Sufferings of Common People

Why? Girl asks Gurung
AVIJIT SINHA

Siliguri, Jan. 2: A schoolgirl whose “entire family” supp-orts the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha called up Bimal Gurung today and asked: “Why are you doing this?”

Prithika Pradhan’s voice trembled as she spoke to “Bimalji”, a man she had only seen from far or heard in speeches, but she went on. “My house was ransacked, the eatery my mother ran was burnt down in a senseless act of violence that we could not comprehend.

“Why should the Morcha target innocent people, burn their houses and their dreams, for the criminal acts of a few people?”

Over 100 Morcha supporters descended from Kurseong yesterday and ransacked homes in Rohini and set many of them ablaze.

Prithika lay awake last night, unable to understand the “madness”, the “frenzied screams of the mob as it went around setting fire to the homes”, especially because her family supported Gurung and his call for Gorkhaland.

This morning, Prithika told The Telegraph: “I had to have an answer to the mindless violence indulged in by a party that claims to believe in the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. They were the people we supported, so I was sure they would provide us with some answers.”

End of the day, she wasn’t sure if she had got the answers. But both Morcha president Gurung and secretary Roshan Giri “listened to me patiently”.

The Class XI student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sukna, got the phone numbers of the Morcha Top Two through friends and relatives. She tried Gurung’s first, but it was busy. So she dialled Giri.

He confirmed receiving the call. “I told her I didn’t know much about the inci- dent as I was in Delhi (for the tripartite talks), but I assured her that Rohini won’t face any problem in the future.”

Prithika got through to Gurung later. But he was not available for comment.


In any political agitation, the common people suffer.
Prithika should understand that. What she has suffered is nothing new.
The politician agitates for his own personal gain,
it has nothing to do with helping the people.
The politician always lights the match, ignites and fans the flames and
then runs away for the common man to suffer the consequence.
Later on, he comes back to reap the rewards.
The sooner the common man reads their motives and starts beating them up on sight, the better will it be for the nation.
Radheshyam