Governor R.N. Ravi on Thursday said the state government was committed to finding a "permanent political solution" to the Gorkhaland issue, giving the thorny subject a rare official mention on the floor of the Bengal Assembly.
“My government is committed to arriving at a permanent political solution to the long-drawn Gorkhaland issue through negotiations with all the stakeholders,” Ravi said, addressing the first budget session under the state’s new BJP government.
It’s the state government that prepares the text of the governor’s address to the budget session.
The BJP, which had first pledged a permanent political solution (PPS) in its 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto, has never explicitly said what form it might take — an elbow room preserved in Ravi’s address, too.
The Suvendu Adhikari administration knows that for most hills people, a permanent solution means a Gorkhaland state — a political hot potato given the sentiments Darjeeling invoke in the Bengali heartland.
No one was surprised, therefore, when Suvendu, on his first visit as chief minister to the Darjeeling hills on Tuesday, avoided any talk of a PPS while honouring the Gorkhaland martyrs.
Ravi’s statement has been warmly welcomed in the Darjeeling hills, by ordinary people as well as politicians from across the spectrum, given the rarity of any positive mention of the Gorkhaland issue from state authorities.
“We welcome this statement and thank Hon’ble Chief Minister Sh. Suvendu Adhikari ji for placing the Permanent Political Solution for our region among the top priorities of the BJP government,” Darjeeling MP Raju Bista of the BJP said in a written statement.