Korean Culture Spreads Across Globe

Sinlung Says: Korea is weilding its soft-power, earlier it was thought that Korean culture just spanned across some space in Asia.

Now, Korean Culture is not spreading its wings but showing muscle. It used to be Hollywood, now its All For Korea.

This has had very bad and good influence especially in Northeast India, which has a huge following.

Starting from effiminate boys with girly looks and make-up with colored hair which makes me want to puke...It's always bad when one culture invades the other, it will surely take time for the youths in Northeast India to digest the foriegn 'Korean' culture. Lets hope...Northeast Boys don't turn up gays.

By Veramalla Anjaiah

Seoul/Jakarta, Jul 19 : Some people call it a “virus”, others an “addiction”. The media frequently portrays it as an unprecedented phenomenon that started in Asia and spread rapidly from continent to continent, even to remote places people had never imagined.
This phenomenon is Hallyu or the Korean Wave.

Frontlines: Famous Korean boyband SHINee performs at the Korea-Indonesia Friendship Concert at Tennis Indoor Senayan in Jakarta. JP/Ricky Yudhistira

The term Korean Wave was coined by a Chinese journalist in 1999 to describe the growing popularity of Korea’s pop culture in East and Southeast Asia. It has now captured the hearts and minds of millions of people across the globe.

Many have the mistaken impression that the Korean Wave consists of only two elements: Korean films and K-Pop, which takes its name from Japanese pop or J-Pop.

But, there is more to Korean Wave than that. It is a multifaceted giant differing from country to country. For example, pop music and TV dramas, which earned Korea the moniker the Hollywood of the East, were the main foundations of the Korean Wave in communist China and capitalist Taiwan. In Hong Kong, Korean films are at the core of the “wave” there.

In Japan, it was romantic soap opera Winter Sonata that triggered the Korean Wave. In Southeast Asia, it was a mix of it all that made Korean culture popular.

Now, the Korean Wave is not just confined to TV dramas, films and music, but is assertively expanding to things like dance, sculpture, painting, cuisine, computer games, fashion, plastic surgery, cosmetics, cell phones, electronics, tourism and language, to name a few.

“Hallyu is a quite complex phenomenon, with multiple local trajectories and transforming tendencies,” Park Jung-sun, an associate professor from California State University, wrote in Insight into Korea.
It also has had a domino effect. TV dramas, films and music attract tourists, who in turn bring billions of dollars into the country. According to one estimate, the Korean Wave could generate around US$4 billion in sales this year. And, every year it grows.

Right now Korea is enjoying a double boom in the economic and cultural fields thanks to continuous economic reforms, Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s green growth concept and the Korean Wave.
Like Indonesia, Korea was severely affected by the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and became a patient of the IMF. Korea recovered fast and is enjoying an unprecedented economic boom, with 6.2 percent economic growth in 2010 and more than $305 billion in forex reserves.

Yet during past difficult times, Korean artists and filmmakers worked hard to create a cultural renaissance.

Indonesian talent: Ciacia dancers from Indonesia perform during the Hi Seoul Festival at the Yeouido Hangang Park. JP/Veeramalla Anjaiah

“Korean artists put a lot of energy in creating attractive and qua-lity cultural products. They tried so many times. But in the end they succeeded. You see the Korean Wave, which is spreading all over the world,” Korean Tourism Organization president Charm Lee told The Jakarta Post recently in Seoul.

The signs of a cultural boom within Korea can be seen in most towns and cities. Many cultural events — both international and local — have taken place in recent years.

“It’s a new trend in Korea. In six years Korea has changed a lot in the cultural field. Maybe we are economically well off. That’s why we are now able to show interest in cultural aspects,” Ray Han, marketing manager of the famous Nanta theater, told the Post.

Attempting to capitalize on the growing popularity of Korean culture, the Korean government has organized more than 35 different festivals throughout the year. Among them was the Hi Seoul Festival, which featured 47 teams from 11 countries, including Indonesia. Indonesia’s Ciacia people from Southeast Sulawesi performed a traditional dance at the festival in May.

“There is no shortage of performances in Seoul. We have daily shows of Nanta and Miso [musical dance-dramas] and so many others in Seoul,” said Jongkil Lee, a manager of the International Exchange Promotion Association.

