Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, assuring her that the Centre has no intention of disturbing the 2011 Tripartite Agreement on Gorkhaland, or of taking any decision on the future of that region without taking the state government into confidence.
The Prime Minister’s letter comes in response to an irate missive from Ms. Banerjee in which she accused central ministers of promising leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that they would push their demand for a separate Gorkhaland in Delhi, while keeping the state government in the dark.
The Congress Working Committee’s recent announcement that it would create a new state of Telangana has provided the trigger for the GJM to renew its agitation for statehood, placing the West Bengal government in an awkward position.
Indeed, in recent weeks, a GJM team was in the capital to meet Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Das Munsi on their demand for a separate Gorkhaland.
The Prime Minister has explained in his letter that too much should not be read into the GJM leaders’ meetings with central ministers; the GJM was merely trying to establish a working relationship with the central leaders and would not influence Delhi in any way. The Centre, in any case, was simply not interested in disturbing the tripartite agreement, or of bypassing the state government in any way.
This comes in the midst of the indefinite strike called by the GJM in the Darjeeling hills, and GJM president Bimal Gurung asserting that his organisation would hold deliberations only with the Centre over the statehood demand as “the West Bengal government has no business in this matter”.
This has incensed Ms. Banerjee who has ruled out the division of West Bengal and blamed the Congress for the agitation in the hills. “Darjeeling is part and parcel of West Bengal. There is no question of division of West Bengal,” she told a press conference in Kolkata on July 31.
At that press conference Ms. Banerjee also said the GJM leaders had announced that “some Central leaders have advised them to revive their movement in Darjeeling hills.”
The Prime Minister’s letter comes in response to an irate missive from Ms. Banerjee in which she accused central ministers of promising leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that they would push their demand for a separate Gorkhaland in Delhi, while keeping the state government in the dark.
The Congress Working Committee’s recent announcement that it would create a new state of Telangana has provided the trigger for the GJM to renew its agitation for statehood, placing the West Bengal government in an awkward position.
Indeed, in recent weeks, a GJM team was in the capital to meet Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Das Munsi on their demand for a separate Gorkhaland.
The Prime Minister has explained in his letter that too much should not be read into the GJM leaders’ meetings with central ministers; the GJM was merely trying to establish a working relationship with the central leaders and would not influence Delhi in any way. The Centre, in any case, was simply not interested in disturbing the tripartite agreement, or of bypassing the state government in any way.
This comes in the midst of the indefinite strike called by the GJM in the Darjeeling hills, and GJM president Bimal Gurung asserting that his organisation would hold deliberations only with the Centre over the statehood demand as “the West Bengal government has no business in this matter”.
This has incensed Ms. Banerjee who has ruled out the division of West Bengal and blamed the Congress for the agitation in the hills. “Darjeeling is part and parcel of West Bengal. There is no question of division of West Bengal,” she told a press conference in Kolkata on July 31.
At that press conference Ms. Banerjee also said the GJM leaders had announced that “some Central leaders have advised them to revive their movement in Darjeeling hills.”
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