Renew Gorkhaland agitation: GJM Youth Wing

DARJEELING: The youth wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today called upon the people of Darjeeling hills to renew their movement for 'Gorkhaland'. "It is time to renew the movement for Gorkhaland as the newly-formed Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) will not be able to fully meet the aspiration of the hill people,"Gorkha Yuba Morcha chief Priyabardhan Rai told a rally at Mongpu, about 37 km from here. 

"The people should not forget that demand for Gorkhalandis 103-year-old," Rai said, announcing a series of agitation programmes to be held in January. GJM chief Bimal Gurung's wife Asha, who heads the party's women's wing, was also present in the rally. The GJYM that held a rally at Mungpoo to mark the start of a fresh stir for a separate State announced a series of meetings to be organised by at in the different sub-divisions of the hill district in January-February 2012. Though most senior GJM leaders were not present at the rally there is little doubt that the event had the blessings of the top leadership. Asha Gurung, president of the GJM's women's wing and wife of GJM chief Bimal Gurung, was present.

Political observers say the GJYM's new move is aimed at sending a message to the people that by agreeing to the GTA the GJM leadership has not forsaken its commitment to the movement for Statehood. The move is also designed to silence the non-GJM, pro-Statehood regional political groupings in the hills which have started raising their voices against the GJM's alleged capitulation to the State government and its climb-down from the Statehood demand by being a signatory to the GTA agreement.