Duty: Members of the Gyeongbokgung guard participate in the changing of the guard in Seoul. The royal palace is a major tourist attraction in Seoul. JP/Veeramalla Anjaiah

This cultural renaissance is reaping enormous economic benefits for Korea. Its exports to several countries, including Indonesia, have been growing in the double digits. Last year alone, Korea exported more than $10 billion worth of goods just to Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In several Southeast Asian countries, the growth rate of exports was more than 100 percent. In 2010, Korean exports to Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia, reached $7.7 billion, a huge increase from $4.74 billion in 2009.

Main players — film artists and singers — in the Korean Wave are now the highest paid artists in Asia.

“They are like gods. It is very difficult to meet them,” Jongkil said.

Two recent events encapsulated the magic of the Korean Wave. The first was in Paris on May 1. More than 300 French teenagers staged a demonstration in front of the Louvre demanding a second show in Paris of SM Town Live, a K-Pop concert with famous Korean singers from groups like TVXQ, Super Junior, SHINee and Girls’ Generation.

All 6,000 tickets for the June 10 show were sold out in 15 minutes on April 26.

“For a moment, I was going to cry because I saw that it was full,” a protester told MBC TV.

The popularity of Korean singers has raised the eyebrows of many, even in Korea.

“This is really amazing and surprising. I never imagined that our singers were that popular in Europe,” ASEAN-Korea Center secretary-general Ambassador Young Jai-cho told the Post recently in Seoul.
The organizers bowed to popular demand and agreed to have another show on June 11. Again, the tickets sold out, but this time in 10 minutes through online sales.

Why are some French youth crazy about this distant culture from Asia?

Feline: Korea’s all-female percussion group, Drum Cat, participate in the opening of the Korean Tourism Organization’s office in Jakarta on June 22. JP/Veeramalla Anjaiah

“K-Pop singers are complete artists and entertainers. They can sing, they can dance and they look very trendy. This is the main difference with French singers who mainly prefer to focus on the lyrics and almost never dance. Many of them… don’t really care about their looks,” Maxime Paquet, president of a French fan club called Korean Connection, told Korea magazine last month.

The second event was in India’s remote province of Manipur. It is so remote even many Indians do not know much about Manipur and its culture. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the French news agency Agence France-Presse recently reported that the Korean Wave had struck the region. Street vendors sell DVDs of Korean soap operas and films and CDs of K-Pop stars. Hair salons offer “Korean-style” cuts. Manipur’s capital, Imphal, and other towns are even connected to Korean global TV channels Arirang TV and KBS World.

Source: The Jakarta Post

A Helpline For Northeast Indians Dogged By Harassment

Northeastern Indian migrants who flock to the country's cities to escape fighting and seek economic opportunities are the target of discrimination and harassment.

By Nafeesa Syeed

New Delhi, Jul 19 : When she first came to India’s capital years ago, Singmila Shimrah remembers being called “Chinky” and a “dog eater.”

Such slurs and stereotypes are familiar to natives of India’s troubled northeast states – including Ms. Shimrah’s native Manipur – which border Bhutan, Tibet, and Burma (Myanmar). But so, too, community leaders say, is serious harassment.

Political unrest stemming from insurgencies fighting Indian rule as well as a lack of economic and educational opportunities have sent droves of migrants to big Indian cities over the past decade. Many work in the retail and hospitality sectors.

Most migrants don’t speak Hindi or English, making it hard for them to defend themselves, and easy for others to take advantage of them, activists say. As their numbers swelled in Delhi, high rates of assault prompted social activists, student associations, and organizations such as the All India Christian Council to establish the North East Support Centre & Helpline in 2007.

Since then, thousands of calls have poured in reporting racial discrimination and physical and sexual assaults, especially on women, according to Shimrah, a researcher at a Delhi think tank who helped form the 24-hour phone service. The helpline aids in registering cases with police and connects callers to legal resources and groups that can intervene.

In Assam Witch Hunting Claims 40 Lives in 3 years

Guwahati, Jul 19 : As many as 40 people were killed in witch hunting cases in the state in the last three years, said Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain in a written reply to a question by Jibantara Ghatowar (Cong) in the State Assembly today.

