| Font Size |
Chhetri along with her son and daughter-in-law shares the hospital cabin where her husband, Deochand Karki, has been undergoing treatment for the last 15 days. She doesn’t venture out of the cabin even once, as she fears that she could be attacked again.
On February 17, the day Gorkha Vidyarthi Morcha, the students’ wing of GJM, called a bandh in Darjeeling after they were refused permission to hold a rally in Siliguri, the members of the outfit attacked her house and set it on fire. The legislator and her family were lucky as they were not present inside the house. Since then, the family has not returned to their house.
“It is like the life of a convict in a condemned cell. Death is staring at you. I have written and even spoken to Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen, Assembly Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim but nothing has been done. I am living a beast’s life,” Chhetri told The Indian Express over phone from Kurseong.
“That day I have heard they (GJM supporters) were baying for my blood. Had I been there I would have been lynched. And this happened when I openly supported the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland in the Assembly. I don’t know what else I will have to do to ward off their wrath,” she added.
Though three police constables guard her at the hospital and a couple of them are also posted at her residence, Chhetri doesn’t feel secure. “Even on the day when the attack took place, the policemen were guarding my house but they could not do anything,” she said.
The police, on the other hand, say that enough security has been provided to the MLA. “We have done what we could do for her. She should not be afraid,” said Devendra Pratap Singh, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
This is saddening that a opposition house has been burnt. That too without her ailing husband presence in the house. Considering the history of GJJM, they seem to have no tolerance of opposition. It has been their policy to chase out all oppposition. Just the news today says that GJJM will not allow participation of other parties to the discussion table. Applying the tactics of Darjeeling GJJM to Indian polictics , the UPA in power will have to throw out all the BJP (Opposition)out of India. The fate of opposition is a good reflection of how democratic the GJJM agitators are. Their houses vandalised and burnt down. They are currently all refugees somewhere inspite of having residence in the Darjeeling Hills. Their logic is anarchic and unconstitutional, democracy needs a strong opposition to prevent dictatorship. Can we call Bimal Gurung , the Hitler of Darjeeling ??