Darjeeling strategically crucial and vulnerable, says former diplomat

Harsha Vardhan Sringhla has said that Darjeeling is a unique constituency with a lot of strategic importance.

Ahead of polling in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, former foreign secretary Harsha Vardhan Sringhla has said that Darjeeling is a unique constituency with a lot of strategic importance.

“It (Darjeeling Lok sabha seat) has three international borders. Within that constituency you have India-Nepal border, India-Bhutan border and India-Bangladesh border. If you go further north in Sikkim then you have border with Tibet and China,” Mr. Shringla said while participating in a panel discussion with Kolkata-based think tank Iravati Research and Communication Centre.

The former foreign secretary who hails from Darjeeling said the region is a strategic part of the country and very vulnerable from “outside and within”.

“Siliguri is a strategic corridor and one which has to be seen from a strategic angle and cannot be seen from a normal point of view. This is a very strategic part of the country and very vulnerable both from outside and within. We have to make sure that this part of the country is looked at from a different point of view and not business as usual,” Mr. Shringla said. He stressed on the need of “a lot more coordination with the state and local authorities” for the development of the region.

The former foreign secretary has been working in Darjeeling for the past several years. His name was considered by the BJP as a candidate for the Lok Sabha seat but at the last moment the party decided to go with Raju Bista, the sitting MP who had won the seat in 2019 with a margin of over four lakh votes.

Elections in Darjeeling are scheduled on April 26 and Mr. Bista is pitted against Gopal Lama of the Trinamool Congress. The Congress has fielded Munish Tamang from the seat.