“The issue at the moment is not a separate state, but to safeguard the fundamental rights of the people and to allow them to live freely and fearlessly,” Tamang had told the Governor on May 18, according to R B Rai, of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM).

Tamang and Rai were part of a forum called “Democratic Front”, which included organisations like the All India Gorkha League, CPRM, BJP, Gorkha National Liberation Front (C), Darjeeling-Sikkim Unification Manch, and Sikkim Rashtriya Mukti Morcha. All of them felt suffocated in the hills as Gorkha Janmukti Morcha led by Bimal Gurung was said to be suppressing their freedom.

Tamang, brother of Amar Lama who is one of the top most leaders of the GJM, was the last one to be cowed down by threats. His was a dissenting voice that did not stop shouting when Subhash Ghisingh was at the helm of affairs. He did not stop criticising Gurung and publicly described the proposed interim council which the GJM was negotiating with the Centre as a “sell-off”.

The Gorkhaland movement started in the early 80s, with Tamang setting up the “Pranta Parishad”, which demanded a separate state for Darjeeling. But soon the emergence of Ghisingh and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) virtually hijacked Tamang’s movement.

The GNLF supremo undoubtedly eclipsed all the hill leaders except Tamang, who continued to criticise the hill council accepted by Ghisingh and would often dare him to oust him from the hills.

In fact, Tamang was described by a number of hill leaders as the one who had the guts to treat Ghisingh’s diktats with utter contempt and in a way stoked the simmering dissent within the GNLF that ultimately reflected in the formation of the GJM led by Gurung.

“It was Madan Tamang who readied the ground for opposing the autocratic rule of Subhash Ghisingh for over two decades, and the GJM took the advantage,” said Rai.