By IANS,
Kolkata: The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which has been conducting a fast-unto-death agitation for carving a separate Gorkhaland state out of northern West Bengal, Saturday suspended the stir for two days following the central government’s appeal.
“We’ve withdrawn our fast-unto-death programme in view of union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s appeal to GJM activists,” party general secretary Roshan Giri told IANS from Darjeeling over the phone.
He said the GJM had withdrawn the hunger strike and would wait for the next two days till the Dec 21 tripartite meeting on the Darjeeling hills.
“If the dialogue yields no positive result we will again go on a fast-unto-death protest from 11 a.m. Dec 22,” Giri said.
Altogether, 105 GJM activists went on a fast-unto-death protest at five different locations in the hills and the plains Dec 11 demanding a separate state.
The GJM has been spearheading a movement for Gorkhaland, besides opposing special status for the hill’s governing body, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).
The stir seems to have got a fillip after the central government gave the go ahead for initiating steps for a Telangana state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
The central government in 2005 offered the Sixth Schedule status to the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF)-led DGHC, ensuring greater autonomy for the governing body.
The GJM organised twice indefinite shutdowns twice in the hills last year and once in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls this year, severely hitting tea, timber and tourism – the bread and butter of the region.