Union Home Ministry substitutes 'Gorkhaland' with 'GTA' for tripartite talks

Darjeeling: "Gorkhaland" turned into "Gorkhaland Territorial Administration" as the Union Home Ministry rushed a corrigendum on Monday declaring that tripartite talks would revolve around the GTA . It was a major damper for the allies of the BJP in the Hills. The opposition parties labeled it as an expose.

Incidentally the Union Home Ministry on October 3 had issued a notice declaring that a tripartite talk would be would be held on October 7 to discuss issues relating to "Gorkhaland."

On Monday a corrigendum was issued by the Union Home Ministry in respect to the earlier notice, stating that "the subject of the meeting in the heading and body of the notice may be read as 'issues related to Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.'"

"This exposes the true nature of BJP and vote bank politics. BJP is just playing with the sentiments of the Hills. They too know the reality but are hoodwinking the Hill people. The people of the Hills should subscribe to realistic politics rather than emotional politics," stated NB Khawas, Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress, Darjeeling.

The invitee list for the talks mentioned President, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha without mentioning the faction, Binoy or Bimal, triggering confusion.

"We had time and again stated that we welcome and are willing to attend tripartite talks with the one point agenda of Gorkhaland. BJP has always been misleading the Hill people with their play of words. We appeal to allies of the BJP to come out of the alliance and the people of the Hills not to trust the BJP anymore," said Keshav Raj Pokhrel, Spokesperson, GJM (Binoy faction.)

Earlier during the day Roshan Giri, General Secretary, GJM (Bimal faction) through social media had appealed to the CPRM and the GNLF to send representatives who could attend the talks as part of the GJM (Bimal) delegation.

"We will not attend a GTA review meeting. GTA is redundant. The BJP is again making a fool of the people of this

region," stated Govind Chettri, Spokesperson, CPRM, an ally of the BJP.

This is not the first time that tripartite talks called by the Union Home Ministry, has sparked controversy. The Ministry had earlier called a GTA review meeting on August 7 which was suddenly cancelled without any specific reason being stated.

Political observers opine that the State would prefer to stay away from the talks. Similarly Hill parties will not attend talks on

GTA. "Therefore there is a miniscule possibility of the September 7th meeting seeing the light of day," stated political pundits.