A boarder returns to her residential school in Kalimpong on Friday. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Feb. 22: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya, too, was an “outsider” in the Darjeeling hills and was not welcome there.

Bimal Gurung’s party has come down heavily on Bhattacharya for labelling Morcha supporters, who had gone to Siliguri for an indefinite hunger strike, “outsiders” in the trade hub.

“When Asok Bhattacharya needs votes, he comes to the hills and when we go down to Siliguri he says we are outsiders. If this is the case, then even Bhattacharya should stop coming to the hills for he, too, is an outsider here,” said Gurung, the Morcha president, in Darjeeling.

Bhattacharya is the MLA from Siliguri but represents Mirik valley in Kurseong sub-division also since the area is part of the Siliguri Assembly segment. Hundreds of Morcha supporters from Mirik had gone to Siliguri on Thursday.

“As Indians, we have the right to protest in any part of the country, not just in Siliguri. After all, we only wanted to hold a hunger strike. How can a minister accuse us of playing the communal card,” said Gurung.

The Morcha leader said Siliguri and the Dooars were always a part of Darjeeling and that Gorkhaland should include the two areas. Gurung was referring to the pre-Independence period when the Gorkha population was in the majority in Siliguri. The Morcha said it would continue to hold protest programmes in other parts of the Dooars as well.

I.K. Sharma, a central committee member of the CPRM — an opposition party in the hills — has also criticised the minister’s statement. “Are we from a separate country that we cannot go to Siliguri to protest. The CPRM will also hold (similar) programmes in Siliguri,” said Sharma.

In Siliguri, Bhattacharya warned the Morcha “not to play with fire” and “test the patience of the district police and civil administration”.

“The Morcha has started a destructive and undemocratic movement and is conspiring to create a rift between the hills and the plains,” said the minister who attended a Left Front meeting in the afternoon.

About the Morcha threat that Bhattacharya would not be allowed entry to the hills, Ujjal Choudhury, the district CPI secretary, said the police and administration would take care of it. The minister, himself was silent even as the other front leaders stood by him.

Ransack complaint

In Darjeeling, Deepak Gurung, the GNLF Darjeeling Branch Committee president, claimed that some Morcha supporters had ransacked his house at Pokhriabong at 11 last night. “My sister Nirpa Gurung suffered injuries while the Morcha supporters who went on the rampage fled with gold belonging to my relatives,” he said. An FIR has been filed.