A few days back in a press conference, Partha Chatterjee, Cabinet Minister in West Bengal government had told that it will be mandatory to learn Bengali by all students in all schools. The schools affiliated to other boards (ICSE/CBSE) will have to make Bengali as an optional subject from class 1, giving students the option to choose it either as second or third language.
Respondig to this announcement, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) general secretary Roshan Giri on Wednesday met the governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and complained that Mamata’s government was trying to force the Gorkhas in Darjeeling to learn Bengali in schools.
This meeting Giri and Tripathi is also cooming into significance as it was just held ahead of Mamata Banerjee‘s cabinet meeting at the Raj Bhavan in Darjeeling for the first time on Thursday. GJM has also been demonstrating against Mamata’s rule for past few days by holding black flag. It had also shown black flags to the chief minister at Mirik.
Though the CM has already announced that learning Bengali was not compulsory for all students, GJM has decided to hold a dharna near the Darjeeling Raj Bhavan to force the state cabinet to announce officially that learning Bengali in schools was not compulsory unnecessarily elongating the issue.
GJM leader Giri had also met Bengal BJP state president Dilip Ghosh and said that GJM was not happy with the way Mamata Banerjee’s government was functioning. Gosh said that GJM leaders told him that they were planning to quit the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) and had been preparing for a renewed agitation for Gorkhaland. He also cleared that BJP had nothing to do init and that the Union has to decide upon this matter.
Giri told reporters on Wednesday that they have decided to intensify their stir for a separate Gorkha state.