BGP strongly regrets the views expressed by TRS President

BGP strongly regrets the views expressed by TRS President
BGP PR

Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh

New Delhi, 24 Jan: The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh strongly regrets the views expressed by Telangana Rashtra Samithi President K Chandrasekhar Rao that the creation of Gorkhaland will compromise the security of the country. The BGP also feels that Mr Rao’s belief that people are divided over the idea of Gorkhaland is unfounded.

The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh is of the opinion that Mr Rao, who is a seasoned political leader who has been fighting for the rights of the people of the proposed state of Telanagana, has made the statement in the erroneous belief that by denying Gorkhaland, his own cause will find favour with the Centre. The demand for a separate state for Gorkhas is founded on the aspirations of the Gorkhas to concretise their Indian identity after decades of misrepresentation in polity and society as people from another country. The movement for Telangana mainly aims at bringing equitable economic changes in areas that are currently in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Not only are the impetus for the two demands dissimilar, but the facile impression that Mr Rao holds of Gorkhaland being one more ground for insurgency is totally false and unwarranted. Gorkhas have been patriotic citizens of India and have guarded its borders with integrity and sacrifice. A new state peopled by Gorkhas cannot subvert the nationhood of India. On the contrary, a Gorkha state will only stabilise what is considered a volatile and strategically important region of India.

No one involved in the movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland, be it the political parties or social organizations like the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, have ever linked their demand to the exigencies of statehood agitations anywhere else. The Gorkhaland movement is premised on a unique lacuna in Indian political and social life and cannot be hostage to decisions taken by the government with regard to any other statehood demand. In a similar way, the Telangana demand is unique and a decision on its creation cannot be influenced by the popular upsurges in other parts of the country.

The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh asks Mr K Chandrasekhar Rao to take back his opposition to the creation of a state for Gorkhas on the grounds so stated in his statement. As a people who have suffered for decades due to official misconceptions about their identity, the Gorkhas understand the aspirations of the people of Telangana. However, denigrating one to achieve something for the other is not only politically naïve but also a rejection of democratic norms that hold the people’s will to be supreme.

The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh has also decided to send its publications to the TRS chief to educate him on the history and salient features of the demand for a separate state by India’s Gorkhas.