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GJMM delegation meets with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee

Statesman News Service
Pranab positive about ‘Gorkhaland’

DARJEELING, Aug. 21: The external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee has expressed a positive response towards the Gorkhaland demand at a meeting with the GJMM delegation in Delhi today, claimed the GJMM leadership.

“In an hour long discussion, the minister listened intently to the various aspects of the demand we presented before him. He maintained that our demand was Constitutional and not anti-national, assuring us that he would confer the issue with the Prime Minister, Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi and the Union home minister,” said GJMM general secretary Mr Roshan Giri from New Delhi today. “Mr Mukherjee informed us that the Congress is not averse to the creation of smaller states. In the year 2000, a committee chaired by him had considered the Gorkhaland demand. Since he has now got a first hand account of facts he would take further steps concerning the demand,” Mr Giri said.

Ever since a letter arrived from the home Ministry expressing a desire to hold tripartite talks to resolve the Gorkhaland issue, Hill parties were anticipating a mid-August date for the talks. The main purpose of the GJMM’s visit to Delhi was to decide the agenda and fix a date for the dialogue.This development has paved a path for the tripartite meeting, which the GJMM had threatened to boycott if talks did not centre on the Gorkhaland demand. The Centre is yet to fix the date for the talks though.

“The tripartite talks are on the way but the Centre has not yet conveyed us the date. They will intimate us as soon as they decide,” Mr Giri said.

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Morcha banks on Cong for Gorkhaland talks - ‘Small state’ balm calms outfit

Darjeeling, Aug. 21: The Congress leadership in Delhi has told the delegation of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha that it was “not averse” to creating smaller states, MP Dawa Narbula said today.

The Morcha claimed that the ruling party’s stand has thrown up the possibility of a dialogue on Gorkhaland.

The Congress’s reported stand comes in the wake of the state government and the Left Front’s repeated assertions that there could be no dialogue on statehood. In fact, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government had time and again shot down the Morcha demand to discuss Gorkhaland and offered instead to provide greater autonomy to the hills.

The nine-member delegation of the Morcha today met the external affairs minister at his South Block office in New Delhi in the presence of the Congress MP from Darjeeling.

“Mukherjee himself told the delegation that the party was not averse to the idea of creating smaller states. He also emphasised that the demand for Gorkhaland was within the framework of the Indian Constitution and could not be termed anti-national,” said Narbula over the phone from the capital.

The Morcha team has apprised Mukherjee of several aspects of the statehood demand and refrained from speaking much on the proposed tripartite meeting.

“Our demand is Gorkhaland and that was the only issue we discussed today,” said Roshan Giri, the Morcha general secretary that headed the delegation.

Asked if Gorkhaland would figure in the proposed tripartite meeting, central committee leader Amar Lama said: “The meeting with Mukherjee and his statement on the party’s stand on smaller states must be seen as a positive response towards getting Gorkhaland listed in the talks agenda.”

Morcha president Bimal Gurung had threatened to walk out if statehood was not discussed in the proposed tripartite meeting.

The delegation was assured that Gorkhaland would be discussed with all seriousness with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and home minister Shivraj Patil as soon as possible.

“The Congress leader told us that the issue would be discussed seriously soon. He said the party was considering the setting up of a second State Reorganisation Commission to look into the demands of the smaller states in the country,” said Giri.

© 2008 The Gorkhaland Chronicle.