The founder of the Gorkhaland
movement and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) chief Subash Ghising
died at a hospital in Delhi yesterday. Ghising, 79, was suffering from several
diseases including a liver disorder for which had to move to Delhi in September
2014.
"Ghising was undergoing treatment
at Sir Gangaram Hospital. He died this afternoon (Thursday). His body will be
taken to Siliguri (in West Bengal) for the final rituals on Friday,"
GNLF's Prakash Dahal told the media.
A hospital source said that
Ghising was brought to the hospital five days earlier for the treatment of
liver cirrhosis. He had to be admitted to the hospital with somewhat similar
problem two months back as well.
Both the ruling TMC and the
opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist expressed grief at the veteran
leader's death and offered the condolences to the family and supporters.
Ghising, a former soldier in
Indian Army's Gorkha Rifles, led a long and rigorous struggle for a seperate
state Gorkhaland to be carved out of West Bengal's Darjeeling district in the
80s. He eventually signed a pact with the central and state government for the
creation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), an autonomous body to
overseen developmental works in the hill areas. He headed the DGHC till
2008.
He was forced into exile after
the GNLF was sidelined in 2008 by the Grokha Janmukti Morcha, an organization
founded by ex-GNLF member Bimal Gurung, who heads the separate state movement
now. He somehow managed to return back to the hills in 2011.
Subhash Ghising, born in 1936,
was quite vocal on topics related to the hills; he formed a political party
named Nilo Jhanda in 1968.
He demanded a separate state for
the Nepali-speaking people of the Darjeeling hills in 1979 and formed the GNLF
in 1980 to give a corporal form to his demands.
Also Read:
No comments:
Post a Comment