The Centre has decided to hold an “official-level” tripartite meeting on a “permanent political solution” for the Darjeeling region in the first week of September and will invite the Bengal government to the talks, Darjeeling MP and BJP leader Raju Bista said on Friday.
If the event is held as Bista said, it will be the first time the Narendra Modi government would be holding a meeting on a permanent political solution to the Darjeeling issue.
On Friday, Bista called on Union home minister Amit Shah along with GNLF president Mann Ghisingh, former Darjeeling MP and Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist president R.B. Rai, BJP MLAs from Darjeeling and Kurseong Neeraj Zimba and B.P. Bajgain, respectively, and BJP hill president Kalyan Dewan.
Bista said: “I am happy to state that the Union home minister has assured us that an invitation for an official meeting for a permanent political solution will be issued next week, around August 12… and the first official meeting will start in the first week of September.”
The invitation, Bista said, would be issued to “Gorkha representatives, elected members of Parliament and MLAs, and the ministry will also invite the state government”.
The Darjeeling hills have two MLAs from the BJP and one, Ruden Sada Lepcha, from the Anit Thapa faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. Thapa’s party is in alliance with the Trinamul Congress, which is opposed to any bifurcation of Bengal.
Bista’s statement was celebrated in Darjeeling. S.P. Sharma, general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (Bharati Tamang faction), lifted his fast unto death on the basis of a media release on the meeting on a permanent political solution.
Despite Bista’s statement, politicians in Darjeeling are waiting to see the content of the letter Shah is supposed to send around August 12.
This is because last year the Centre had called a tripartite meeting to discuss “Gorkhaland”.
But Roshan Giri of the Bimal Gurung faction, which was with the BJP then, claimed that the agenda for the meeting had been changed from “issues related to Gorkhaland” to those relating to the “Gorkhaland Territorial Administration” following pressure from the Bengal BJP.
The meeting had been scheduled for August 7 last year but with BJP allies like the GNLF and even the Bimal Gurung faction protesting the change to the agenda, it had to be cancelled.
On October 7 last year, the Bimal Gurung faction attended a meeting called by the home ministry, but representatives of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and the state government skipped that “tripartite meeting”.
On October 23, the Gurung faction severed ties with the BJP and joined hands with Trinamul.
“In this context, the most important issue is whether the state government will attend the proposed tripartite meeting in September first week,” an observer said.
“The reality is simple: without the state’s participation, a permanent political solution cannot be worked out for the region.