Tourists attacked with iron rods - Darjeeling Hills & Dooers

grikoo

Yes, that seems to be the general case in situations like this.

Scandojazzbuff

There must be some connection to the situation in Nepal as many of the people in and around Darjeeling are Nepali. Like in other areas of India where there are heavy concentrations of Nepalis, they are often treated as mere beasts of burden doing the most difficult tasks of hard labor. With the new regime in Nepal and the ousting of the monarchy, we could see a renewed insurgency in this part of India.

sagarneel

A bunch of idiots....these people.In an attempt to 'revolutionaise', they are cutting the branch on which they are sitting....tourism. Its dreadful to think about the economic health of the hills, without tourism.
This should end..the sooner it happens, the better it is.

Sagarneel.

mantru

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mantru

there is no connection with Nepal...its the hills and the plains now......i dont think anyone will deny this....look at the simple incident when the Hills opened up for two days siliguri declared two days strike...What might be the reason?They did this purposely to stop all supplies to Darjeeling hills and if any tourist were beaten it was in the plains not in the hills...see the pics.......

Attached Thumbnails

 

nayan

On the lighter side :
did not know we are called bengalese by world reknowned Indologists these days.

mridula

Thanks for the HB link Mantru.

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sharan_travelcrazy

we had gone to gangtok on jun 7th with the hope of a splendid stay there for 2 days and then move on to darjeeling.. But all our plans were ruined.. not only that we had to abandon our Darjeeling trip but we were also stranded in gangtok for TWO full days without any transportation possible down to siliguri..

We had to wait in the queue in the Sikkim Govt transport bus stand for a whole day before they started plying buses to siliguri !..
Had a really horrid experience

dream_traveller

i am planning to go to shillong in the next weekend. I will fly from delhi to guwahati and by car to shillong. has unrest in the darjeeling hills any affect or impact in the region of guwahati and shillong? if yes then i have to cancel my air tickets. please let me know if you have any information..

Bhaswaran

No...that region is not related to these and you can go....provided there are no other problems in those places.

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machadinha

Very sorry to hear that, Sharan

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Bhaswaran

It does not matter whether they are beaten up in the hills or in the plains. The tourists are beaten up by GJM supporters who are enforcing their bandh in the hills as well as in the plains and terai regions. The situation has such an eruption as the GJM included Siliguri in their Gorkhaland map now. The plains have the Gorkhas in minority, and trying to add these areas in there agitation spread the fire.

And again the anti-Gorkhaland 48-hour bandh may be unjustified and specially the timing but it again exposes the weakness of the hill economy. A separate statehood is given after studying many aspects - not just ethnicity, language, culture, etc, or other things like that. Then India should be divided into 1000 or more states. The states of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttranchal are formed after it was found this region can prosper much and in turn prosper the country if formed. Must be taken into account the per capita income and resources (both natural and arteficial) of the said region. It was not just formed on ethnicity or language (although many local political leaders gimmick on these issues). It is a big issues and cannot be given away with impractical sentiments likes ethnicity or language, then as told, India have to be broken into 1000 pieces.

