Gurung, the chief of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the party leading the fight for a separate Gorkhaland state in Darjeeling hills, has been literally smoked out of his home town, and state, by the Mamata Banerjee government. He was last seen in Sikkim, hurriedly winding up a meeting with his colleagues before being whisked from the clutches of Bengal police who are closing in on him every single day.

His once trusted deputy, Binay Tamang, has openly defied him, positioning himself as the face of the party. Though Gurung publicly termed his strayed lieutenant “traitor” and also expelled him from the party, Tamang has been defiant. Having liaised with the state government on behalf of the party earlier, he has now begun communicating with the Centre; and on September 3, two days after his suspension from party, he shot a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, claiming to be an “authorised representative” of the party. Confined in his Darjeeling home and protected by Bengal police, Tamang is now threatening to expose those in the Morcha who have “misappropriated crores of rupees”.

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Politics is no place for moral science, but Gurung should have known what goes comes around. Nothing about karma, just the simple logic that if you make the same mistakes, you get the same results.

Political opportunism did no good to Ghisingh; no way will it benefit Gurung either.

Read the full piece here.