Darjeeling, Oct. 7: Bimal Gurung today said he would propose to the Centre that the Darjeeling hills be merged with Sikkim if forming the Gorkhaland state was difficult.

It is the first time that Gurung has proposed a merger.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief who said they “have to separate from Bengal”, added that he would continue to fight for Gorkhaland and undertake a march to cover 9,000km starting tomorrow.

At a programme to mark the ninth foundation day of the Morcha in Motor Stand here today, Gurung said: “On October 3, I had a talk with a BJP leader and he told me that the NDA did not have a majority in Rajya Sabha now. But once they get a majority, they are thinking of settling the issues of not just this region but also three-four places like Vidarbha. I am proposing that if creating a separate state of Gorkhaland is difficult, you should merge Darjeeling with Sikkim.”

He said: “Anyhow, we have to separate from Bengal. I am proposing that if separating from Bengal can be achieved by merging Darjeeling with Sikkim, the issue would have to be looked into. I will talk to the Centre. Historically, too, Darjeeling was part of Sikkim.”

Darjeeling was gifted to the British by the Rajah of Sikkim after he executed the Deed of Grant on February 1, 1835.

In Darjeeling, Gorkha Rashtriya Congress and Darjeeling-Sikkim Ekikaran Manch have been advocating the merger. In Sikkim, however, most parties are opposed to the idea. On several occasions, Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling has said the people of the state are happy and content with the present contours.

Asked if he had spoken to Chamling about the issue, Gurung said: “No, I have never spoken to him. If the need arises, I will speak.”

Gurung, who started a padayatra from Kalimpong on October 2, said: “I will undertake a march of 9,000km from tomorrow. I will not enter my house till I complete it. The march is for Gorkhaland and also to defeat her (Mamata) mission of dividing the hills. Each day, I plan to cover 25km and it will take nearly 400 days to complete the march.” He announced a relay hunger strike in Delhi from December 7 to 19. “We will also organise a rally in Delhi on December 17, 18 and 19, which will be attended by 50,000 to 60,000 supporters.”

Today, during most part of his nearly 45-minute speech, Gurung criticised Mamata Banerjee. “Mamata Banerjee always says in Darjeeling that Kanchenjungha is smiling but you never see our hearts crying. Our heart will smile only when we are separated from Bengal.”

A day after Rajdeep Sardesai wrote an open letter to Aaditya Thackeray condemning the smearing of ink on Sudheendra Kulkarni and the young Sena leader replied promptly , the eminent journalist has written another open letter in reply.

Sardesai, in his letter, has tried to puncture the arguments given by Aaditya Thackeray. He asks why Sena didn’t withdraw support when Modi met Pak PM Nawaz Sharif in Ufa. He also points out that Sena didn’t utter a word when the book was being released in Delhi with BJP patriarch LK Advani in attendance. Sardesai asks if Sena’s protest is confined to Mumbai only.

Shiv Sena, on Monday, justified the ink smearing incident branding it ‘non-violent’ and ‘historic’. Sardesai attacked this definition saying it was nothing but brazen use of muscle power and termed it ‘undemocratic and unconstitutional’.

In the letter, Sardesai asked if the Sena is above the land of the law and whether they are a political party or local militia. According to Sardesai, Sena has always believed in justifying acts of violence and it has not changed cutting across generations.

He points out that Sena’s stand of holding each Pakistani guilty of terror is fundamentally flawed. Sardesai also rejects Aaditya’s hypothesis that boycotting Pakistan, as done to South Africa during its apartheid days, will help. Instead, he believes in creating global opinion against Pakistan sponsored terror.

He says while Sena in opposition periodically highlighted farmers issue, it lost considerable edge and focus while being in power. Sardesai believes Sena as a party is suffering from an image trap. He ends his letter saying that Sena should take cue from Aaditya’s books and try to focus on civil debates rather than resorting to hostility.

Days after the Aam Aadmi Party dissolved its Maharashtra unit, Subhash Ware, its former state convener, too resigned from the party.

“The reason for resigning was that the political affairs committee took the decision to dissolve the state unit. I did not oppose the decision but disagreed with it. However, on October 2 when they gave the reason that the party here was dysfunctional, that was total lie. There are thousands of volunteers who were working here,” Ware said.

Ware added that he will not be quitting the party and will be working for it. “I will continue to work for the party,” he said.

he decision, however, has not gone down well with all volunteers and in particular office bearers of the party.

“Till two months ago, both Pankaj Gupta and Ashutosh complimented us for doing a good job in the city with our unit. We understand that if there is some issue, they transfer or move out some people. But if they dissolve the entire unit all of a sudden, you do feel there is something wrong. The high command culture has crept into this party too. At the end of it, I am left with a feeling that whether I was an idiot to have left everything,” said Mayank Jain.

