Mamata Banerjee has shown the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) who's the boss in West Bengal even as the latter tried to assert his authority in the face of latest backlash, telling the media that while Banerjee is the chief minister of Bengal, he is that of the Hills.
This remark has exposed the GJM's helplessness against Banerjee's iron fist' policy to contain the aggressive protest which had thrown life out of gear in Darjeeling, a popular tourist destination in the state. And as Banerjee said later: "We have compromised enough but not anymore. Compromise cannot one way."
Holding cabinet meeting in Darjeeling Hills a master stroke
The latest blaze in Darjeeling began after Banerjee mobilised her entire cabinet to the Hills for a meeting. The Gorkha outfit, which was upset with the state government's decision to make Bengali a compulsory language in schools, went out of patience at this and resorted to violence. This gave Banerjee the opportunity to prove her statesmanship. She stayed back to oversee the situation even as her colleagues in the government left. Army was called in and buses were arranged to take the stranded tourists back to Kolkata for free.
GJM had no answer to Mamata Banerjee's politics of mobility
Banerjee's biggest ploy has been her politics of mobility. While the previous Left Front government had chosen a policy of 'live and let live' by allowing the then Hill leader, the late Subash Ghishing, to run his own rule in the Darjeeling, Banerjee took on the GJM head on after trying peace initially.
She had taken initiative for a tripartite peace agreement with the GJM and Centre soon after coming to power for the first time in 2011; formed the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) replacing the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) but things did not turn out as per the GJM leadership's expectations and the distance between Kolkata and Darjeeling only increased.
But given the shrewd politician Banerjee is, she played the populist card to corner her Hill opponents. The Bengal chief minister is a leader who can never be undermined by threats and as the GJM escalated its attacks on the Trinamool Congress government, Banerjee played the populist card cleverly to isolate and weaken the GJM – either by backing its dissenters or by empowering other ethnic groups in the region.
TMC's inroads in Hill politics have made the GJM jittery
The GJM, despite getting verbal support from the ruling BJP time and again, had no answer to this ploy. Banerjee also backed her strategy by regularly visiting the Hills to win the local people's trust, something her Left predecessors had hardly done.
And finally, after the TMC's impressive show in the recent civic polls in the Hills, when Banerjee mobilised the government itself to the Hills from Kolkata, it was too much for Gurung's supporters to digest. The result was the violence and it effectively gave Banerjee the upper hand at the end.
Surprising that the BJP did not back Mamata on containing violence in a sensitive region
The GJM leadership will find little courage to resort to the same hot tactics against Banerjee hereafter for the latter is a master in meeting fire with fire. But what surprised all is that the Centre showed little concern in backing Banerjee to douse the flames in a region which is very sensitive. Darjeeling is located in the crucial Chicken's Neck, not far from the China border, and a disruption there can isolate the entire north-east from the rest of India.
The GJM had claimed ahead of the municipal elections that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured them that the Centre is committed to form the Gorkhaland. It was contradictory to the BJP's state leadership's stance that the saffron party doesn't support the demand for Gorkhaland but development of the region. Charges of corruption against the GJM which dominates the GTA also turned the tides against them, so much so that even the BJP, which the GJM sees as its friend, opted to distance itself from Gurung's outfit.
The GJM's claim that the PM of the country has assured them of Gorkhaland is a desperate move to win the battle of muscles against Mamata Banerjee but the latter has won all the rounds so far, hands down.
