The Sixth Schedule Cacophony Writes: N N Ojha One often wonders why the Gorkhaland movement always slows down after reaching nearest to the goal. In July – August 2013 when the movement once again surfaced following grant of statehood to Telangana the spectacular show of solidarity put up by all political forces of the region in the form of GJAC had started sending tremors strong enough to shake the state government’s confidence in its own rough and tough invincibility. And then suddenly the whole thing collapsed, the intensity of the movement vanished in thin air and a multitude of discordant voices from unseen, invisible quarters replaced the one single chant of Gorkhaland. Not that the demand for Gorkhaland can ever be extinguished for it is sure to remain until it is met but it does get submerged-howsoever temporarily- in the shrill noise of discordant voices which tend to shift the focus from the core issue. The shrillest cacophony doing rounds this time is the strange demand for reinstatement of DGHC and bringing the region under an autonomous council in terms of the Sixth Schedule of the constitution. Rallies though much smaller in size as compared to the ones we witnessed during the GJAC phase in support of Gorkhaland a year ago are being taken out in towns and hamlets across the hills chanting slogans of “DGHC farkao” and “chhatho anusuchi lyanu parchhai” but I bet if any of the participants chanting these slogans know even a wee bit about the implications of what they are asking for. Let us begin with DGHC, ‘an autonomous hill council’ which came into existence as a result of ‘memorandum of settlement’ signed by the GNLF supremo Subhash Ghising on 22 August 1988 after an intense prolonged agitation demanding Gorkhaland during the course of which 1200 precious lives of the agitators were lost. Want to know what is the opening sentence of the ‘memorandum of settlement dated 22 August 1988? Well it states, “In the over all national interest and in response to a call by the (then) Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi the GNLF agrees to drop the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland……” . DGHC is a creation of the same memorandum and Mr Subhash Ghising continued as its chief with rank, protocol and perks of a Minister in the West Bengal Cabinet for three consecutive terms up to 2005. On 21 March 2005 after all councilors of DGHC resigned in support of their demand for Gorkhaland the composition of DGHC was varied and Ghising appointed its ‘sole care taker and administrator’. Whether this was a ploy to grant him immunity from the adverse consequences of a sure defeat at the hustings in reward for dropping the demand for Gorkhaland or there was any other quid pro quo is a secret not yet out in public domain. Mr Ghising continued as the sole caretaker and administrator of the council right up to 2008 when the state government dissolved the council and appointed an IAS officer as Administrator. It is this very same DGHC, which some elements want back in office. Even if you leave substantial issues of limited executive powers, complete absence of legislative powers and non-inclusion of large areas in Terai and Duars within the DGHC territory you can’t ignore the obnoxious nature of the demand for reinstatement of an institution founded on the dead bodies of 1200 martyrs and an explicit negation of the statehood demand on the illogical premise that the demand is against ‘over all national interest’. Come now to the sixth schedule. In so far as our region is concerned its genesis can be traced in a rather belated realisation on the part of Mr Ghising who after more than 17 years of uninterrupted enjoyment of absolute power as the chief of DGHC suddenly discovered that the DGHC ‘could not fulfill the aspirations of the people of Darjeeling’ and wanted a ‘self governing autonomous hill council’ in terms of Schedule Six of the Constitution to replace it. A fresh memorabdum of settlement was accordingly signed spelling out the contours of the proposed new set up on 6 December 2005. We are not going into the inherent lacunae including tight control of the state government built into the scheme of schedule six. Nor are we going into the truncated sixth schedule mechanism spelt out in the memorandum of December 2005 because the events that followed the 2005 memorandum are more than sufficient to flag the absurdity of the demand for its revival. A bill for the inclusion of the DGHC area under the sixth schedule was moved in the Parliament in 2007. After reports received by the government that the proposed arrangement was being rejected by almost all groups representing the Gorkhas the bill was referred to a standing committee of the Parliament headed by the present External affairs minister Mrs Sushma Swaraj. The bill was returned with the recommendation that ‘the committee would like to caution and advise the government to make a fresh assessment of the ground realities all over again before proceeding with the bill in the two Houses of the Parliament’. DGHC cannot, need not and should not be revived because it is founded on the negation of demand for Gorkhaland in flagrant disregard of the sacrifices made by at least 1200 of our young men and women and those who are today demanding its reinstatement have themselves gone on record to state that it has not fulfilled the aspirations of the people of Darjeeling. It is a dead issue in that sense. In so far as we are concerned Schedule six also is a dead issue because of what the standing committee headed by Mrs Sushma Swaraj had to say on the bill moved for its implementation. Flogging a dead horse is ridiculous, an attempt to ride a dead horse and make it gallop is worse. It is undiluted bunkum. [Editorial Note: Shri. N N Ojha writes exclusively for Darjeeling Times, you can read his articles in his column The Expositor at: darjeelingtimes/category/columns/the-expositor-n-n-ojha/]
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 23:50:31 +0000
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