With the BJP fielding party veteran Jaswant Singh from Darjeeling and promising help to Gorkhaland Mukti Morcha (GJM), the Congress on Wednesday hit out at the saffron party saying it wants to dismember the state, echoing the stand taken by the Left Front government in the state.

“Do they want to dismember Bengal? I want to ask GJM chief Bimal Gurung how he would accept the BJP’s policy of cultural nationalism?” AICC in-charge of West Bengal K Keshav Rao said.

Seeking to put the BJP on the mat, the Congress leader said, “I ask Jaswant Singh that if he does not believe in separate racial identities, how is he at ease with the cultural identity of the Gorkhas?”

The Gorkhaland movement was begun by Subash Ghisingh, who accepted an autonomous hill council at a tripartite agreement with the Centre and the state government in 1988. The GJM later revived the demand for a separate state, arguing they had a separate racial identity, Rao said.

The Congress leader said 32 per cent of the Gorkhas in the area are Christians and asked Singh if he felt at ease with the attacks on the community in Orissa and Karnataka allegedly by the Parivar.

“Bimal Gurung says the Gorkhas need to be represented in Parliament and so he is supporting Singh. But how can a man from Rajasthan represent people living in Bengal?” he said.

Referring to Subash Ghisingh of the GNLF and Bimal Gurung of the GJM, Rao said, “Gurung has wider mass base now, but Ghisingh also has a Gorkha following. Ghisingh himself believes that the BJP is taking the Gorkhas for a ride over the issue. We are sympathetic to the Gorkhas, but we do not support the separate statehood of Gorkhaland.”

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