The Queen Of Splits
Mamata Banerjee is turning out to be quite a pro at playing the divide and rule game. To tackle the Darjeeling crisis for instance, first she played the Gorkhas against the Lepchas when the former renewed their demand for a separate state soon after the centre’s decision to give a green signal to the creation of Telengana. She did this by praising the Lepchas for being progressive and not wanting to distance themselves from the mainstream. This immediately endeared her to the Lepchas and widened a traditional but not very pronounced rift between them and the Gorkhas of the region. This week she went a step further and seems to have set one group of Gorkhas against another. She did this by announcing during her visit to the region that she felt that Darjeeling had outlived its shelf life as the "Queen of the Hills"—the ultimate tourist destination of the hills of North Bengal—and that she would focus instead on developing Kalimpong. Now, this was a clever tactic. The Kalimpong Member of Legislative Assembly happens to be a member of the Gorkha Jana Mukti (GJM) party which is at the centre of the demand for separate statehood. But this announcement by Mamata has reportedly pleased him so much that it threatens to weaken the Gorkha separate statehood movement by dividing up the Kalimpong Gorkhas and the Darjeeling Gorkhas.