A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker from West Bengal has now mocked the party’s state president Dilip Ghosh with a cartoon, for his remarks.
Darjeeling BJP MLA Neeraj Zimba posted a cartoon of Ghosh on his Facebook account on Monday. In the picture, a cautionary message to Ghosh was written which read “Mind Your Lip – Dilip”. Zimba also advised Ghosh to read the history of the Gorkhas and refrain from “loose talk”. Dilip Ghosh had recently made some comments that led to outrage among people. Even his own party was in an uncomfortable position for some of his controversial remarks made under the backdrop of countrywide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Ghosh recently said that the Gorkhas need not be worried about losing citizenship under the CAA as their citizenship was protected by a 1950 India-Nepal treaty. The treaty that he referred to allowed free movement, residence and trade between the residents of India and Nepal. But the Gorkhas have always been demanding the abolition of the treaty as they thought that it implied that Gorkhas are immigrants in India. Ghosh’s comment was not received even by the Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bisht, who said that he would approach BJP national president JP Nadda to fix a “proper communication protocol” for publicly addressing any issues related to the Gorkhas.
Ghosh had made another comment two weeks back which had enraged the Gorkha community. He had equated the killing of some Gorkhas in the countrywide protests against CAA and that of the 2017 agitation in which Gorkhas demanded the creation of a separate Gorkhaland.
He also said that his party would shoot down vandals who destroy public property like dogs. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been vocal about safeguarding interests of people living in the hills, including the Gorkhas and criticised Ghosh’s comment on the CAA protesters. Ghosh then said that Banerjee had herself killed 11 Gorkhas during the 2017 agitation. This hurt the Gorkhas as the comment meant Ghosh had used the words “vandals” and “dogs” for the 11 persons who fought for their community’s freedom.
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