Ghisingh wife dead, GJM no to Hills funeral

Pinak Priya Bhattacharya & Deep Gazmer,TNN

SILIGURI/DARJEELING: Her last journey had to be cut short as GJM did not allow the body of Dhanmaya Ghisingh, wife of GNLF president Subash Ghisingh, to be taken to her ancestral home in Ghoom. Sources said she will be cremated in Siliguri on Sunday.

Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leaders, who came to Mallaguri in Siliguri after Dhanmaya's death on Saturday morning, had decided to take her body to Ghoom and then cremate her in Darjeeling.

But as soon as that news spread, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders declared that they would not allow GNLF to take Dhanmaya's body to Darjeeling under any circumstances. GJM supporters also started picketing along Hill Cart Road and NH-31B to prevent GNLF leaders from entering the Hills with Dhanmaya's body.

To avoid the blockade, the GNLF convoy, accompanied by police, took Rohini Road to reach Darjeeling and Ghisingh was not present in that convoy. But they were stopped by GJM supporters at Kurseong and sent back.

"We did not want Subash Ghisingh to enter the Hills. So, we stopped the convoy," said Pradip Pradhan, secretary of GJM's Kurseong unit. He pretended as if the GJM supporters did not know that Ghisingh was not in the convoy.

This inhuman act was fully supported by the GJM top brass as it found nothing wrong with what their supporters had done.

"Nobody in the Hills would go to the funeral if the GNLF leaders came to Darjeeling with the body. This is considered as utmost humiliation in our society and such a situation might have erupted in violence. So, our supporters were on the roads from morning to prevent them from entering Darjeeling," said Binay Tamang, GJM's press and public relations secretary.

Dhanmaya's body was taken to her cousin's house at Khaprail near Siliguri. Ghisingh's relatives from Darjeeling have headed for Khaprail to attend the funeral.

The 65 year-old woman suffered a heart attack early on Saturday and died on the way to hospital. She was staying at Mallaguri with her son Mohan for the past few days after she fell ill.

Dhanmaya, also known as Dhan Kumari, had come to Siliguri and was staying with her husband at the Teesta Barrage bungalow at Tinbatti More after GJM had driven out Ghisingh from Darjeeling in July.

The GJM's attitude has irritated people of all sections in the plains. They are finding it difficult to explain the heinous act. Even a large section of GJM supporters in the Hills are anxious over the issue.

pic: himalayandarpan