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Tussle over Ghising’s resignation

KOLKATA: Though Subash Ghising has informed the West Bengal government that he will be resigning from the post of administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), his supporters and opponents in the Darjeeling hills are keeping their fingers crossed on ‘where’ he puts in his papers.

Mr. Ghising’s associates in the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) of which he is president, insist that he will submit his resignation only after returning to Darjeeling from New Delhi where he has been spending the past few days.

But their rivals, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), that has replaced the GNLF and emerged over the past few months as the dominant force in the region, have challenged Mr. Ghising from entering the Hills without relinquishing his post prior to his return.

GJM chief Bimal Gurung, who returned to the Hills from Kolkata on Saturday to a tumultuous welcome and with an assurance from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that Mr. Ghising will be resigning his DGHC post, reiterated on Sunday that the latter would not be allowed by his party supporters to enter the region unless he puts in his papers before setting out for the hills.

“If he does not put in his papers the people will stop him from returning to Darjeeling. We have been demanding that he quit and Mr. Bhattacharjee has told us [on February 29] that if he refuses to resign within ten days he will be sacked,” Mr. Gurung told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling.

Senior leaders of the GNLF, however, said that they had advised their leader to tender his resignation — if he is so compelled — only after his return to the hill-town. They also threatened to launch a fresh movement for a separate Gorkhaland State to be carved out of the Darjeeling Hills and certain areas contiguous to it if the move for granting of Sixth Schedule status to the region was scrapped.

Also an advocate of the Statehood demand, the GJM leadership’s opposition to the Sixth Schedule move had figured in its recent meetings with the Chief Minister. The issue has been put on hold with the Parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs recommending to the Union Home Ministry a fresh assessment of the situation in the Hills before proceeding with the amendment bills pertaining to the subject.

As opposed to the granting of Sixth Schedule to the Hills, the demand for Gorkhaland is very much on Mr. Gurung’s agenda.

“We are open to political discussions with the West Bengal government in the coming weeks on our main demand for separate statehood but our immediate plans revolve on the return of peace to the region”, he said.

The Chief Minister discussed the situation in the Hills with the Darjeeling district leadership of the Communist Party of India [Marxist] in Siliguri during the day.

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