| SUPPORT GORKHALAND |
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| Written by cpimlnd | |
| Monday, 30 June 2008 | |
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PRESS PRELEASE 21.06.2008 SUPPORT GORKHALAND The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Lenin  ist) New Democracy staged a protest at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 21st June 2008 in support of the demand for Gorkhaland.Speaking on the occassion, party leaders criticised the deployment of troops in the region to suppress the movement and the use of section 144 when the protestors were using peaceful relay hunger strike to make their point. The party leaders pointed out that the area for which a seperate State was being demanded had never originally been a part of West Bengal. The area under question took shape when the British annexed parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim in 1866. It was kept by the British as an "excluded area" till 1935 and "partially excluded area" till 1947 and it was given to the state of West Bengal only after 1947, they contended. They argued that when so many other states had been re-organized since 1947, the demand for Gorkhaland should not be treated as an "untouchable topic". Leaders of the undivided Communist Party of India had supported the demand for "Gorkhastan" which was now being referred to as "Gorkhaland", the party leaders pointed out. According to CPI(ML) New Democracy, the reason why the State of West Bengal did not want to part with this region was its tremendous economic potential. Tea, Tourism and Timber industries of the area earn enormous revenues which are not even partially put for development of the area, which remains poor and backward. Delhi Committee CPI(ML) New Democracy condemns the CPM's attempt to subvert the agitation specially by trying to whip up Bengali chauvinism to divide the people living in the Gorkhaland area. CPI(ML) New Democracy supports the demand for Gorkhaland and demands that the army be called off and democratic rights be restored. |
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