Ghisingh: Under the scanner

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 18: Senior CPI leaders have alleged that GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh is inciting the people of the hills by reviving the demand for a separate state even after signing the Sixth Schedule.

At a news conference held at the district CPI office here last evening, Manju Kumar Majumdar, the state secretary of the party, said the Left Front will soon start campaigning against the GNLF chief?s ?irrational demand for a separate state?.

?We are worried about the double standards of Ghisingh. On one hand, he says he is happy with the Sixth Schedule, while on the other he is inciting the hill people and raising the demand for a separate state in public meetings. He has never expressed his views clearly and sometimes we have the feeling that he himself does not know what he actually wants,? said Majumdar.

According to the CPI leader, since the launching of the GNLF movement in the hills and the formation of the DGHC in the eighties, the GNLF leader had never been clear about his stand or that of his party?s.

?When the DGHC was formed, Ghisingh announced that residents of Darjeeling hills have earned what they had wanted for so long. Recently, he raised the demand for the inclusion of the DGHC area within the Sixth Schedule and now, once again, he is clamouring for a separate state. This is in no way rational,? Majumdar added.

The CPI, Majumdar said, will under no circumstances accept any division of Darjeeling district or the formation of a separate state.

The GNLF chief, he added, should concentrate on development work in the area instead of inciting the residents.

According to Majumdar, keeping in mind the Assembly elections next year and the revival of the statehood demand in the hills, the CPI has been instructed to start door to door campaigning so that people become aware of Ghisingh?s double standards.