Darjeeling probably broke many world records with the length of the strike, which finally came to an end in September after 104 days. This unparalleled shut-down was for a protracted 110 year-old cause that seeks the creation of a separate state, Gorkhaland, consisting of Darjeeling’s parliamentary constituency and the Dooars region of West Bengal. Besides incurring huge material and human losses, the fourth round of the statehood movement brought forth five critical issues. 

Firstly, the fragile, short-sighted and directionless Gorkha leadership floundered once again and demolished the hopes and aspirations of the hill folk. Leadership continues to be ‘underground’. 

Secondly, the Bengal government once again used nothing but brutal state force and divided the ruling party Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) to prop up a rebel leader.

This was the trick used by the Left Front Government against the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in 2007.  This demonstrated that the Bengal Government has long run out of both intellectual acumen and governance strategies to resolve a festering conflict. In the process, the Bengal Government this time around ensured two new generations of Gorkhaland fighters that will burden its chief ministers for the next 50 years.

Thirdly, despite the coming together of Indian Gorkhas across professions and countries and the highlighting of a long-pending issue, the Union Government, like in the past, vacillated to the core without clear thinking or a sound approach. Though this was in the name of electoral politics, it was quite clear that the Union Government machineries go into action only when there is a national crisis that draws global attention. Apparently, despite being a partner in the National Democratic Alliance, GJM leadership failed to galvanise Delhi’s attention. 

Fourthly, Bengal’s traditional card—dubbing Gorkhaland movement as ‘communal’ and ‘anti-national’—did not cut the ice this time aswell. Once again, it adopted ‘defensive positionalism’ as the last resort to continue with the defunct Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) and created a second and equally useless panel in the form of a Hill Area Development Committee to assuage the GNLF.

And finally, the resilience and robustness shown by the people at large clearly indicated that the future flare up would be more vociferous, strident and violent. This means that the issue has to be given a durable solution against the back drop of the twice failed experimentations of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (1988) and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (2012). 

Possible answers

Three possible durable solutions are on the plate today: full-fledged statehood; a Union Territory status; or the invoking of Article 244A (Part X) of the Constitution of India. While the first two solutions require a remarkable degree of political sagacity and a sound harmony of commitment and sacrifice between the union and the state government, the third approach could provide a major leeway to assuaging the identity of Indian Gorkhas and development dynamics. Article 244 was amended and used in 1969 in Meghalaya when it was still a part of Assam. The All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) under the leadership of Captain Williamson Sangma and others had been demanding separation from Assam. 

When the 22nd Constitution Amendment Bill was brought to parliament and unanimously passed on  December 24, 1969 by both the houses of parliament on the same day, there were apprehensions and reservations expressed by some members. 

However, home minister Yashwantrao Chavan discarded all of them, mentioning that “the area is very important”.  This is exactly one of the reasons where criticality of the Gorkhaland region as a geo-politically sensitive area needs to be protected directly by the union government. Besides the four international borders, the crucial ‘chicken neck’ that connects the North East Region with the rest of India is located in this geography. Therefore, invocation of Article 244A fits this crucial national security zone. 

Once Article 244 was amended with addition of Clause A in Article 244, Clause IA in article 275 and Clause B in Article 371, the Government of India passed “The Assam Reorganisation (Meghalaya) Act, 1969 [Central Government Act Number 55 OF 1969 (29th December, 1969)]. As a sequel to this, Government of India created “Autonomous State of Meghalaya”. It was launched on 2nd April 1970 by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Shillong. 

Meghalaya was formed using a framework that turned it into a “state within a state”. However, it was a full-fledged state in every sense of the term. For instance, for this to happen under Clause 76, it even amended Section 16 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (37 of 1956 ). It also made several amendments across various institutions in the country including the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. 

On the other hand, while creating both DGHC and GTA, there was neither height nor depth in both legislative and constitutional actions. It was a simple and cleverly manipulated Gazette Notification of the Bengal Government. The hill leaders fell into this literal ‘death trap’ and ‘irretrievable crevice’ for a full 25 years. A colossal loss was incurred that included two generations of children and youth, the destruction of  tea and cinchona plantations, institutions, heritage sites, natural resources and the very system of governance. 

This Autonomous State of Meghalaya had a full-fledged state assembly with MLAs, a speaker and chief minister, and a council of ministers sworn in by the governor. All the elections were conducted by the election commission which had its own advocate general. It was bestowed with all the powers, functions and departments (57 out of 65 subjects) that are given to a separate state under the Seventh Schedule of the constitution of India. It drew funds from the Consolidated Fund of India and was under the purview of comptroller and auditor general. It was also made the member of the North Eastern Council. Meghalaya in Assam already had the 6th Schedule status. 

Within two years of the Autonomous State status, Meghalaya was declared as a full-fledged 21st state of India on January  21, 1972. Under Article 244A, the Union Government provided constitutional safeguard and governance parameters to Meghalaya whereas in the formation of DGHC and GTA, it was involved only to the extent of signing a tripartite agreement without financial commitment and constitutional obligations. 

Attaining statehood

Therefore,  the operationalisation of 244A in the proposed geography of Gorkhaland will provide the quickest, surest and most effective path to attaining a full statehood. It will be legally called the “Government of Gorkhaland” in all its operations even before it is given statehood status. Besides all the critical institutions, functions and wherewithal of a separate state, it extends a comprehensive, whole-sum and rather independent development model. It also separates the critical governance organs of West Bengal from Gorkhaland in terms of legislative, executive and judicial functions and provides freedom in terms of resource mobilisation, revenue generation and expenditure planning. An autonomous Gorkhaland State will have the freedom to bring development funds/projects/programmes from the centre directly and also from multilateral development agencies and bilateral donors and philanthropic institutions. 

In her remarks during the first bilateral talks on August 29, 2017, chief minister Mamata Banerji admitted that the demand of statehood and its fulfilment is not within “the state government jurisdiction”. It is a subject of the Union Government of India. In her subsequent bilateral talks, she mentioned the Bengal Government’s interest in development. She invited suggestions from the public at large on the modalities of development.  Therefore, Article 244A would test the honesty of the Bengal Government to provide an effectively durable development model. Whereas the demand for full-fledged statehood must be negotiated with the Union Government by a national committee.

Lama drafted the First Development Plan of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 1989 and is presently High End Expert in Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University in China