Darjeeling, March 27 -- Hill politics continued revolving around Delhi talks on the Gorkha impasse. While some hill political outfits dubbed it as a mere eyewash, others were busy claiming that the meeting is a fallout of their political exercise.

The Union Home Ministry has called for a meeting for the resolution of the Gorkha impasse on April 2. The meeting is scheduled to be held at 11 am on that day in room 119, North Block, New Delhi. The meeting will be chaired by the Minister of State (N), Home Affairs, Government of India. The matter came to light with an announcement by Darjeeling MP Raju Bista on Wednesday evening. Reacting to this, SP Sharma, spokesperson, Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM - the party in power in the Hills) labelled the development as a

"mere eyewash". "We have heard from MP Bista's statements that allies of the BJP will be invited for the talks. Tripartite talks should be official in nature, attended by the Centre, state and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Instead representatives of the alliance, parties of BJP are being called. It is nothing but a party level meet. An eyewash by BJP as a runup to the 2026 Bengal Assembly election," alleged Sharma. He further stated that another important pointer to the 'political gimmick' is that Shah will not be present in the talks. "At least in the first round of talks on October 12, 2021, minister Shah was present.

This time the persons attending will not even get a photoshoot with Shah, to present as an outcome, after the talks. For the past 20 years we have been voting for the BJP and what did we get?" questioned Sharma. Meanwhile Bimal Gurung, president, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, an ally of the BJP stated: "We had met Amit Shah on September 12, 2024.

This development is the fallout of that meeting. It is such a grave issue so one should not expect the resolution in one sitting. It will take at least two to three rounds of talks." Gurung added that though his party's agenda is the separate state of Gorkhaland, "We will see what the Union and the Bengal government have to offer. There could be something on the lines of Bodoland Territorial Council for the Hills, Terai and Dooars region."

The Gorkha National Liberation Front (also an ally of the BJP) has hailed the talks. "At least the process of dialogue is commencing. We hope that it yields a positive outcome. It has been more than 15 years that we have been ensuring BJP's victory but have got nothing in return. So this time GNLF president Mann Ghising had issued an April 5 deadline else we would have to reconsider our support. It is good that the talks are being held before the deadline," stated Y Lama, spokesperson, GNLF.

BP Sharma, the BJP MLA from Kurseong, stated: "The letter is nothing new and has been on since 2011. I will only welcome the meeting if there is a positive outcome. If they invite me, I will raise the demand for Gorkhaland. If they don't, we can safely say they have throttled the Gorkhaland demand."

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.