Others like Sundar Balakrishnan, another member of the party, said, “Actually, volunteers are annoyed and a little disturbed. They did not take us into confidence when they took this decision. The appointment of a fact-finding committee was not informed to us and when we got an intimation that something like this was cooking, we wanted to meet Arvind Kejriwal. But that meeting did not materialise.”

When contacted, Pankaj Gupta said, “We have to talk to Subhash Ware. I am out of Delhi and will be getting back to him later. With respect to people leaving their work and getting into it, we all have done that and we do not go on publicising it. There is a hierarchy to decide. It is not that people will not have roles. And this team was also nominated like the one which will be nominated now. These teams are to create teams till the booth level, which will then elect a state body. They were not supposed to be the owners of the team. It was like an amanat which they have to take care of. Once they would have formed a team, the state unit would have been made out of that.”

Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi faces arrest in connection with a case registered against him for allegedly making an inflammatory speech at an election rally in Bihar.

Following registration of an FIR against Akbaruddin on Monday at Kochadhaman Police Station in Kisanganj district, Kisanganj Superintendent of Police Rajiv Ranjan issued the arrest order against him.

Akbaruddin, younger brother of AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asauddin Owaisi, is an MLA of Telangana.

Asked about his reaction to the matter, Asauddin told reporters in Hyderabad that the matter will be tackled by the party’s legal team.

“The legal team of our party is trying to get the certified copy of FIR and it depends upon them.Whatever steps they will take accordingly..

“I don’t want to comment on what kind of language should or should not be used. 3000 people died in Gujarat and the then incumbent Chief Minister failed to do anything. Nobody can forget that,” he said.

Owaisi said as the FIR has been filed, the legal team would tackle the matter.

Asked if Bihar Police would go to Hyderabad to arrest Akbaruddin or wait for his arrival at Kisanganj, the SP told PTI “These are operational details which I cannot share.” The FIR was lodged against AIMIM leader for violation of provisions of section 144 of Crpc and under sections 153 A and 188 of IPC.

Section 153A deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, while section 188 deals with disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant.

Akbaruddin had addressed an election meeting at Sontha Haat under Kochadhaman Assembly constituency on Sunday Akbaruddin had allegedly used abusive language against all MPs except his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi. He also allegedly made provocative remarks against BJP leaders.

The AIMIM Legislator was booked in the wake of tension in the town after damage to idols in two temples were found on October 5 morning.

The SP had said that the police would probe whether damage to idols at two temples in the town was a fallout of his speech.

According to various media reports, leaders from BJP, VHP and RSS are involved in what can be best described as the fight against Love Jihad.

For the uninitiated, the term Love Jihad is used to describe the act of a Muslim man wooing young Hindu girls and then converting them to Islam.

According to India Today, BJP MLA Suresh Rana has admitted that he had fabricated rape charges against Muslim boys to teach them lesson for marrying Hindu girls. A Cobrapost sting suggested that that while the inter-faith marriage was consensual, the Muslim boys were charged with rape to teach them a lesson.

According to a post on Youth Ki Awaaz, Suresh Rana said: “Now I will tell you the truth. We charged them with rape, but it wasn’t rape, it was consensual. We slapped a rape case against them to teach them a lesson. The girl wasn’t ready to give a statement against them. If you look at the case in depth, the girl was willing. Three people didn’t take her away by force… Girls are girls…it has been said about them that they will change according to circumstances in five minutes…when she was slapped and coerced, she wrote the FIR (that we wanted).”What do you think?”

Another BJP leader embroiled in this scandal is current Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan who was in the news on Tuesday for announcing that labs would set up at ports to check illegal cow-meat export.

Balyan was quoted saying by The Wire: “In the beginning, (Muslim) boys would roam around on motorcycles in front of schools and Plus Two Colleges using Hindu names like Sonu, Monu, with a kalawa (sacred thread) tied around their wrists, pretending to be Hindus. A girl who falls in this trap would come to know only later, after eloping with the boy, that she is not with a Hindu. There have been a lot of such cases.”

Another BJP leader, Sangeet Som who was booked for making inflammatory remarks about the Dadri lynching, explained how they persuade Hindu girls who have married Muslim men to return to their parents: “We make her see the reason that this is not good for her. We tell her that they are Muslims, they never settle for one woman, whereas a Hindu boy will be automatically sent to jail if he does so. Most importantly, we exert on her emotionally that her mother will die, her father will die and brother might even commit suicide as he would not be able to face the society.”

You can check out the whole Cobrapost report here.

Patna: A recent survey has indicated that the BJP-led NDA will get 147 seats in the upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections, whereas the grand alliance will bag 64 seats.

As per a survey by Zee Media Group, 53.8 percent of the people feel that the next government will be that of the NDA and 40.2 percent of the people said that the grand alliance would come to power.

Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti party (LJP) and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s

Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) have joined hands with BJP as part of the National Democratic Alliance.

The grand alliance comprises of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal (United), Congress and Janata Dal (Secular).

