Writes :Nisha Chettri
Kalimpong, May 7: Jan Andolan Party (JAP) president Dr. Harka Bahadur Chettri today condemned Minister Indranil Sen’s Friday remark on Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders and candidates.
Political innuendos are at its nadir between leaders of various political parties in the hills where municipal elections are to be held on May 14. Minister Sen in his address while campaigning for the Trinamul Congress (TMC) in Darjeeling had said that the GJM candidates including party supremo Bimal Gurung and Roshan Giri should be packed into six-foot long trunks and sent off to other district post the municipal elections. “Sen being a minister should have known what is to be spoken in public,” Dr. Chettri remarked today while addressing a meeting with voters of ward 6 and 7, here in Kalimpong. The minister’s statement has irked not only the GJM party but has also hurt the sentiments of the hill people no matter what their political affiliations. Meanwhile, the GJM has been swift enough to use the minister’s statement as a catalyst to intensify its poll campaign which the party had kick-started posing the TMC as an outsider-hell bent in dividing the hill populace. Observers opine that such a statement from the minister delivered standing on the soil of the hills where the populace is extremely sensitive over their identity issue might come a cropper for the TMC which though till the other day had seen a surge in its support base. The fact that the statement has come at a time where the municipal polls are just few days’ away makes it harder for the TMC to initiate any effective damage control measures. All that the hill TMC unit has done till yesterday is filed a police complaint against the GJM alleging its leaders of deliberately tweaking Minister Sen’s statement with intent to vitiate the political atmosphere in the hills. The GJM too has filed a general diary contending that the minister’s statement tantamount to hate speech. Meanwhile, Dr. Chettri today going soft on Chief Minister cum TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee slammed her hill leaders. “Mamata Banerjee is a person who abides by the principles of democracy but I don’t know what’s wrong with TMC netas (leaders) here,” the JAP chief said. “Mamata Banerjee is a difficult person as far as convincing her on certain things are concerned and getting Kalimpong sub-division upgraded to a district was not a cakewalk,” he added. The JAP has been claiming credit in getting the district status for Kalimpong contending that the party had since long been actively pursuing the issue with the state government. “She might have thought that I will stay quiet after the declaration of Kalimpong district but now I know the tactics of convincing the ministers. Gorkhaland can be achieved if we pursue the demand of a separate statehood with tact,” said Chettri. Directing a jibe at the Morcha, Chettri said that the GJM stands no chance to win the municipal elections.
- Himalaya Mirror
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