Posters have appeared all over the hill town of Kalimpong in protest against making Bengali mandatory for students studying in hill schools from Class I to Class 12.
The Gorkha Janmukti Vidhyarthi Morcha, student's wing of the GJM, responsible for pasting the posters, called this "linguistic imperialism" imposed by the West Bengal government and said that this infringed upon one's right to education in mother tongue.
GJVM general secretary Bhushan Tamang told reporters in Kalimpong, which was recently made a district by the state government, yesterday, "Making Bengali compulsory in hill schools is a direct infringement on our right to education in our mother tongue and discriminatory towards our language, Nepali."
Tamang said that in the past the text books were issued in Nepali language only, but now Bengali books had been sent in their stead.
"This is dictatorial and we oppose this blatant imposition of Bengali language on our people," he said.
He also criticised the Nepali speaking politicians for keeping mum over the issue and urged all "self-respecting Gorkhali" to speak out.
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