Bipartite meeting between CM and GJMM

2-way first, 3-way next: CM
- Morcha turns down appeal
OUR BUREAU - The Telegraph
Lama at Writers’ Buildings after the meeting with the chief minister on Friday.Picture by Amit Datta

Calcutta/Darjeeling, June 27: Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ruled out the creation of a new state but told a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha team today that he had no objection to holding tripartite talks with the Centre on how to grant more powers to the hill council.

Before going to Delhi, the chief minister would like “a few more rounds of bipartite talks” but the Morcha said it was either Gorkhaland or nothing for it.

“I told the Morcha that if we cannot sit together and work out a political solution to the problem in the hills, talks with the Centre would not be meaningful. So, I appealed to them to go back to Darjeeling and think again on my proposals for bipartite discussions,” the chief minister said after the 50-minute meeting that was held at the Writers’ Buildings.

Bengal chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb and home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti were present at the meeting. Yesterday, both of them had ruled out the possibility of the state government agreeing to the demand for Gorkhaland.

The Morcha leaders, however, turned down the chief minister’s appeal. The Morcha team’s brief for the meeting — prepared by party chief Bimal Gurung — was to stick to the demand for tripartite talks on statehood.

“The chief minister told us about granting more powers to the hill council. But we turned down his proposals and told him that we want Gorkhaland. So in that way our meeting was not successful,” said Amar Lama, who headed the Morcha’s four-member delegation.

“The chief minister did say that the Centre would not agree to our demand for statehood, but we categorically told him that the tripartite meeting should take place first and that it was our responsibility to convince the Centre,” Lama added.

However, Bhattacharjee was not ready to entertain the demand for a new state and instead harped on the unity of Bengal.

“I told the Morcha delegation that we have been staying united for so long and in a peaceful manner. So, why is the question of the state’s division being raised? What for? I had said this at an earlier meeting with the Morcha too,” said the chief minister.

With today’s meeting termed a failure by the Morcha, Lama said the party’s central committee would take a decision on whether to continue with its indefinite bandh in the hills or not.

The hills are currently enjoying a bandh breather, but the shutdown is scheduled to resume on July 5.

“We also informed the chief minister about the indecent behaviour that our students, mainly girls, had to face in Bagdogra on June 12 and he asked us to send him specific instances. He also said North Bengal University will have to conduct a re-examination for all affected students,” Lama said.

Bandhs by the Morcha and by organisations opposed to the Gorkhaland demand had forced a number of students to miss university exams in the hills, the Terai and the Dooars recently.

In Darjeeling, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “The demand for Gorkhaland is within the ambit of the Indian Constitution, which has provisions for the creation of separate states. We will carry on with our peaceful movement.”

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No headway after Gorkhaland meet
28 Jun 2008, 0418 hrs IST,TNN - The Times of India

KOLKATA: The bipartite meeting between chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders on the issue of a separate state of Gorkhaland ended inconclusively on Friday.

"The CM offered more autonomy and financial powers to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which we rejected. We want to discuss only Gorkhaland," GJM central committee members Amar Lama and Anmole Prasad said after the meeting. "We have also requested the CM to arrange a tripartite meeting with the Centre."

Bhattacharjee, however, harped on the need to continue the bipartite dialogue between the state government and GJM in search a political solution. "I told them what I had said earlier as well. We can stay in West Bengal together, there is no need for us to separate," Bhattacharjee said later. "I said there is need for more economic and social development in Darjeeling and more power can be given to the Hills."

The CM was not averse to a tripartite meeting, but thought more groundwork would have to be done before such a meeting, and a common ground had to be found. "I told them I have no problem with tripartite meetings, but there needs to be a basis for it. It would be more meaningful if we come to certain agreements. Otherwise, I am doubtful if anything will come out of that meeting."

Whether the bandh would be resumed and what form of agitation GJM would continue from now on would be decided in Darjeeling, said Lama. Besides Lama and Prasad, two other GJM leaders, Raju Pradhan and Dinesh Rai, also represented GJM in the meeting.

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Hill talks: CM relents
Statesman News Service

KOLKATA, June 27: Bowing to Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha pressure, the chief minister today agreed to its proposal to facilitate a tripartite meeting to be attended by the Centre, the state government and the agitating outfit to discuss the issue a separate Gorkhaland state. The date for the meeting will be fixed later.

Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who held a meeting with four representatives of the GJMM at Writers’ Buildings during the day, however suggested evolving a mutually acceptable formula on the basis of which the tripartite meeting can be held “meaningfully”. Mr Amar Lama, who led the GJMM delegation, said: “We will be satisfied with nothing short of carving out a separate Gorkhaland state and hence we turned down the chief minister's proposal to accord more administrative and financial powers to the existing DGHC.”

The chief minister explained to the GJMM leaders that the government believed that the people of the Hills and the plains can live together and “there's no need or reason for carving out a separate state.”

“I told them whatever problems there are can be tackled if more socio-economic powers are given to the existing DGHC. I also told them we have no objection in principle to holding tripartite talks, while at the same time the GJMM leadership can still give a thought to holding bipartite talks,” Mr Bhattacharjee said.