The Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) has decided to renew its movement demanding a permanent political solution (PPS) for the hills and conferment of Scheduled Tribe status to 11 hill communities if the BJP-led government at the Centre doesn’t take action on these issues by the monsoon session of Parliament.

S.P. Sharma, the spokesperson for BGPM, said the BJP had won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat four times since 2009. “Ahead of each election, prominent BJP leaders had promised the hill residents that they would sympathetically consider these two longstanding demands. The party, however, hasn’t done anything during the past 15 years,” said Sharma.

“Our party has decided to wait till the monsoon session is over. If the BJP doesn’t take any initiative to meet these two demands by then, we will launch an extensive movement against the party and the Centre,” the BGPM leader added. The monsoon session of Parliament will end on August 12.

Such an assertion from the Anit Thapa-led BGPM comes at a time when a section of lawmakers of the saffron party has raised the demand for the creation of a separate north Bengal state comprising eight districts of Bengal.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar, who is also a Union minister of state, has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to consider a proposal to include north Bengal under the North East Council (NEC) to expedite development in the region.

Raju Bista, who has won the Darjeeling seat as a BJP candidate for the second time, has raised both issues in the Lok Sabha several times over the past few years.

“However, the Centre has not come up with any decision on these issues. That is why, BGPM intends to exert pressure on the BJP and also on those hill-based parties that are allies of the BJP. Further, it seems that BGPM, which is an ally of Trinamool Congress, wants to prove that it is not Trinamool’s B-team in the hills,” said a veteran in
hill politics.

Sharma said they would organise rallies and hold demonstrations in front of central government offices. Also, there will be a march and a sit-in at Jantar Manta in Delhi. “We want the allies of the BJP in the hills to raise their voices against the Centre’s apathy and the BJP’s fake commitments,” he said.

The BGPM, party insiders said, has already started its groundwork for the movement. It is organising indoor meetings with party leaders and workers in blocks and towns. Also, programmes under the banners of its youth and women’s wings are going on across the hills.

Asked about the BGPM’s plan, leaders of the saffron camp said the party’s failure at the Lok Sabha polls had made its leaders draw up new plans. “They fielded their party leader under Trinamool’s symbol at the (Darjeeling) Lok Sabha elections and lost to us. This is because people across the hills are aware that Trinamool is against their principal demand for a separate state. Now, BGPM is trying to control the damage but such strategies will not work,” said Kalyan Dewan, the president of the BJP’s Darjeeling (hills) district committee.

Trinamool leaders said they could not comment on the plans of another political party. “But it is true that like PPS, the Centre has not moved an inch to grant ST status to 11 hill communities. The Bengal government has recommended it much earlier,” said N.B. Khawas, general secretary and spokesperson for the party in Darjeeling hills.