India’s 29th state?

On the afternoon of 5 January, the simmering politics of Darjeeling were set aboil by the news that Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJMM, Gorkha People's Liberation Front) President Bimal Gurung, accompanied by five supporters, had suddenly left the hills for New Delhi. This news was especially unexpected because a 17-member team, led by Front General-Secretary Roshan Giri, had returned to Darjeeling just three days earlier after holding a second round of trilateral talks with the Centre and the West Bengal government in New Delhi. Neither Gurung nor Giri had indicated that a third round was imminent. After holding informal discussions with senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in New Delhi, Gurung himself spoke to the media on 7 January, clearing up the mystery. "We have come to thank the BJP for their support for a separate Gorkhaland," he said, "and to ask the other parties for their support." No trilateral talks had taken place.

The Morcha, which has said it plans to establish a new state of Gorkhaland by March 2010, is proceeding with a two-pronged strategy of dialogue and agitation. In the current context, the party leadership understands the importance of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections – which must take place by this May – and the government that is formed thereafter, in deciding the future of Gorkhaland. In light of this reality, Giri's statement that Gurung and his team travelled to New Delhi "to try and secure a two-thirds vote for Gorkhaland in the post-election Parliament" is quite believable. But considering the large number of Nepali speakers in the Darjeeling Hills and the Duars, some suggest that Gurung may have been negotiating with the national parties, promising to deliver a substantial Nepali-speaking vote in return for support for Gorkhaland.