Gorkhaland blues

Cynical politics overwhelms serious economic issues

Considerable attention to the escalating unrest in Darjeeling has been focused on the cynical electoral machinations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress. These tricks have been maximised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the dominant unit among the myriad local power players in this three-decade-old movement demanding a separate state called Gorkhaland. In the process, all the actors are ignoring the mounting economic crisis that is likely to fan the conflict in lasting ways. The May-end diktat imposing Bengali in school curricula — the proximate reason for this current outburst of popular protest — has been so