Darjeeling, April 27: Political parties in the Darjeeling hills have welcomed the demand made by the Maoists in Kathmandu to scrap the 58-year-old India-Nepal peace and friendship treaty, though the two sides are driven by entirely different reasons.

Prachanda’s party has termed the treaty “unequal”. The hills, on the other hand, are focusing on Article VII of the treaty. It states: “The governments of India and Nepal agree to grant, on reciprocal basis, to the nationals of one country in the territories of the other the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and privileges of a similar nature.”

At the height of the Gorkhaland agitation in 1987, GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh had first demanded that the article be repealed because it allegedly clouded the question of identity. He had claimed that even Indian “Gorkhas” were being labelled as “foreigners” because the treaty allowed Nepalese citizens to freely reside in India.

On July 27, 1987, 13 people had been killed when GNLF supporters marching towards Mela Ground in Kalimpong to burn copies of the treaty clashed with police. Since then, the party has frequently raised the demand of scrapping the treaty.

Now, other parties have taken up the cudgels. D.S. Bomzom, the spokesperson for the CPRM, said: “We, too, are not opposed to scrapping the clause. It will benefit the hill people protect their identity. A system of work permits for people who wish to get jobs in each other’s territories could be introduced.”

ABGL, however, refused to commit. “Many of our people, too, are working in Nepal and their problems must also be looked at. We must first study all the ramifications of scrapping the treaty,” ABGL president Madan Tamang said.

Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, also tread cautiously and said the matter must first be discussed at the party’s central committee.

This is in marked contrast to Giri’s attitude when he headed the All Gorkha Student's Union and frequently asked for the immediate scrapping of Article VII.