“Gorkhaland is a part of India and the demand (of the locals) is for a small state within India,” Singh said at a function held here to release a booklet, Why Gorkhaland? “The BJP has always been in favour of small states and had specifically mentioned Gorkhaland and Telengana in its election manifesto,” he added.

Singh, who contested from Darjeeling as BJP candidate with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha’s support, said the Indian government should realise the strategic importance of the constituency and its adjoining areas as it shares international borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal.

The BJP leader said he had met Home Minister P Chidambaram and other Union ministers to discuss the formation of Gorkhaland and problems faced by the people but there was a lack of initiative from the UPA government.

“I have met Chidambaram not once but on several occasions (to discuss the issue of Gorkhaland),” he said. Singh said he would raise this demand in the forthcoming tripartite talks between the Centre, West Bengal government and GJM, announced to discuss the issue.

Asked if the Left Front government in West Bengal would agree to formation of Gorkhaland, Singh said the Constitution was clear that a state Assembly has the right to be consulted on such an issue but it is the Centre which has the final say.

He refuted the argument that small states had failed in India.

Speaking on the occasion, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said the demand for Gorkhaland was first made 40 years before Independence. He accused the CPM government in

West Bengal of trying to make a “democratic and Gandhian” struggle for formation of Gorkhaland led by GJM leader Bimal Gurung into an “undemocratic and violent” movement. Giri said illegal immigration from Bangladesh was being encouraged by the Left government to turn Gorkhas in the area into a minority and change the demographic profile.

The GJM leader regretted that when the locals raised their demand for a separate state, they were branded as foreigners, and said the nation owed it to the Gorkhas to grant them “equal rights” by granting them statehood.

Asked if the on-going agitation in Darjeeling for Gorkhaland would continue after the announcement of tripartite talks by the Centre, Giri said the talks will be held on August 24, which is a long way off, and GJM would carry on the agitation.

Darjeeling, meanwhile, remained shut down as the GJM’s indefinite bandh entered the fourth day. District administration said all shops and business establishments remained closed and attendance in offices was minimal.

GJM lets Sikkim CM convoy pass
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) on Thursday lifted the blockade on the arterial section of NH-31A for a brief period to allow Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling’s convoy to pass.

Officials in Chamling’s office said the chief minister was headed for Delhi to take up issue of GJM’s blockade of the national highway, which is the sole road link of the hill state with the rest of the country.

Chamling is also expected to tell the Centre that the GJM’s blockade will soon give rise to shortage of essential commodities in the hill state.