The call for Gorkhaland is emotive. The bugle this time has been blown by Bimla Gurung of Gorakha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).  This is the third call in the last thirty years.Bimal Gurung's GorkhaJanmukti Morcha (GJM) has a brute majority in the hills of Darjeeling.
Other Darjeeling based political parties too joined the agitation and participated in an all-party meeting wherein the major decision was scrapping the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). The next all party meeting is due on June 29at Darjeeling. The agenda for the meeting is simple -- the civil society will settle for nothing short of Gorkhaland and how this can be achieved, the political class needs to find answers.
The call from hills of Darjeeling has received echoes from across the nation; starting from Sikkim led by the CM Pawan Chamling in person, Mumbai, Delhi, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram,  Bengaluru, Dharamasla and Dehradun. It has also received support abroad in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Malaysia, to name a few places. Civil society spread nationally fully supports Gorkhaland as it stands for Gorkha identity, and gives them a homeland a place where, Gorkha, language, art, custom and tradition will be preserved.  The political class of all hues needs to be fully aware, that Gorkha civil society which bears the stick end of the state, when it comes to issue of ration cards or providing welfare funds, or carrying out documentation, are fed up of being asked especially at the rural level, are you an Indian or a Nepali. 

In the meanwhile the disastrous debate on NDTV, took place where “we the people” were represented by a sole Gorkha representative, and the other side was packed with naysayers, where was “We the People”?  The political class, nationally, and at state levels, needs to ask themselves, why there is such a national outpouring by Gorkha society for this issue. On the other hand the local political parties of Darjeeling need to ask themselves, two questions, firstly, what measures are they taking to unify themselves, and ensure that nationally civil society is not let down, and secondly,  why is there calm in the plains of Doars down below.
The identity crisis is at the people's level, thus this is a people’s movement as they want answers to the question of identity, language, and preservation of culture. The Assam agitation of 1979-85, when Gorkhas were asked to leave, or Meghalaya, all remain in collective memory, when they were there for generations, Gorkhas in the form of Assam Rifles tamed the East. It was the sturdy tea garden labour and the Gorkhas who worked in the oil pipelines, and the coal fields that got this region economic viability, once job done they became a liability.
As recently as July 2016, Harka Bahadur Chetry led a march called Marathon March in Assam for providing #OI (Original Inhabitant) status to Gorkhas of Assam. 12 Lacs Gorkhas of Uttarakhand do not have a single legislator when mathematically they should be having at least four. There is no reservations thus Gorkha Youths hardly get to crack the prestigious civil services exams, in seventy years no one has thought of all this, only national service with pride to the nation, of course the community is proud of it. There is discrimination faced on daily basis, being called Chinky, the women being seen as having different moral standards, and citizenship issues, for the bravest of the brave, all echo in civil society, thus Gorkhas who are in a minority in all states  are asking for a homeland within the Indian constitution.
While Gorkha identity is recognized internationally once out of uniform, the soldier finds it difficult  to get a domicile certificate or pass a house plan, as the common question is are you an Indian, or a Nepali? The Indian state, its people and administration are not sensitive enough to distinguish this thus civil society suffers and it is more pronounced in the rural areas.  That is the main reason that there is spontaneous support for the call of Gorkha land.
There is the question of clause 7 of Indo Nepal Treaty of 1950, which allows citizens of Nepal to seek work and even buy property in India. This further compounds the problem for identity of the Indian, with similar name. The administration should declare that there will be no illegal migrant from Nepal because of the treaty.
Today, citizens of Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been clubbed as one; Gorkhas in Uttarakhand could not get ration cards, on this count. The open borders will remain, there is a close special relationship with Nepal, but to get a security aspect to this ongoing agitation just to call off the agitation for statehood is hitting the guardians of national service below the belt, as they contribute the maximum regiments to the Infantry “the queen of the battle”.
Gorkha civil society will get identity from Gorkhaland which is economically viable and fits into the security architecture of the look east policy of our motherland. What the Gorkhas need now is unity, and a leadership with unity of purpose. This is not a law and order problem it is a political problem, and the solution lies in ensuring that identity of 1.25 crore Gorkhas is protected, the language is not eradicated  and even though the BJP in its second manifesto has talked of Gorkhaland yet now they say the matter is not on the table.
The history for a hill state first started in 1907, later it was SubashGhishing who fired everyone's imagination and demanded Gorkhaland in mid-eighties.  The agitation was smartly turned off by granting Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), in 1988, which ruled for 23 years and failed miserably.
The next agitation was started by Bimal Gurung and was again smartly overturned by signing the GTA pact on 18 July 2011. On 26 June 2017 all the members resigned and the GTA elections which are due in July 2017 remain questionable. 
GJM needs to tell the people why for two parliament elections they supported BJP knowing full well the BJP is eyeing Bengal 2021. The solution may be political but the civil society too needs an answer as it too is a silent stakeholder.

      (The writer is an Indian Army veteran who has authored books Gorkha: In Search Of Identity and Gorkha: Society and Politics)