Madan Tamang - His was A Life

This Sunday afternoon, back from a tour of some of Bihar's impoverisehed areas, I am just beginning to adjust to the world around me, and the news that an old friend of my Aunt Janet Ranger, was brutally murdered in Darjeeling two days ago.

Madan Tamang was a man with a hearty laugh, a love for good grog, and of the finer things of life. The Ranger Family of Kurseong, to whom I am related, was one of the old planter's families, those who had tea gardens of their own, and Madan Tamang was one of the Circle. He was also president of the All India Gorkha League — one of the oldest political outfits in Darjeeling — a fearless and principled man. In fact,a number of hill leaders will say that Tamang is the one who had the guts to treat GNLF lrader Subash Ghisingh’s diktats with utter contempt. His was a dissenting voice that could not be when Subhash Ghisingh was a virtual dictator at the helm of affairs.

In 1977, he was made the district secretary of the League but resigned in 1980 to join a new outfit called Pranta Parishad. His exit from the League was largely because of differences with senior leaders. Pranta Parishad spearheaded a campaign along with apolitical organisations like the Nepali Bhasa Manyata Samiti to include the Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.  In 1981, as a youngster training with BD Basnet's 'Himalayan Observer', I was priviliged to be present at several meetings and press conferences. Madan Tamang impressed me no end. The Pranta Parishad spoke of Gorkhaland- full staehood for the Darjeelings Hills.

Tamang worked closely with Subash Ghisingh during the early days of Pranta Parishad. The Ghishing  floated the GNLF in 1980 and stole the Parishad thunder. By 1986, the hills were mesmerised with  Ghisingh but Tamang refused to join him. Even at the height of the Gorkhaland agitation, between 1986 and 1988, Tamang never shied away from criticising Ghisingh and the violence he had unleashed. Tamang was then the only hill resident who openly spoke against the GNLF.

The GNLF did not take things lying down. They burnt his ancestral house at Meghma near Sandakphu.

Madan did not stop criticising Gurung. He publicly described the proposed interim council which the GJM was negotiating with the Centre as a “sell-off”.  He crossed swords with Ghishing, when he supported the move ( also echoed by the then Sikkim Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari) to incllude Nepali [not Gorkhali as proposed by Ghishing] for recognition as one of Indias's official languages. At a public meeting at Chowk Bazaar, hordes of khukuri-wielding GNLF supporters surrounded Tamang. But he stood his ground and continued with his speech. In the end, the language was incorporated as Nepali in the Constitution.

After his success with the language agitation, Madan Tamang rejoined the League the League in 2004.

He defied GNLF-sponsored strikes to address public meetings against the inclusion of the hills in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. His vehicle was attacked in Kalimpong, his meeting was stoned in Bijanbari but he never lived in fear. Instead, he headed an anti-Ghisingh conglomeration called the People’s Democratic Front.

When the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha came into being in 2007, he supported it at first. Animosity started to set when The GJM disregarded his call for collective action to demand a separate State. Morcha supporters attacked his house, burnt a League office and prevented him from holding public meetings, but nothing could stop him from voicing his views.

Barely three days before his assassination, Madan Tamang, had met West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan in a deputation, urging him to do everything to restore the rule of law in Darjeeling.

“The issue at the moment is not a separate state, but to safeguard the fundamental rights of the people and to allow them to live freely and fearlessly,” Tamang had told the Governor on May 18.