“When people have no faith on the police, they have faith on the Gorkhas and rely on their honesty. You dream is our dream”—Narendra Modi or NaMo in Siliguri. The words spoken by NaMo means a lot to the Gorkhas scattered across the country and fighting for identity, at a time when Bengal rebukes on no division of state.
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| Modi Vs Didi at Darjeeling turf |
Modi seems to have done his homework in the run up to lok sabha poll campaign in North Bengal. He showcased a balancing act where he managed to woe all sections of the agitating communities especially the Gorkhas. Also by not uttering or rather by not promising creation of separate state he kept his option open to woe the voters in the plains.
Ofcourse, despite this balancing act whether voters both in the plains and the hills will go in favour of BJP is still a million dollar question. Because so to say, this poll season hill votes are surely on the edge of division while in the plains people mostly remains united whenever the question of division arises.
Infact, NaMo’s all praise for the honesty of Gorkhas on the same day failed to attract the Lepchas in the hills who pledged support to Bhaichung Bhutia. The Tamangs are being expected to follow the Lepcha footsteps. And adding to it Dr. Mahendra P.Lama and not to forget the CPIM is already there to divide the votes further.
It was no exception that the BJP prime ministerial candidate chose not to utter ‘Gorkhaland’ and that has done the damage. A pledge to create ‘Gorkhaland’ would have done on the needed support to win comfortably. Opposition forces like CPRM, ABGL and DDUDF of which Dr. Lama is the candidate infact remained unimpressed. A poster against Modi in Kurseong was a testimony to that.
Having said that the Darjeeling issue has caught the National attention cannot be ruled out. But, NaMo’s speech to woe Darjeeling constituency voters seemed to loose on Mamata Bannerjee’s politics of divide and rule. She managed to bag the Lepcha support expectedly to be followed by Tamangs and the King of Darjeeling politics vis-a-vis Subash Ghisingh has already gone on record to support the Sikkim lad. BJP only has GJM support.
The stage is all set for a fight between NaMo and Didi on Darjeeling turf. No wonder where the GJM is heading towards would be known after the poll results.
Vivek Ghatani – Editor Indian Gorkhas
