Editorial: Bandh culture and Gorkhaland

Couple of years on and the blistering demand of Gorkhaland that rocks Writers’ building every time it is chanted in the hills whether could swell the minds of the people is a deemed guess. Would the series of bandhs called by the force driving the hot seat at the hill body bring in Gorkhaland or for that matter baffle the women in white sari to rethink a strategy for another way to keep the hills smiling?

If a series of bandhs or closing down of government offices and torch rallies is the right weapon to achieve statehood, all these at the moment has not won the hearts of the hill people. All the aforesaid strategies however are weapons that has been used in the past agitation that once fetched a hill body called Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) petted by Subash Ghisingh who felt himself a king. At present it is the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) which is occupied by the party that has called the bandh.

The renewed agitation itself has drawn much confusion as even if Gorkhaland demand is a serious ploy of the GJM, it should have first resigned from the GTA. Until the party riding piggyback on the GTA asks for a separate state, the government has ample reasons to turn a deaf ear to the demand. The opposition here is right in every possible way.

Planning is the optimum measure required for the issue from all quarters irrespective of political colour. The bandh culture has fetched nothing so far anywhere in India. It has infact effected the economy and hit the people hard. In the hills the bandh has fetched only the DGHC or the GTA and ironically the ruling party itself accepts that it would not fulfill the aspiration of the hill people.

The question however is if it is so, was it not a blunder to accept the GTA? But, then if it has already been accepted, the ruling party has no base to say that the state has been infringing its powers. A mere interim arrangement will never get the power what the ruling GJM is looking for.

All these may be observations but the bandh culture has started to haunt the hills the effect of which is expected to be hard.