Congress raises 6th Schedule demand for Darj in Parl

With the BJP’s silence on the assured “permanent political solution” for the Gorkha impasse and the same failing to secure a berth in the ongoing interim budget session, the Congress has raised the demand for granting 6th Scheduled status to the Darjeeling Hills. The alliance partners of the BJP have found themselves on a sticky wicket over this development.

With the BJP winning the last three Lok Sabha elections from the Darjeeling Constituency with assurances of resolving the Gorkha impasse, nothing much has translated into reality. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP in the party election manifesto had assured a permanent political solution for the Gorkha impasse along with granting Schedule Tribe status to 11 Gorkha sub-communities. This time too the issues suffered similar fate as in the past.

The Hill regional parties had banked their hopes on the interim budget session as the last measure but nothing transpired.

Interestingly, the leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Parliament on Tuesday urged the Union government to consider 6th Schedule status for the Darjeeling Hills ‘as it is a long standing demand of the Gorkhas’.

When the erstwhile Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council failed to win the hearts of the people, Subash Ghising, the then GNLF president and administrator DGHC had made a demand for the granting of the 6th Schedule status under the Indian Constitution to the Darjeeling Hills.

Accordingly, Bills to grant 6th Schedule status to the Darjeeling Hills were introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2007. However, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha riding piggyback on the Gorkhaland demand managed to oust Ghising and the GNLF. With the ouster, the 6th Schedule was also shelved.

The GNLF, an ally of the BJP, welcomed the resurrection of the 6th Schedule issue in Parliament. Sandeep Limbu, GNLF spokesperson stated: “We welcome this development. However, our president Mann Ghising has already held a number of talks with Union Home minister Amit Shah regarding the Permanent Political Solution. The matter is progressing. As an alliance partner of NDA, we don’t find it necessary to exert more pressure on the BJP.”

However, other Hill parties have snubbed the BJP for having failed to live up to commitments for the last 15 years. “It is evident that the Gorkhas will not get justice in the interim budget session also. The Gorkhas had hoped that justice would be delivered by the BJP majority government this time but BJP’s assurances fell flat. They have merely hoodwinked the Gorkhas in ensuring the victory of 3 BJP MPs,” stated Ajoy Edwards, President, Hamro Party (HP.)

HP has been an ally of BJP. However, this time Edwards along with other HP leaders had joined Rahul Gandhi’s recent Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.