland Talks Are a One Way Street

A senior local journalist from Darjeeling, who wished to remain anonymous told The Wire, “There is a notion in the hill that ‘Delhi-party’ is pro-Gorkha and will accept their long-standing demand for Gorkhaland. So, they keep their allegiance with parties at the Centre, especially BJP. But a lot of time has passed, the BJP has been in power for over six years now, but they haven’t done anything to resolve the issue. This is not going well with the local leadership and common people also feel betrayed.”

The BJP’s stand on Gorkhaland became clearer, when recently, Sagar Pokhrel, the President of the BJP's youth wing, Darjeeling district committee (Hills,) told a newspaper that, "One thing is for sure, only the Union government has the power to carve out Gorkhaland from West Bengal. Whichever party comes to power in the Centre will not want to lose the 42 assembly seats of West Bengal by supporting the formation of Gorkhaland. No party in West Bengal or at the Centre will side with the Gorkhaland demand. This is the truth and this is what we have to realise."

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