Chief minister Suvendi Adhikari and the administrative top brass of Bengal held a meeting with Pankaj Kumar Singh, the Centre’s interlocutor for carrying forward talks concerning the longstanding demand for “a permanent political solution” or PPS for the Darjeeling hills, in Calcutta on Thursday.
Raju Bista, the Darjeeling BJP MP, was present at the meeting in Nabanna. This is the first time in recent years that the state government has held a meeting with the Centre’s interlocutor on the hills.
“The chief minister today assured that the BJP government in the state will fully cooperate in the dialogue process, and work positively to find a constitutional solution at the earliest. With this, the talks will be expedited, and I am confident that all the stakeholders will cooperate and work united towards forging the path ahead,” Bista wrote in a social media post after the meeting.
Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the chief secretary; Subrata Gupta, the adviser to the chief minister; Sanghamitra Ghosh, the home secretary; and Siddh Nath Gupta, the director general of police, were present at the meeting.
In October last year, the Centre had appointed Singh, a former deputy national security adviser, as the “interlocutor and government representative” on the issues of “Darjeeling, Dooars and Terai.”
According to the terms of reference, Singh will take the dialogue forward and recommend measures for the “social economic upliftment, cultural recognition, preservation of cultural heritage of Gorkhas in the region and address their aspiration within the constitutional framework of the country”.
Such a decision by the Narendra Modi government had irked the then chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had sent two letters to the Prime Minister, mentioning that the appointment had been made without consulting the Bengal government, “even though the issues directly relate to the governance, peace and administrative stability of life under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration”.
In January this year, Singh visited the region and spoke to people, including leaders of prominent regional parties. Ahead of the Assembly polls in Bengal, his visit was seen as an initiative by the Centre to work on two promises made by the BJP to the hills — PPS and conferment of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status on 11 Gorkha communities.
In 2009, the then Congress-led UPA government had appointed Lt Gen Vijay Madan (retd) as the interlocutor to initiate talks among the Centre, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which was on an agitation, and the erstwhile Left Front government of Bengal.
Madan held some meetings but eventually resigned in 2011, ahead of the Assembly polls that brought Mamata Banerjee to power.
During the past 15 years, Mamata and the Trinamool leadership have time and again mentioned that they are principally against the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state.
The Trinamool government had even passed a resolution in the Assembly against any further division of Bengal in August 2024, along with the support of the BJP, which was the principal opposition then.
In Thursday’s post, Bista mentioned that the erstwhile Trinamool government had taken an “outright antagonistic stand and repeatedly refused to pursue the path of dialogue”.
The meeting held on Thursday, he said, proves that the Centre and the state are giving the highest level of priority and focus to the issue.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha — an ally of the BJP – welcomed the move.
“We welcome the move and will monitor further developments,” said Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha.
Political observers pointed out that, unlike Trinamool, which is against the demand for the PPS, the BJP has time and again said that it will “sympathetically” consider the demand, a move that helped the party to secure votes across the hills in Parliament and Assembly elections.
“Now that the party has been voted to power, it will have to strike a balance and cannot be in denial mode like Trinamool. But considering the strong sentiment that pervades across Bengal against any further division of the state, it would be interesting to see how the new government handles the issue,” said an observer.