Sharad Nepal
Mirik, 29 January

It was a sight to behold. Albeit for a day, leaders of Darjeeling and Kalimpong Hills set aside their political differences, came in droves and joined hands to pay rich tributes to a man considered Gorkha community’s tallest leader, the late Subhash Ghisingh.

A sombre yet heartwarming moment at the Manjushree Park at Manju in Mirik in Darjeeling on Wednesday brought together leaders and well-wishers cutting across political lines where they witnessed the unveiling of a memorial for the late Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader and his wife, the late Dhan Kumari Subba Ghisingh.

Ghisingh breathed his last at the Gangaram Hospital in New Delhi on 29 January, 2015, while thousands had paid their last respects during his funeral at the Manjushree Park on 1 February then.

Ghisingh is considered to have raised consciousness among Gorkhas scattered across India about an organized voice for their existence and identity.

As the first achievement achieved by the Gorkhas through the bloody agitation in the mid and late 1980s, the Gorkhas were given the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), with Ghisingh as the chairman. However, political upheavals in the Hills forced him to go into exile on 26 July, 2008. He was hounded in the hills during the last days of his tenure to such an extent that he was not able to even take the body of his wife to the Hills. On 16 August 2008, after the death of Dhan Kumari Ghisingh, her body was being taken home in Darjeeling, but was sent back to the plains from Zero Point at Giddhapahar in Kurseong.

“As people gathered on Wednesday at Manju, they must have experienced how powerful time is. On the same day, January 29, Ghisingh, who was scorned 16 years ago, was remembered again and everyone heaped praises on him,” a GNLF leader said.

Chief Executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and leader of the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) Anit Thapa said that they were all doing politics today “just because of Subash Ghisingh.”

Leader of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front Ajoy Edwards, who arrived at the Manjushree Park later in the day, recalled Ghisingh as a leader who always stood with the people, in towns and villages, and said that he had always stood with the Gorkha leader in his “difficult times.”

Senior leader of the CPI (M) and former state urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya, who attended the programme on Wednesday, recalled his “friendship” with Ghisingh. “Ghisingh was more than the father of the Gorkhas,” he told The Himal World.

Hill leader and GTA Sabhasad Binoy Tamang termed Ghisingh as the “Nelson Mandela of the Gorkhas.”

According to Educationist Dr Mahendra P Lama, Ghisingh was a person who would leave the state and central governments “shaken,” even as Hill Trinamul Congress President Shanta Chhetri termed him as a “diamond leader of the Gorkhas.”

At the Manjushri Park, Ghisingh’s family members led by his son, present GNLF president Mann Ghisingh, and his brother Sagar Ghisingh, performed religious rituals before unveiling the tomb.

Among the others present at the ceremony were Hill Trinamool Congress Chairman LB Rai, CPI(M) leader Saman Pathan, GJM President Dawa Pakhrin, MLA Neeraj Zimba,  GTA Chairman Anjul Chauhan, GTA executive members Arun Sigchi, Milesh Rai, Dhurba Bomjan, former MLAs Amar Rai, Rohit Sharma and NB Chhetri, Gorkhaland Activist Samuha Coordinator Kishore Pradhan, BGPM General Secretary Amar Lama, representatives sent by Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, representatives of GJM, advocates Bandana Rai, Pratap Khati and Birendra Rasaili, top leaders and cadres of the GJM, and representatives of various organizations.

It may be mentioned here that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Sikkim Chief Minister PS Tamang Golay, Congress leader Dr Munish Tamang, among others, were also invited to the programme.

It is learnt that CM Golay could not attend the event due to his busy schedule, while Dr Tamang had written to the GNLF, expressing his inability to attend the function.