Hussain, who was replying on behalf of the Chief Minister, admitted that there is need for cooperation by all concerned including different government and non-government organizations, police and others to eradicate social maladies like witch hunting. He said that the State Commission for Women is also organizing seminars and meetings to make the people aware of the ill effects of the social maladies.

The Minister said that an awareness meeting was held at Serphangguri in Kokrajhar district on June 14 under the Project Prahari of the Assam Police. The awareness meeting was also addressed by members of the Women’s Commission and other non-government organizations.

Bodoland: The Minister, in reply to a question by Mazendra Narzary, said that altogether 170 cases relating to Bodoland movement are still pending. The Deputy Commissioners of the districts concerned have been instructed to appeal to the courts for withdrawal of the cases through public prosecutors.

Manipur Teachers To Surrender Contracts

Imphal, Jul 19 : Administrative failure in the government school education system forcing teachers to launch strikes for the resolution of problems has become a regular feature in Manipur.

Teachers serving under the two prevalent administrative structures - the Autonomous District Council (ADC) and the directorate of schools education - have already threatened to launch protests on different issues.

Now, 1167 primary teachers working on a contractual basis in government schools have decided to surrender their contract agreement papers en masse in protest against the government's failure to regularize them and clear three months of entitlements.

The irate teachers, who formed a body - Association of the DPC Successful Candidates for Primary Teachers 2006 Manipur - said despite chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh having assured them of regularizing their posts after three months of appointment, no relevant steps have been initiated in this direction by the government.

An ultimatum to translate the assurance into action by July 27 has been served to the government, said the association's president, M S Rahaman, adding that failure to implement their demands would leave them with no other option but to resign en masse.

He also cautioned that more a vigorous agitation, which could destabilize the academic atmosphere in Manipur, would be launched if their demands are not complied with.

The teachers had joined their duties on April 11 this year because of the CM's assurance that their posts would be regularized within three months of appointment, Rahaman said. A contract agreement, according to which the primary teachers were entitled to receive a monthly emolument of Rs 7,600 for 11 months, was signed with the government, he said at a media conference.

Stating that a senior official had sent a formal intimation to the government for the release of around Rs 9 crore to clear the due emoluments, he said nothing positive has actually come out of the move.

3 Hydel Power Plants To Come Up in Mizoram

Lower Tuiphal Mini Hydel Project (3 x 500 KW)

Aizawl, Jul 18 : The state-owned North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd. (NEEPCO) will set up three power plants in Mizoram, generating a total of 1,526 MW, officials said here Monday.
The two sides signed a Memorandum of Agreement last month "for commissioning three hydel power projects (815 MW, 635 MW and 76 MW), with a cumulative generation capacity of 1,526 MW," a NEEPCO spokesman told IANS.

Mizoram has many rivers, creating a huge scope for setting up hydel power projects.

The Tlawng, considered the most important river in northern Mizoram, flows north to join the Barak river in southern Assam's Cachar district. The Kolodyne, which originates in neighbouring Myanmar, has four big tributaries linking eastern and southern Mizoram with Myanmar and western part of the state with Bangladesh.

The official said that the NEEPCO authorities led by its new chairman-cum-managing director Prem Chand Pankaj would soon start talks for settling land acquisition and other logistical issues.

"NEEPCO would add an additional 5,000 MW of power in northeast by the end of 12th Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17)," Pankaj told reporters in Agartala last week.

Currently, the NEEPCO, under the union power ministry, has been executing three hydro-electric and two gas-based thermal power projects in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura with a total generation capacity of 920 MW.

"We are planning to form joint ventures with various state governments of the region to convert the viable existing open cycle plants to combined cycle plants, thereby increasing efficiencies as well as capacity of the operational power projects," the NEEPCO chief said.

The corporation, set up in April 1976, operates five power stations - three hydro-electric and two thermal - in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura, generating a total of 1,130 MW. It accounts for around 50 percent of the northeast region's installed capacity.

Currently Mizoram is generating around 40 MW of electricity from some diesel power stations and nine micro hydel stations against the peak hours demand of over 100 MW in the state. The shortfall of power is now met from the regional grids and through load shedding.

''Border Fencing on Bangla Border 6 km Within Mizo Territory''

Aizawl, Jul 18 : Mizoram government today claimed the Indo-Bangladesh border fencing near Pukzing village in Mamit district was constructed six km within the state''s territory and that organisation entrusted with fencing has been asked to rectify the error.

