The Morcha president, Bimal Gurung (centre), at a meeting in Kalimpong on Wednesday. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha

Siliguri, March 10: GNLF leader Rajen Mukhia today organised a media conference holding a rope with noose and iterated his promise that he would hang himself if the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha could keep its pledge of achieving the separate state.

“After Bimal Gurung’s assertion that he would achieve Gorkhaland by March 10, 2010 or else he would shoot himself in public, I had announced that if he could deliver on the promise, I would commit suicide by hanging,” said Mukhia, the convener of the Terai branch of the GNLF.

According to Mukhia, the Morcha is making empty promises to fool the people of the hills.

“Since this morning, I have been carrying this rope (with noose) to hear from the Morcha leadership that they have achieved Gorkhaland and to commit suicide to keep my word. I rang up Alokekantmani Thulung ( a central committee member of the Morcha) at 11.19am and asked him where Gorkhaland was. He could not answer and now I want to see how the Morcha leader will keep his word or else, we interpret this as another attempt by him to fool the people in the hills,” said the GNLF leader.

Mukhia said it was part of the GNLF’s tactics to keep silent when the Morcha had gone on the rampage frequently in the hills after its birth in 2007.

Rajen Mukhia shows the rope to ‘commit suicide’ in Siliguri on Wednesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

“We remained silent and did not do anything even when houses and vehicles of our leaders and supporters were torched and attacked. The non-reaction was only to make sure that the Morcha would not blame the GNLF in future for its failure to form Gorkhaland.”

Hinting that the hills would again witness violence, Mukhia said the GNLF cadres had now been asked to come out and confront Morcha members.

The GNLF said the only result of the Morcha movement was that its leaders had become millionaires by siphoning off government funds. “We feel the movement was part of a conspiracy hatched by the state government to deter the GNLF from achieving the separate state,” said Mukhia.

He added that the GNLF was seeking Gorkhaland or autonomous council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. “We are moving step by step and are waiting to know the result of the March 18 tripartite meeting at the political level. If nothing fruitful emerges after the talks, we will raise the demand to bring the hills under the Sixth Schedule.”

He said Subash Ghisingh’s party did not believe in fixing arbitrary deadlines to achieve the goals..

CPM call

The Darjeeling district leaders of the CPM on Wednesday asked the Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee to call off the 24-hour strike on March 18 to protest the tripartite meeting in Delhi on that day.

“The CPM wants a peaceful environment in the (Darjeeling) district before and during the tripartite talks and asks the Bhasha Banchao Committee to withdraw the strike,” said Jibesh Sarkar, a district secretariat member of the party.