duke

We had travelled thru Sikkim from June 1 and was to spend June 10 and 11 in Darjeeling.We were advised on June 9 while in west Sikkim (Rinchenpong-a remote village)of the bandh in Darjeeling.Wonderful agent(Neptune Travel) kept us informed and we spent June 10 in RinchenpongVillage resort-we did not mind since this was a beautiful and tranquil place considering all the distances covered prior to this.Furthermore we had no current news and Officials in Sikkim did not seem to know what was going on and there was no news coverage.Only Darjeeling was mentioned as the affected area.That is not so since all Sikkim tourists are affected-have to go thru Siliguri if travelling by train or plane.Morning of the 11th(8 am)driver was told to take us to Gangtok where further decisions could be made re possible bus transport.Mind you the previuos day some of the busses taking tourists were stoned in Siliguri and some drivers injured.On the way our driver was told by his office that the bandh was to be lifted for supplies and tourists to travel to Siliguri thet afternoon so we were to go to the border in Rangpo.Got there at 1 pm (we ar 2 women and 3 teens15,14 and 13)Hung out for 2 hours-no one knew what was going on-not even the police.Saw lots of army vehicles and busses with army families and space in them.They ignored requests for help!!!!.There was also lines of trucks with people in them,in the extreme heat,waiing to leave.
The driver started getting agitated ad his immediate superior in Gangtok told us that all the buses for tourists leaving Gangtok was full and we would have no alternative but to get the cattle trucks-absolute disorganized mess.Our agent had a hotel in Gangtok booked for us so we we headed back since there seemed no alternative.50minutes later our driver was told that the road to Siliguri was open and he was to drive us there.That was probably the fastest trip to Siliguri from Gangtok-he drove like a maniac but I imagine he feared the return trip.Got there at 6.30pm.
Agent had booked rooms at the Cinderalla on Sevoke road.
The following morning June 12 woke up at 5 AM and decided to check out Sevoke Road.There did not appear to bea any activity.The hotel folks seemed to think the day would be OK-so at 900 am we took a cycle rick to the closest internet spot(hotels was down).It was closed.We were then told that every business was closed for the day.Quickly went back to the hotel.They seemed to think that getting tourists to the airport was not going to be such a big deal.Suddenly at noon we were given a couple of minutes to get ready to go since thigs had started to get bad in Siliguri.Well there was not enough space for us so my sister and nephew and luggage went -there were 4 vehicles.They were stopped 4 times by the mobs who were turning ugly.They were fearful of their life.Thankfully one of the army vehicles stopped and fully armed military held the mobs back.
Meantime we were at the hotel and the manager etc,were wringing their hands as to what to do with us-an American adult female and 2 American teens.We did not know how crazy it was out there .About 30 minutes later a police vehicle arrived with 3 policemen and they took us and 4 other tourists to the airport.We got to Bagdogra airport in 15 minutes driving at upwards of 100km /hr with the lights flashing.The mobs were unbelievable and milling everywhere and the roads were full of motorbikes and bicycles.I was truly scared for our safety,but we made it safely and was really thankful to those policemen.
By the way I do not believe the Sikkim government did enough for the tourists on which their the state depends on for income-Their officials were clueless!!!!
Also the helicopter that flies once a day Bagdogra to Gangtok once daily was booked full for 15 days even though the schedule was was increased-theey were for VIPs only or people with contacts-A Sikkimese student told me she had no problem getting a flight even thoughshe booked the previous day-had a family member in Govt.A tourist who had booked a trip to Gangtok from Bagdogra a while ago was told his booking was cancelled for a VIP.
Nonetheless prior the debacle the the trip was wonderful and the landscape was mindboggling most especially North Sikkim-a true shangrila.

mantru

Sir you are not the one to decide who should be given and who should not in the first place we are not asking you.....so lets nor discuss who should be given a state and who not....

Secondly if you are not sure siliguri is within darjeeling district for your information you can have a look,what you must have meant is bengali community ,correct? we are not concerned which community ,if we get state (the future will tell,not in our hands)it will darjeeling dist as a whole not separate hills and plains or community based...we are one we would like to stay together...

http://darjeeling.gov.in/dist-prof.html

nayan

Mantru,
who are "we"? Does that include all communities in the district of darjeeling?
If it is... then why is the agitation taking a messy/violent turn? Why not go through the electoral route?

If not - then no use reacting negetively to people with a different point of view. There is bound to be lots of debate about the justification of statehood.

I agree with the article you had linked earlier in the point that you will have to convince the public opinion that yours is a just and logical demand... otherwise it will be seen as just another "movement" - a few leaders utilizing a emotive subject to manipulate the sentiments of millions and grab power themselves. And you cannot do it by saying that "who are you to ask for justification" or "we are not asking anything from you"

just my two bits.