WB-SHAH-GORKHALAND

TMC sees red over Shah's letter mentioning 'Gorkhaland'
    Kolkata, Aug 11 (PTI) The mention of Gorkhaland by
Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a letter to Darjeeling MP
Raju Bista, who had sought protection for Gorkhas in the
national capital, has kicked up a row, with West Bengal's
ruling TMC seeing in it a "plot" to divide the state.
    The BJP, which has emerged as a major political force
in the state after the Lok Sabha polls, however, rejected the
charge as "baseless".
    According to sources in the saffron party, Bista wrote
a letter to Shah in July, where he voiced concern over Gorkhas
being left out of the purview of the special cell formed by
Delhi Police to counter acts of racism, particularly against
people from the northeast.
    Shah, while replying to Bista's letter, said his
concern over the people of "Gorkhaland and Ladakh area" is
being looked at.
    The use of the word of "Gorkhaland" by Shah drew
criticism from the TMC, which accused the Centre and the BJP
of plotting to divide the state.
    "Why did he use the word Gorkhaland? There is no place
called Gorkhaland in the entire area. It seems after dividing
Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP is planning to bifurcate Bengal.
But, as long the TMC is here, nobody can break the state,"
senior Trinamool Congress leader and minister Gautam Deb said.
    Reacting to the TMC's allegation, Bista said the use
of the word Gorkhaland has nothing to do with creation of a
separate state.
    He said he wrote about the residents of the Gorkhaland
Territorial Administration (GTA) - the autonomous body that
looks after the development of the Darjeeling hills.
    "The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was
set up through a tripartite agreement between the TMC
government, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), and the Congress
government at the Centre in 2011. So, if they can use the word
Gorkhaland, why can't we use it to refer to the residents of
the area. This is political hypocrisy of the TMC," Bista told
PTI.
    The development comes against the backdrop of the
Centre's decision to revoke provisions of Article 370 that
accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and create two
Union Territories (UT) after bifurcating the state.
    Several hill parties had demanded UT status for
Darjeeling after the Kashmir developments.
    Darjeeling has time and again witnessed violent
agitations over the demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland,
the latest being in June 2017, when the hills witnessed a
104-day strike over statehood. PTI PNT SK
RBT RBT

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from a PTI feed.)