Narbula: Promises to keep

Darjeeling, June 9: The GNLF has decided to felicitate Dawa Narbula, the Congress MP from Darjeeling, for his victory in the Lok Sabha poll.

Deepak Gurung, the president of the Darjeeling branch committee of the GNLF, said the programme would be organised at Capitol Hall in Darjeeling on June 13.

“Dawa Narbula has said he will attend the function. We just want to felicitate him for his victory. We will not place any demand before him on that day,” Gurung said.

Narbula’s mere presence at the function would be significant, given that the Congress is still part of the People’s Democratic Front (PDF) — a five party coalition formed to counter Ghisingh’s influence in the hills.

“The Darjeeling MP’s felicitation ceremony could also confuse voters, something that the GNLF can take advantage of in future,” a political observer said.

Though the Congress welcomed Ghisingh’s support during the Lok Sabha election, Narbula’s decision to attend the felicitation after winning the poll does not bode well for the PDF which, surprisingly, has decided not to felicitate the Darjeeling MP.

The five-party alliance, comprising the ABGL, CPRM, BJP, Congress and GNLF(C), had stayed away from the victory celebrations after the poll results were declared.

The GNLF had, on that occasion, too, stolen the Opposition’s thunder by taking out rallies and claiming credit for Narbula’s victory from the prestigious Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat.

Narbula, however, had not participated in the revellery that followed his win.

Madan Tamang, the PDF president, said: “We are not felicitating Narbula. The GNLF can do all the dancing around, because that is all that the party has done in the past 16 years.”

Tamang further added that the alliance would only work to ensure that Narbula fulfilled the promises he had made to the people before the poll.

Narbula, who was propped up as a PDF-supported Congress candidate, was made to publicly swear allegiance to the coalition and vow to work towards fulfilling the priorities that had been listed in the PDF’s manifesto.

That decision, political observers had said, was taken to prevent Narbula from switching sides in the event of a victory. There are many instances of such “change in loyalty” in the history of hill politics.

“We are not interested in the a tug-of-war, but will ensure that Narbula fulfils the promises he made to the public. Things will be very different if he does live up to the promises he has made,” said Tamang.

Analysts believe it would serve the PDF’s interests best if if Narbula keeps a distance from all political parties in the hills, given the peculiar political situation that has emerged after Ghisingh’s decision to back the Opposition.

Tamang too echoed similar views. “It was an impossible task to tie down any party within the front if they did decide not to stay within the conglomeration,” he said.