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.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the pressure remained high. From 7-27 January, as a part of its agitation strategy, the Morcha forced the closure of government offices in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. On the other hand, in the Siliguri plains and the Duars, the agitation has been unable to achieve similar results. However, there have been clashes between Morcha supports and other communities, with police often called upon to control the situation. In fact, four people were killed in the Duars in early February during one such quarrel.
New idol
Under Subash Ghising's leadership, the first Gorkhaland movement began in 1988, lasting for 28 months and claiming 1300 lives. That this agitation ended with the creation of the Ghising-headed Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), with its limited administrative powers, left not only the Nepali speakers of Siliguri and the Duars (who were not included in the DGHC) dissatisfied, but also those in Darjeeling itself. In his 21 years as the DGHC supremo, Ghising never once raised the demand for Gorkhaland, despite public promises to do so. Instead, he went so far as to accept the central and state governments' offer to implement the Sixth Schedule, the controversial provision of the Indian Constitution that deals with devolution and autonomy. The Sixth Schedule had already been proven ineffectual in several states of the Northeast.