West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to revoke the Centre’s decision of appointing an interlocutor to discuss on the issues relating to Gorkhas in north Bengal while labelling the decision as arbitrary and unconstitutional.
This is the second letter that Banerjee has written to Modi on this issue. She had sent the first letter on October 18.
“I once again look forward to your intervention and request you to revoke this unconstitutional and arbitrary order,” she wrote on Monday.
In October this year, the Centre appointed Pankaj Kumar Singh, a retired IPS officer, as an interlocutor to hold discussions on the issues relating to Gorkhas in Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars regions of West Bengal.
“It is a matter of grave concern that without any further communication in response to my letter and despite you intervention, the office of the interlocutor under the ministry of home affairs, has, vide memo dated November 10, communicated that the office of the interlocutor has already started functioning. This is really shocking,” Banerjee wrote in her second letter.
The chief minister also stated in her letter that the current move by the Centre appears to be a politically motivated attempt to disturb the peace and stability of the region.
The hills had earlier witnessed a 104-day-long general strike demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland in 2017.
“The government of West Bengal categorically rejects and strongly objects to this unconstitutional, arbitrary and politically coloured interference in the internal matters of the state,” she wrote.
The BJP has hit back saying that the letter was absurd as the state government refused to send any representatives to the tripartite meetings held on the issues related to Gorkhas.
“Such letters are meaningless. The state government didn’t send any representatives to the tripartite meetings. The state government’s allegations that the federal structure has been eroded is baseless as the interlocutor will not take any decision in isolation. The centre’s decision is within the purview of the law,” Suvendu Adhikari, BJP legislator and leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly, told media persons.
