Three Gorkhaland Protestors in Darjeeling killed by Security Forces under TMC Government

People of Darjeeling hills have been on indefinite strike after news reached that Bengali language is being made mandatory in every school throughout the state of West Bengal. The West Bengal government later clarified that Bengali would not be imposed in Darjeeling district on Nepali-speaking Gorkha students, but it had sparked off the deeper and long-standing issue of the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. On 17th June, the security forces fired at the protesters and three people died in the crackdown. The West Bengal government has unleashed an unprecedented crackdown by security forces to silence the voices of protest from the Darjeeling hills. Paramilitary forces have been deployed in the hills.

The Gorkha people of Darjeeling Hills have been involved in a protracted struggle for autonomy and separate statehood. Various state governments in Bengal as well as consecutive central governments have not only betrayed the aspirations of the people in the hills, but also used a combination of diabolical tactics and repressive measures to either derail or suppress the concerns.

Apart from unleashing massive repression, the TMC government is also employing the well-established ruling class tool of divide-and-rule. On the one hand, a deep sense of majoritarian chauvinism is being flared up throughout the state to serve a very narrow political purpose. The TMC government has used security forces to kill peasants in Bhangar, and is using draconian laws such as the UAPA against leaders of the Bhangar movement. It has unleashed a brutal crackdown on Left activists during a peaceful Nabanna march. And now the same government is trying to pit the people of Bengal against the aspirations of the people of the hills. On the other hand, different oppressed communities in the hills are being pitted against each another to subvert the popular demand in the hills.

The Gorkha Territorial Authority which was established to deal with the popular demand for autonomy has turned into a mere eye wash. This has resulted in a sense of betrayal amongst the people in the hills. The consequence has been the recent upsurge in the hills. The policy of the TMC government towards the demands in the hills is only an extension of the last Left Front Government’s policy. This policy is based on the following strategies: betrayal of the aspiration of the Gorkha people, flaring up majoritarian chauvinism in the rest of Bengal and planting division between various communities.

Recognition of the equal rights and dignity of diverse communities is the only way forward to ensure democratic functioning of the state. Shamefully, the TMC government is using the tactics of the BJP government in the centre to delegitimize the demands in the hills. Not only is majoritarian sentiment being flared up, but the BJP’s hallmark style of branding dissent as ‘anti-national’ and ‘foreign hand’ is being deployed to castigate the demands of the hill people.

We demand:

Immediate withdrawal of paramilitary forces from the hills.
Justice for those killed during protests in Darjeeling.
Immediate dialogue with the people in the hills for a democratic resolution of the demand for Gorkhaland.