That time of the year

Sir — Perhaps because of the time of the year in which the Madhyamik and Higher Secondary examinations are held, every year a few students appear for the exams with chickenpox. By order from the boards, the answer scripts are supposed to be kept separately by the school authorities, to be fumigated later and formally ‘cleared’ by a doctor. But rarely is this procedure followed. As a result, examiners run the risk of getting infected while correcting the scripts. Will the boards ensure that the directives are obeyed?

Yours faithfully,
S. Chakraborty, Calcutta

Unhealed

Sir — Sumanta Sen blames the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for not allowing contrary opinions to coexist in the Darjeeling hills (“Ruling the roost”, Aug 13). Sen should know that when a movement akin to a revolution is taking place, any belief that goes against that of the rebels is viewed with suspicion. As such, it is unfair to reproach the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for using the baton on the dissenters. However, the occasional violence that may have happened has been the exception rather than the rule. The Morcha, in fact, has issued statements to discourage hostilities.

Sen has lauded the way the government of West Bengal had tackled the Gorkhaland agitations in the Eighties. But the “firm handling” referred to by him involved, among other things, firing on local people by CRPF jawans. The list of human rights violated at that time would be long but because the media were not as active then as now, these have remained undocumented. The present agitation is a tolerant one. If the state government has any sense of fairness, it should handle the Gorkhaland issue with sympathy.

Yours faithfully,
Bhisan Roka, Kalimpong

Sir — Why do people like Sumanta Sen refuse to accept the reality that even ministers like Manab Mukherjee have recognized. The GJM is ‘ruling the roost’ in the hills only because it enjoys the popular mandate. The tourism minister has held talks with Bimal Gurung precisely because of Gurung’s overwhelming following in Darjeeling. Sen should visit the hills to see the truth for himself.

Yours faithfully,
Amar Singh Rai, Darjeeling

Sir — Could Sumanta Sen please explain why he thinks that the Gorkhas’ demand for a separate state is “specious”? The Gorkhas have been left in the lurch for decades by the state government and are now demanding only the privileges that they have been denied for so long. They are not taking Darjeeling away from India but are pleading for the right to self-governance. Is this too much to ask? People of the hills are in general well-disciplined, as is evident from the low crime-rate there. If allowed to function on their own, the Gorkhas would no doubt create a very orderly state.

As to the alleged violence unleashed by the Morcha, one can say that when a group of people have been subjected to all kinds of injustice for long, they are bound to strike back at some time or the other. After all, people do not take up arms for fun. At the same time, the movement led by the GJM has been remarkably peaceful, compared to that of the Gorkha National Liberation Front in the Eighties. It should be remembered that at that time hundreds of communists had been killed or hounded out of the hills by Subhas Ghisingh and his men. But the state government went out of its way to placate Ghisingh and forged a deceptive alliance with him. In the process, the government not only cheated the local people but also let down its old comrades in the hills. Before criticizing the GJM, Sen should recall the lessons taught by history.

Yours faithfully,
E.D.T. Lepcha, Siliguri