Darjeeling MP Raju Bista and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung have threatened to expose each other and such has been the bitterness that Gurung has decided to return a pair of shoes that he received as a birthday gift from Bista.

The threat has added a lot of spice to the already charged political atmosphere in the hills and this sequence started following Gurung’s warning to expose Bista during a public meeting at Mirik on Sunday.

“Our issue is getting derailed because Raju Bista engages in garrulous talk. The other two (BJP) MPs on the contrary derailed our issue by not talking at all….If I am to expose our conversations, the BJP will expel Raju Bista,” Gurung had said on Sunday.

The two BJP MPs that Gurung was referring to are Jaswant Singh and S.S. Ahluwalia who had both won the Darjeeling seat riding on the Morcha’s support.

While addressing a Parivartan Yatra in Darjeeling on Tuesday, Bista decided to take Gurung by his horn.

“It is because of the leaders that the people have achieved nothing. Once (these leaders) reach Delhi, they only want money. So, how will you get Gorkhaland? They only seek money in Delhi. The day I have to reveal, I will reveal everything, I will even reveal (Gurung’s) shoe size,” said Bista.

Bista said he was the person who had rescued Gurung from a “toilet, when holed up for two hours” when the hill leader had come to visit Darjeeling municipal councillors in Delhi. “And yet, they say we did nothing for them,” said Bista.

The Darjeeling MP, however, did not take Gurung’s name but the pinpointed attack was not lost in the hills.

Gurung, too, has decided not to lie low. “Instead of talking about major issues like tribal status, permanent political solution, unemployment, the fate of tea workers, he talks about revealing my shoe size,” he said on Wednesday.

“He had gifted me a pair of shoes on my birthday. I have not even worn. I will return it through speed post immediately,” said Gurung, adding he was willing to listen to all the allegations that Bista wanted to reveal in the days to come.

BJP draws flak

BJP MP Arjun Singh has drawn flak from the Binay Tamang camp of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for obliquely tagging the Gorkha community with the “chowkidar” profession.

Addressing the Parivartan Yatra in Darjeeling on Tuesday, Singh had said: “The place where we stay have a lot of factories. Lot of people from your community, the Gorkhas, would stay there. There is so much trust in the word ‘Gorkha’ that they would entrust their property and leave the place and not an item would be moved an inch. This is the kind of respect towards Gorkhas.”

Taking umbrage at Singh’s statement, Keshav Raj Pokhrel, the spokesman for the Tamang camp, said: “Arjun Singh’s speech reflects the BJP’s thought about Gorkhas.”

“Arjun Singh and the BJP recognise Gorkhas only as chowkidar. This is deplorable. Our people must be conscious.”

A similar reference by a radio jockey to Indian Idol winner Prashant Tamang in 2007 had triggered a law and order problem in the hills and Siliguri.