GTF sends memo to President of India showcasing resentment on GTA
MUKESH SHARMA
KALIMPONG
July
18
The Gorkhaland
Task Force has sent a memorandum to the President of India, Pratibha Patil by
the on Wednesday coinciding with the first anniversary of the signing of the Gorkhaland
Territorial Administration agreement. Copies of the memorandum were also sent
to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
In the memo they have written that the Gorkhaland Territorial
Administration does not resolve the identity issue of India’s Gorkhas.
The memo reads, ‘the Gorkhaland Task Force, which is
a common platform of various political parties and social organizations from
all over India, reiterate that the GTA is a massive letdown for the Gorkhas of
India, who have been demanding a separate State of their own to underline their
political identity in this great Nation of ours. Indian Gorkhas have been part
of India following historic territorial adjustments that took place in the
period 1814-1865 between the British and kingdoms of Nepal, Bhutan and
erstwhile Sikkim. The Gorkhas fought in the Freedom Struggle in both their
military and civilian capacities and have sacrificed their lives to protect the
Free India they helped create.
Yet today, despite this history, in many parts of the
country — in the Northeast States, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir in
particular, and generally across the country — Gorkhas frequently face
ethno-political prejudices and are frequently categorized as foreigners,
infiltrators and settlers. On numerous occasions this mindset has translated
into acts that have threatened the life and livelihoods of Gorkhas.
It is this
psychological uncertainty that the Gorkhas seek to address through the creation
of a separate state. A Gorkhaland state will supplant all mindsets that treat
the Gorkhas as non-Indians. A separate state is the concretization of the
Gorkhas’ constitutional, democratic and inalienable rights as citizens of India
to live free of prejudices and threats in their own country.
The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration achieves
none of these aims. We, therefore, reject in totality the idea of the GTA and
aver in no uncertain terms that the GTA is not, and can never be, the resolution
of the identity crisis of the Gorkhas of India. It is to express our outrage at
the GTA that many political parties and social organizations have sat on a
black-band protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, today, July 18, 2012. We also
renew our commitment to the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland, which
alone will meet the aspirations of India’s patriotic Gorkhas, ends the letter.
Tags: LOCAL
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