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Kalimpong, Feb. 6: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today alleged that his political opponents were conducting underground training camps and were hobnobbing with Maoists. He also said though GNLF rebel leader Chhatrey Subba’s hats were likeable, his “brain” was not.
Gurung said the message on Maoist entry in Kalimpong would be sent to the chief minister and warned Subba not to trust the CPRM. He started with a reference to the “task force on Gorkhaland”.
“What is the purpose of the task force? Underground training camp is taking place in Kalimpong and I am sending this message to the chief minister. Some 15-20 Maoists have entered Kalimpong,” he said.
Five hill outfits — the ABGL, the CPRM, GNLF (C), Bharatita Gorkha Parisangh and the Gorkha Rashtriya Nirman Morcha — have come together to form a task force on the Gorkhaland, which they hope to attain.
Gurung asked his party supporters to be on the look out for training camps in the forests of Lava and adjoining areas. “No one should indulge in violence, bloodshed and dictatorship. We will crush them,” he told the audience attending the fourth foundation day anniversary of the Bharatiya Bhutpurva Sainik and Ardha-Sainik Morcha at the Town Hall here.
Gurung tore into his rivals, accusing them of opposing the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration for the sake of opposing. He particularly targeted the 71-year-old Subba, who had spent more than a decade in jail for allegedly masterminding an assassination bid on GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh.
“The Opposition says GTA is not good, but can’t explain why…I did not want to meet Chhatrey Subba, but met him at Relli on the request of my workers. I told him not to trust the CPRM. They will drag him to the ditch,” he said.
The meeting between Gurung and Subba had set tongues wagging in the hills. Subba had made it clear after his release from jail last year that he was against any sort of autonomy, even the GTA for he was a supporter of Gorkhaland. It was for this reason that Subba fell out with Ghisingh when the GNLF chief accepted the DGHC in the late eighties.
Subba is said to have a decent following in the hills, especially in the Kalimpong subdivision, and is seen as someone who could trouble the Morcha if he decides to take Gurung’s party head on.
Gurung said Subba had credited the CPRM for facilitating his release from prison.
“But we had taken up the matter of his release with the state government. Mamata Banerjee and the (state) chief secretary are our proofs. He was released at our request,” he said.
Admitting that Subba had sought his help to renew the Gorkhaland agitation, Gurung warned the people against trusting leaders like him. “You can like his hat. He wears a nice one. But don’t like his brain. He has nothing in his head,” he said to loud guffaws from the audience.
“He is welcome to join me. I will carry him along, but it will be a democratic agitation.” The Morcha president also iterated his party would launch a renewed agitation for Gorkhaland if the GTA agreement was not implemented by March 27.
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