Darjeeling, Dec. 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has decided to scale down its agitation programme, already relaxed for three days for Christmas, indicating that it was ready to repose its faith in dialogues that are currently in progress.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “The hunger strike from December 26 will be a relay fast with the minority forum starting it the first day. Each batch will be on fast for 24 hours.”

The move seems to be the fallout of the Centre’s “need for wide-ranging consultations” on Telangana announced by the home ministry yesterday. The announcement had given the impression that Telangana was being put on the back-burner.

The Morcha has decided on a more mellowed approach by not going in for hardline tactics like a fast-unto-death. The indefinite hunger strike that began on December 11 after the Centre announced the formation of Telangana was withdrawn on the 19th following an appeal from P. Chidambaram to maintain a conducive atmosphere in the hills before the fourth round of tripartite talks scheduled two days later.

After the talks on December 21, Morcha president Bimal Gurung had announced that the hunger strike would be a fast-unto-death. Gurung had also announced that all government offices would remain closed from December 26 onwards.

Today Giri said: “The offices will remain closed from December 28 but banks, post offices and LIC offices will be kept out of the bandh’s purview.”

Asked about the reason behind the Morcha’s present stand, Giri said: “The change of plan is because of the present scenario.” He, however, did not elaborate on the “present scenario”.

Observers believe that the Morcha, which had upped its ante following the home ministry’s December 9 announcement on “initiation of process for the formation of Telangana,” seems to have realised that agitation programmes would not bear much fruit especially when a tripartite meeting on Gorkhaland is currently in progress.

The rollback by the Centre on Telangana yesterday has also made the Morcha leadership realise that strong-arm tactics would not hold water. The Morcha has already demanded that the fifth rounds of tripartite talks should be held at the political level.

Soon after the Telangana announcement, Gurung, had termed the tripartite meeting as “unimportant”.

“But with problems in Andhra Pradesh because of lack of political consensus, the Morcha seems to have realised that intensifying the agitation at this stage will yield little result,” said an observer.

Also, the Centre’s hint about the possibility of the second State Reorganisation Commission has made the Morcha hopeful.

“If the SRC is formed, the Morcha will have to stop its agitation and merely concentrate on influencing the SRC members on the need for the formation of a new state. The formation of the SRC might see the Morcha scaling down its agitation even further,” said another observer.