GJM is trying to blackmail the Government by trying to take ABAVP with it

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is unhappy with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leadership for “trying to bite more territories in the Dooars than it should legitimately swallow”.

However, there was no official communication from the Chief Minister’s Office after Morcha chief Bimal Gurung struck a deal with Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) leader John Burla.

Following the deal, Gurung dropped his demand for Gorkhaland Territorial Authority (GTA) — agreed upon in a tripartite movement signed by the Centre, State and GJM — and sought to replace it with a new arrangement called Gorkha Adivasi Territorial Authority (GATA), comprising all the 513 moujas of the Dooars.

In the earlier demand, the GJM had demanded 196 Gorkha-majority moujas and a high-powered team led by Justice Shyamal Sen was instituted to look into it.

However, Banerjee is unhappy because the new deal would stir a hornet’s nest in an already volatile area vexed by multiplicity of sub-national interests. Groups like Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association, Kamtapuri People’s Party and Madesias are already asking for their pounds of flesh.

“The GJM is trying to blackmail the Government by trying to take ABAVP with it,” said a Trinamool Minister.

If the Government allows this, the 29 per cent-plus Bengali population — a majority of which voted for the Trinamool — would be alienated from the party. “Didi would never concede to the demand and the GJM will have to look to work within what it had earlier demanded,” the Minister added.

While the GJM refused to comment on the issue, a party MLA said the Government would have to assuage feelings of the Gorkhas of the plains to get permanent peace in the region.

Meanwhile, John Burla rushed to Kolkata on Thursday to hold talks with ABAVP president Birsa Tirkey, who earlier rejected the new deal with the GJM and demoted the former from his post of a district president.

Tirkey said “Burla was not within his jurisdiction to sign any pact with any outfit while rejecting the deal” calling it “unacceptable and impractical agreement which has no basis.”

Tirkey conceded that the GATA agreement would obviously drive a wedge in the Adivasi organisation and finally help Gurung.