Bimal Gurung: The man who is out to divide Bengal

DARJEELING:Had he not joined the Gorkha Volunteers Cell (GVC) in 1986 when he was 22, Bimal Gurung, the son of poor tea workers, would have lived an inconsequential existence.

But that year, the headstrong youth jumped into the wave of Gorkha protests that followed Subhash Ghising’s call for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

Two years later, Gurung left the GVC after Ghising’s party, the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), signed the 1988 Darjeeling Accord with the Centre and the West Bengal government that led to the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC). Gurung came into the limelight once again in 1992 when he floated an organisation for unemployed youth from the hills.

Though he shared the fire of Ghising in his early years, unlike his mentor, Gurung was always accessible. Since 2007, when he formed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) to fight for Gorkhaland, Gurung has maintained cordial ties with the media to carry his mission forward.

“Bimal Gurung was born to fight for Gorkhaland and I will not ditch my people by compromising with something else. If I do not spearhead the movement for Gorkhaland, hill people will not spare me,” he told HT on June 9.

But mere rhetoric will not help the 53-year old Gorkha leader now, faced that he is with the full might of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has vowed to prevent the bifurcation of West Bengal at any cost.

On Thursday, Gurung got a taste of what he may be up against. The police raided his office, home and some people even set fire to a vehicle parked in his house. Gurung was in hiding through the day, barely managing a video message to the media.

Thousands of GJM supporters and activists have rallied on the streets of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong to protest the police action. If the current confrontation drags on, it will be a challenge for Gurung to keep up the morale of his supporters and the party machinery intact if he has to remain in hiding for long.