Darjeeling MP Raju Bista’s announcement that the Centre would convene tripartite talks to discuss the ‘permanent political solution’ (PPS) for the Hill political problem has been taken cautiously by parties that are opposed to the BJP, as they said they still doubted the sincerity of the saffron brigade.

On the other hand, BJP’s alliance partners have welcomed such talks that are likely to be held in the month of September. Following a meeting between a delegation of Hill leaders and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on 6
August, the Darjeeling MP had said that the Centre had called for such talks in September and that invitations for the same would be sent soon.

“The allegations that were levelled against the BJP and its alliance partners that nothing was being done have been proven baseless with this news of a tripartite meeting coming in. The development that will take place from the meeting will surely benefit the people here,” GNLF Darjeeling branch general secretary Sandeep Limbu said.

“The meeting will show what PPS means, but for us it is a constitutionally guaranteed arrangement, which is outside Bengal,” he said, also alleging that in 2020 the tripartite meeting for PPS had been changed to a meeting for
GTA as the GJM-1 was not sincere then.

On the other hand, anti-BJP parties raised doubts about the talks and the BJP’s sincerity. GJM-2 Spokesperson, Keshav Raj Pokhrel said, “I do not understand as to why a tripartite meeting needs to be called when the Centre has already understood the issues of this place with the Home Minister talking about it in a speech here and them also featuring it in their election manifesto. If they are sincere about it then they can directly table a Bill for both the PPS and tribal status (for Gorkha communities).”

“They did not need to call a tripartite meeting for granting tribal status for eight communities in Nagaland or granting a Union Territory in Kashmir. This is all a drama and eyewash,” he added. Speaking on the same lines, the TMC (Hills) spokesperson,

NB Khawas said, “The information of the meeting held in Delhi on Friday with the HM does not feature in the PIB, with those present in the delegation themselves maintaining that the meeting was not official. The PPS has been mentioned in their manifesto and with the BJP in absolute majority in the Centre, there was no need for a tripartite meeting to be called. If they were sincere then the process for implementation of PPS should have already started and a Bill introduced in Parliament.”

According to the GJM-1 general secretary, Roshan Giri, a similar tripartite meeting had been called by the Centre for the PPS on 7 October 2020, but they changed it to “discussions on GTA” at the last moment. “This is the way the BJP functions. Let an official letter come first on it and see if the talks are held sincerely. They only use us for votes, but are not honest towards us.”

Mr Giri also said that if a tripartite meeting is called on PPS then all stakeholders should be invited.