Kurseong BJP MLA B.P. Sharma (Bajgain) has issued a “self- reminder” about the Narendra Modi government’s failure to convene a tripartite meeting on “issues related to Gorkhas” though the Centre had promised exactly a year ago that the talks would be held within a month.

Sharma, along with other BJP legislators like Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, Alipurduar MP John Barla, Kalchini MLA Bishal Lama and Darjeeling MLA Neeraj Zimba, and other hill leaders, including Gorkha National Liberation Front president Mann Ghisingh and Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxist (CPRM) president R.B. Rai, had attended the tripartite meeting held in New Delhi on October 12, 2021.

The meeting was chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah.

After the meeting, the Press Information Bureau issued a statement that read: “The Union Home Minister listened to all the parties concerned and has decided to call for the second round of talks in the presence of the senior officials of the Government of West Bengal in November 2021. The West Bengal Government has been specifically asked to send their senior officials for the next round of talks. The all-round development and prosperity of the Darjeeling hills, Terrai and Dooars region is the top most priority of the Modi Government.”

The Bengal government had been represented by the principal resident commissioner, Krishna Gupta, at the tripartite meeting.

With the Centre failing to hold the second meeting even after a year, Sharma took to Facebook to “remind” himself about the delay. “A year ago, a tripartite meeting had been held on the demands of separate state of Gorkhaland and granting tribal status to the left-out Gorkha communities. The next meeting which was scheduled to be held within a month hasn’t been held even after a year. But our demand and our stand on the issue of Gorkhas remain unchanged…,” Sharma has written.

Speaking over the phone from Calcutta, the BJP MLA told this newspaper that his Facebook post was a “self-reminder”. “I don’t have anything against anyone. It is just a self-reminder. I want to remind myself that I have to remain committed to our demand, which is separation from Bengal,” said Bajgain who had repeated the Gorkhaland stand several times in the past.

The “self-reminder” has, however, come as a major embarrassment for the BJP in the hills. The BJP’s promise to look into the issues of the Darjeeling hills ensured the party’s victory in Lok Sabha elections since 2009.

A BJP leader in Darjeeling said: “This is not a party issue but something related to the government. There might have been a delay in holding the second-round meeting but we are confident that the central government helmed by our party will deliver on its promises soon.”

This is not the first time that the BJP-led Centre has failed to fulfil its promises.

On September 26, 2017, the then Union home minister, Rajnath Singh, had issued a statement saying he had “asked the home secretary to convene an official level meeting in the home ministry within a fortnight to discuss all related issues”.

But the meeting was held three years later on October 7, 2020.