The West Bengal government called out the Army in Darjeeling on Thursday after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) challenge the “constrained imposition of Bengali dialect” in state schools turned savage with police vehicles being burnt and policemen assaulted. The Army Eastern Command, in an announcement, stated: “Demand from the state government has been gotten. Two Army segments situated in Darjeeling are moving out. Every segment has 43 men.” Police authorities said that protestors flung stones at policemen who at that point utilized nerve gas to scatter the group. However, those observers to the incident in Darjeeling asserted that the protest was peaceful.
The GJM has called a 12-hour bandh from 6 am on Friday. Boss Minister Mamata Banerjee, who held her first Cabinet meeting at the Darjeeling Raj Bhavan, later told journalists: “They (the GJM) are attempting to make an issue out of a non-issue. This is not the way. We are attempting to acquire improvement and we are here a result of the general population in the slopes.”
Challenges have been on in the Darjeeling hills as far back as Banerjee declared a month ago that Bengali will be made a mandatory subject in all schools over the state from classes I to X. The slopes are commanded by the Gorkhas and incorporate the Lepchas, Tamangs, Gurungs and others.
Adding to the perplexity, the state government initially said that Bengali will be a required subject in schools and afterward said it will be discretionary. This incensed the GNLF, the TMC partner in the slopes, which called the state administration’s decision “undemocratic” and “draconian”.
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