As for the trend regarding areas affected by Naxalism, 54.6 percent said that NDA will win and 39.7 percent said that the grand alliance would romp home.

When asked by the politically powerful Yadav community as to which party stands where, 43.7 percent said that NDA would win but more than fifty percent (50.2 percent) said that the grand alliance would be the victors.

Coming to the female population, 58.1 percent of women said that BJP-led NDA would come to power, whereas 35.2 percent said that they want grand alliance to form the next government.

The survey was also done on the basis of caste and religion.

35.9 percent of Muslims preferred the NDA, while a majority of 57.9 percent opted for the grand alliance.

As for the Hindus of Bihar, 57.4 percent preferred the NDA and 36.6 percent preferred the grand alliance.

The survey was done between 29 and 30 September, 2015.

Polls to the 243-seat Assembly is to be held on October 12, 16, 28, November 1 and 5.

The counting of votes is scheduled for November 08.

JAMUI, BIHAR: Likening the Bihar election to hosting a wedding, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to a “dulha” or bridegroom, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief (RJD), Lalu Prasad, has taken a dig at the BJP led National Democratic Alliance for not having a chief ministerial candidate.

“We, the grand alliance, have dulha (bridegroom) Nitish Kumar. But BJP-led NDA has no dulha,” said Mr Prasad while addressing a rally in Jamui district.

The former Bihar chief minister, in his inimitable style, said that people would reject such a marriage party which lacks the bridegroom.

Mr Kumar is the face of the grand alliance led by his party, the Janata Dal (United), RJD and the Congress.

BJP leaders have maintained that the election will be fought on the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government, and the chief ministerial candidate would be decided after the elections, if their alliance wins a majority.

On the issue of the reservation policy, Mr Prasad said, “Till Lalu is alive, reservation for Dalits and OBCs cannot end. RSS and BJP are keen to end reservation,” referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s suggestion to review the country’s reservation policy.

The BJP has clarified that Mr Bhagwat’s comments are being deliberately misread by other parties. The RSS is the ideological mentor of the BJP.

The former chief minister also sought to caution the voters, saying that BJP workers from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are visiting rural Bihar in large numbers to spread hatred and create communal tension for the party to advantage from it politically.

Bihar goes to polls in five phases between October 12 and November 5.

Almost all opinion polls have predicted a neck and neck fight between the BJP-led NDA and the grand alliance spearheaded by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

Trucks from India carrying essential goods and petroleum products started entering Nepal on Wednesday, which is grappling with a fuel crisis due to the blockade of a key trade checkpoint with India by protesters opposing Nepal’s new Constitution. Several cargo trucks entered the Nepali side from Sunauli border in Bhairahawa.

More than 300 trucks carrying essential supplies have been stranded on the Indian side due to the ongoing blockade imposed the Madhesi groups opposing the promulgation of the new Constitution.

Madhesis are Indian-origin inhabitants of the Terai region bordering India who are opposed to splitting Nepal into seven provinces.

At least 40 people have died in over a month of clashes between police and protesters from the Madhesi and Tharu communities and ethnic minorities.

Nepal government enforced the odd-even system for all kinds of vehicles plying in major cities from today in a bid to reduce the impact of the fuel crisis. It has also been rationing petroleum products in Kathmandu to tackle the problem. The blockade in the Nepal-India border point has made life harder for the people of Nepal for the past 4-5 days.

Some people in Nepal blame India for the shortage by imposing an embargo. India denies imposing blockade, saying truck drivers are concerned for their safety after protests in the country.

Washington (CNN)Claiming to target ISIS, Russia conducted its first airstrikes in Syria, while U.S. officials expressed serious doubts Wednesday about what the true intentions behind the move may be.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, warplanes targeted eight ISIS positions, including arms, transportation, communications and control positions.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter countered that claim.

“I want to be careful about confirming information, but it does appear that they (Russian airstrikes) were in areas where there probably were not ISIL forces,” he told reporters. ISIL is an acronym for ISIS.

“The result of this kind of action will inevitably, simply be to inflame the civil war in Syria,” Carter said.

A senior U.S. administration official told CNN’s Elise Labott that a Russian airstrike near the Syrian city of Homs “has no strategic purpose” in terms of combating ISIS, which “shows they are not there to go after ISIL.”

Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported that Russian warplanes had targeted “ISIS dens” in al-Rastan, Talbiseh and Zafaraniya in Homs province; Al-Tilol al-Hmer, in Qunaitra province; Aydoun, a village on the outskirts of the town of Salamiya; Deer Foul, between Hama and Homs; and the outskirts of Salmiya.

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 28 people were killed in the strikes, including women and children. The Syrian National Coalition reported that 36 people were killed, all civilians.

The U.S. official said the United States had no intention of preventing the strikes, but that Russian planes didn’t seem to be flying in areas where the United States is operating.

“They are not stupid,” the official said.