Why Centre’s tripartite talks on Gorkhaland impasse raise questions about its intent

The Centre’s proposed tripartite talks on the Gorkhaland issue at North Block on April 2 appear more like political manoeuvring than a genuine effort to address the vexed issue.

The meeting will be held after a gap of four years, as it has become almost a pattern for the BJP government to rake up the Gorkhaland issue in the run-up to an election in West Bengal.

Amit Shah not to chair meeting

Significantly, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will not chair the much-awaited meeting, further raising questions about its intent. It will be presided over by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, denoting a reduced priority.

Also read: What's behind Mamata's calm avatar amid barrage of protests at Oxford?

The state government sources hinted that Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, who has been invited, is unlikely to attend the meeting as the Union home minister will not be present there. West Bengal resident commissioner in New Delhi Ujjani Datta is likely to represent the state, sources added.

In a last such meeting chaired by Shah in October 2021, the Centre had promised to meet again next month in the presence of “senior officials” from West Bengal.

That meeting was never held all these years much to the embarrassment of the BJP leaders in the state, particularly in the Darjeeling hills.

Unrest among BJP supporters

The disquiet became too apparent when a BJP legislator from the hills went to the extent of writing a letter to Shah venting his frustration over the delay.

“The delay and the apparent reluctance to uphold this commitment not only undermine the fate of the Indian Gorkhas in the democratic process but also cast a shadow on the BJP-led Union government’s sincerity in resolving this issue within the constitutional framework of our great republic,” BJP legislator from the Darjeeling Assembly constituency Neeraj Tamang Zimba wrote to the home minister last month.

For the party’s Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, the wait became more awkward as he had been relentlessly pursuing the meeting without success. He had even announced timelines for the meeting on several occasions in the past. Eventually, they never materialised. As late as December last year, emerging from a meeting with Shah, Bista had claimed that the next round of talks would be held in January this year.

After much vacillating, the meeting has finally been convened at a time when the BJP has switched into a complete poll mode in the state hitting the streets to galvanise support for the Assembly elections early next year.

Major electoral promise

The Nepali-speaking Gorkha electorates are a decisive factor in three Assembly constituencies in the hills and can also sway results in at least another 10 seats in the foothills. West Bengal has 294 Assembly seats.

The BJP has been winning Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, comprising seven Assembly segments, on the trot since 2009. A permanent solution to the Gorkhaland issue has been one of the key poll promises of the party in every election ever since it made a foray into the region.

Also read: Is the spat with Tamil Nadu forcing the Centre to mend ties with Bengal?

The permanent solution is interpreted in the hills as either a separate state of Gorkhaland comprising territories of Darjeeling hills or its merger with Sikkim, and granting scheduled tribe status to 11 Gorkha sub-communities.

The sub-tribes are Gurung, Bhujel, Mangar, Newar, Jogi, Khas, Rai, Sunwar, Thami, Yakkha and Dhimal. Presently, seven sub-tribes namely Sherpa, Bhutia, Lepcha, Dukpa, Yolmo, Tamang, and Limbu, are recognised as ST.

The 11 communities along with another community, Majhi, are demanding ST status in Sikkim as well.

Demand for ST status

The granting of ST status to the left-out communities will not be easy as the Registrar General of India has already rejected a proposal in this regard on the ground that they lacked tribal traits. The five criteria that determine the ST status are primitive characters, distinctive culture, shyness of contact with the community at large, geographical isolation and backwardness.

Moreover, it is learnt that the Centre is also reluctant to concede to the ST demand considering larger social implications. The two main concerns are that the inclusion of new communities would create social tension with the existing seven tribal groups. Further, granting the ST status to such a large group could spike immigration from Nepal, a phenomenon that has already altered the demographic profile of Darjeeling Hills and also Sikkim.

There is no consensus even in the BJP for the creation of a separate state or merger of the Gorkhaland area with Sikkim. The BJP leaders from South Bengal are particularly wary of the demand.

Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Golay, who himself is a Nepali, strongly rejected the merger possibility last month. “The merger will never happen. It is not possible,” he told newsmen in Sikkim.

Socio-political complexities associated with the issue explain the Centre’s disinclination in addressing it over the years despite the BJP making it a poll plank.

Also read: TMC flaunts Mamatanomics growth model, but is Bengal truly shining?

List of invitees raises eyebrows

The list of invitees for the upcoming meeting has also raised eyebrows about its real purpose. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), a semi-autonomous council that governs the hills, has not been invited to the meeting, the government sources said.

Even the GTA’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha, and the state’s ruling party, TMC, are not invited, sources added.

It is learnt that only the representatives of the BJP and its allies have been invited, apart from the officials. They are expected to represent the “voice of the people of the hills.”

The absence of all important stakeholders and that the schedule of the meeting has been first conveyed through the BJP’s Darjeeling MP itself smacks of political intention, former TMC MP Shanta Chhetri told The Federal.

The BJP, however, refuted the charge that the meeting will not be adequately represented.

BJP refutes allegations

Stating that it will see the participation of the Centre, state government, and “concerned stakeholders from our region” in the form of elected representatives, the BJP’s Darjeeling MLA called upon all stakeholders to view the opportunity with a spirit of unity keeping in mind the collective aspiration for a permanent political solution.

GTA chief Anit Thapa in a statement said, “Whoever has been invited to the meeting called by the Centre should go and present the case irrespective of whatever be the outcome.” He added, “I have taken the meeting positively. We are ready to help whatever we can.”

The perception that the meeting is another political gimmick ahead of elections is not without reasons, Siliguri-based political commentator Probir Pramanik said, alluding to how in the recent past the BJP-led central government revived the issue before elections only to forget it afterward.

Also read: EC’s goof-up gives TMC an EPIC chance to push its ‘outsider’ narrative

Then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured of a tripartite talk on the Gorkhaland issue ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But the promised meeting was never held during his tenure in the home ministry.

The Centre again pulled the issue out of cold storage holding a tripartite meeting in October 2020, just months before the March-April 2021 Assembly elections. The next meeting was held a year later, only to be revived again ahead of another election.