Morcha supporters court arrest at Darjeeling police station on Sunday as part of an agitation . Picture by Suman Tamang

March 7: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leadership has received an official communication on the political-level tripartite talks to be held on March 18 in Delhi, but the Centre has not disclosed the names of those who will represent the state government.

The Morcha, in turn, has decided to defer the announcement of the names of its representatives for the meeting till the state discloses the identity of its team members.

The letter written by N. Khalshi, joint secretary, Union home ministry, said the meeting on “the demand for Gorkhaland” will take place in Delhi on March 18. The Centre will be represented by the minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Maken, and the Trinamul Congress MP and minister of state for health, Dinesh Trivedi, the letter reads. The last round of tripartite meeting was held in Darjeeling on December 21.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said in Darjeeling: “We received the letter last evening. It merely states that the Centre has asked the state to send the names of their representatives to the home ministry. We, too, will announce our representatives after the state announces the names of its representatives.”

With Union home minister P. Chidambaram and Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee deciding to stay away from the meeting, there is every likelihood of Morcha president Bimal Gurung skipping the dialogues. Earlier Gurung had ruled out meeting with “second rung” ministers, insisting that Chidambaram and Bhattacharjee attend the talks.

The state government is expected to send two political leaders to represent it in the meeting. However, with the Morcha opposing Asok Bhattacharya’s presence in the meeting, the state government is unlikely to send the Siliguri MLA and minister of urban development and municipal affairs to the meeting. Sources in the home ministry had said Asok Bhattacharya would be one of the two ministers to represent the state government.

While the meeting is being held “on the demand for Gorkhaland”, observers believe that the talks will largely centre around the Morcha’s “secret proposal” of “an interim arrangement” till 2011, the year Assembly polls will be held in Bengal.

“Given the short duration (about a year) left for the Assembly election and the Morcha’s stand on inclusion of Gorkha-dominated areas of the Terai and the Dooars, the meeting is unlikely to throw up any major agreement. A few more rounds of political-level talks are expected even for any interim arrangement,” an observer said.

With the Centre sending an official communiqué on the meeting, Opposition parties in the hills have started demanding that the Morcha should make public the “secret” proposal as early as possible.

“We want the document to be made public on March 10… the public will have more time to deliberate on the document,” said R.B. Rai, the general secretary of the CPRM, the second-largest party in the hills.

In Siliguri ABGL president Madan Tamang told reporters that the Morcha “sold out the aspiration of the Darjeeling people” when they agreed to set up an “interim arrangement”, instead of Gorkhaland.

Recently, GNLF president Subash Ghisingh said he had warned the Centre that any agreement less than statehood would set the hills on fire. Observers believe that Ghisingh is trying hard to make his presence felt in Delhi and Darjeeling.

“However, given the fact that the GNLF has no existing organisational set-up in the hills, it would be extremely difficult for Ghisingh to make an immediate comeback especially when the Morcha is strengthening its grassroots structure,” said an observer.

Morcha president Gurung is currently touring Kurseong subdivision, restructuring his party base after carrying out a similar exercise in Kalimpong subdivision. Today, he held a public meeting at Manju, 15km from Mirik, Ghisingh’s native place.