The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) continues to play musical chairs for statues at the Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan, which houses the GTA Sabha, in Darjeeling.

On Monday, the GTA reinstalled the statue of Kali mata that had been removed by Bimal Gurung after he had become the chief executive of the hill body in 2012.

“We have reinstalled the statue of Kali mata that Subash Ghisingh (former chief of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC)) had set up at the entrance to the Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan,” said Anit Thapa, the GTA chief executive and Gurung’s lieutenant-turned-bête noire.

Ghisingh, the then chairman of the DGHC, came up with his dream project to reconstruct Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan, which was also called Bhanu Bhavan, in 1997.

The construction was completed in 2012, the same year DGHC was replaced by the GTA. Ghisingh had lost his grip on Darjeeling politics with Bimal Gurung launching the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and spearheading a movement for the separate state.

Apart from the GTA Sabha, the building houses auditoriums and GTA offices.

Ghisingh’s design included a Gorkha warrior standing on a globe which was installed atop the building while the Kali mata statue was set up at the entrance.

Gurung removed both the statues. The Kali mata statue was handed over to the Nripendra Narayan Bengali Hindu Hall (NNBHU), while the statue of the Gorkha warrior was kept on the Bhavan premises.

While removing the statue, Gurung had said the khukuri that the Gorkha warrior was holding was pointing at Mahakal temple in Darjeeling.

Gurung first replaced the khukuri with an Indian flag and after a few months, replaced the Gorkha warrior statue altogether with a statue of folded hands symbolising a namaste and added two more statues of a Gorkha man and a Gorkha woman.

The statue of the Gorkha warrior with the Indian flag was then set up in an open space on the premises of the building.

However, in 2020, when Bimal Gurung was replaced by Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa at the GTA, the duo decided to remove the statues installed by Gurung and reinstall the Gorkha warrior statue complete with the khukuri.

On Monday, the statue of Kali mata was installed after an elaborate puja at
the Gorkha Rangamanch Bhavan.