Such a conclusion seems inescapable after the brutal murder of All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang on May 21 by frenzied GJM hoodlums at an open rally in Darjeeling town.

The political isolation and universal condemnation of the GJM and its Fascist methods following Mr. Tamang's murder in broad daylight could mark a turning point in the troubled post-autonomy history of Darjeeling and neighbouring hills of Kalimpong and Kurseong.

Altogether 56 people, mostly GJM supporters and activists, have been arrested. The police are looking for six persons directly involved in the killing. They are thought to be hiding in Sikkim.

The reaction of GJM “leaders” Bimal Guring and Roshan Giri is on predictable lines. “It is a conspiracy of the West Bengal government to divide and weaken the Morcha”.

Needless to add, not even Morcha followers are swallowing that one, let alone anyone else, with the honourable exception of local MP Jaswant Singh, maybe, who is determined to fight for the “democratic rights of the exploited hill people,” under the GJM banner.

Senior GJM leader Anmol Pradhan promptly resigned from the Morcha leadership in protest against the killing. His colleague Harka Bahadur Chhetri has threatened to quit in case GJM is seen to be involved in the murder.

Even as GJM leaders remained underground, their supporters in silent mode in Darjeeling and elsewhere, common people came out in large numbers to organize spontaneous candle-lit rallies and processions. People from all sections participated and openly condemned “the Talibanisation of politics” in the hills. Not one GJM flag fluttered, its raucous supporters discreetly out of sight, according to local reports. They also spoke out openly against the GJM's ruthless suppression of all voices other than its own since 2007. The local bandh on May 22 was spontaneous, no one feeling any urge to contact the GJM leadership about this.

Ironically observers see a parallel between the GJM methods and those of the now hated GNLF during its heydays in the m mid and late eighties. Like Gurung, Ghishing too was a smalltime dictator who brooked no opposition and used his party to push through an individual political agenda. During the period, the GNLF ran the autonomous hill council, every year the state and central governments sent at least Rs 60 crore annually for local development of the hills.

Not only there is no evidence in 2010 of how such large sums of money were spent, the GNLF even did not maintain proper record of its expenditure. However, the state and central governments too, acting as mere bystanders to the process, allowed Ghishing to have his way.

In fact even with someone like Gurung, with a known record and penchant for instigating violence in the past, the state has adopted a hands-off attitude, which has seriously angered and upset the people of the hills . As with the GNLF, so with the GJM — there was and is, no need for the State or the Centre to treat such entities as the only spokesmen for all hill peoples. For all practical purposes, established organisations like the Gorkha League, the CPRM and other smaller parties, not to mention indigenous Lepchas and the Bhutiyas, and the tribes in the plains whom the GJM wants to rule, — all have been ignored by both the centre and the state in post autonomy political discussions. Their fault: they did not brandish arms, disrupt normal life, blackmailed other communities, kill or threaten political opponents, like the GJM.

Following Tamang's murder, it is time for the centre and state to treat some GJM leaders according to the dictates of the law of the land. If their complicity and involvement can be proved in crimes, let them be treated as the criminals that they are.

It has to be stressed that Tamang died not least for his courage and defiance of the GJM. He questioned their dictatorship, challenged their authority and criticised their corruption. He was doing the work that the state and central governments were too weak or cowardly to carry out. The least the state and central governments can do in the present situation is to fight for his objective, to set up a genuine democracy in the hills, not surrender to hoodlums. (IPA)