To a query in the assembly Home Minister R Lalzirliana said the National Building Construction Company (NBCC), which executed the border fencing work in this sector, was instructed by the state to rectify the anomaly.

In a stunning charge, ruling Congress member Nirupam Chakma said that there were many places where the Union Home Ministry''s instructions had not been followed and the construction company, which executed the works in southern parts of the state even maintained that Silosora, a hamlet in Mizoram, is a Bangladeshi village.

As the members expressed concern, the home minister promised that he would look into Chakma''s charges and take appropriate action.

The minister said border fencing works were yet to be completed and as per the directions of the Union Home Ministry, the fencing should be erected at 150 yards from the border while it is admissible to erect it even at 500 yards in a more difficult terrain.

To The Antipode Of Asia

By Razib Khan

Markers show populations sampled by HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium

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The Pith: Southeast Asia was settled by a series of distinct peoples. The pattern of settlement can be discerned in part by examination of patterns of genetic variation. It seems likely that Austro-Asiatic populations were dominant across the western half of Indonesia before the arrival of Austronesians.

About a year and a half ago I reviewed a paper in Science which did a first pass through some of the findings suggested by the HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium data set, which pooled a wide range of Asian populations. You can see the locations on the map above (alas, the labels are too small to read the codes). The important issue in relation to this data set is that it has a thick coverage of Southeast Asia, which is not well represented in the HGDP. Unfortunately there are only ~50,000 markers, which is not optimal for really fine-grained intra-regional analysis in my opinion. But better than nothing, and definitely sufficient for coarser scale analysis.

A few things have changed since I first reviewed this paper. First, I pulled down a copy of the Pan-Asian SNP data set. I’m going to play with it myself soon. Second, after reading Strange Parallels, volume 1 and 2, I know a lot more about Southeast Asian history. Finally, the possibility of archaic admixture amongst Near Oceanians makes the genetics of the regions which were once Sundaland and Sahul of particular interest.

Before we hit the genetics, let’s review a little of the ethnography of Southeast Asia, as this may allow us to tease apart the meaning of some of the results. The largest ethno-linguistic group in Southeast Asia is that of Austronesians. An interesting point in relation to Austronesians is that they aren’t limited to Southeast Asia. As you can see the Austronesians range from off the coast of South America (Easter Island) to southeast Africa (Madagascar). Though there’s debate about this issue it seems to me that the most likely current point of departure of the Austronesian migration is Taiwan. Though today Taiwan is predominantly Han Chinese, that is an artifact of relatively recent migration. The indigenous population is clearly Austronesian.

A second language family which is somewhat expansive, though Southeast Asia focused, is Austro-Asiatic. There is a great deal of internal structure to this ethno-linguistic group, in that there is a well known coherent Mon-Khmer cluster, which includes some ethnic minorities in Burma and Thailand, as well as Cambodians. Additionally you have Vietnamese in the east and some tribal groups in northeast India. There has long been debate about whether these Indian tribes, the Munda, are the original Indians, to be supplanted later by Dravidian and Indo-Aryan speakers, or intrusive to the subcontinent. I believe that the most recent genetic data points to intrusion from the east into South Asia. Austro-Asiatic was likely less fragmented in mainland Southeast Asia before the historical period. Both the dominant ethnic groups in Burma and Thailand are intrusive and absorbed Mon-Khmer populations, the latter dynamic being historically attested.

Finally there are the ethno-linguistic clusters of Burma and Thailand (and Laos). The former nation is dominated by the Bamar, a Sino-Tibetan population with origins in South China ~1,500 years ago. In Burma the Mon substrate persists, while the Shan people of Thai affinity reign supreme across the northeastern fringe of the nation. In Thailand and Laos the Mon-Khmer substrate has been marginalized to isolated residual groups. But it is notable that in both these polities the Mon-Khmer populations set the tone for the civilizational orientation of the conquering ethnicities. The Thai abandoned Chinese influenced Mahayana Buddhism for the Indian influenced Theravada Buddhism of the conquered populace. Despite the notional ethnic chasm between the Thai and the Khmer of Cambodia, the broad cultural similarities due to the common roots in the society of the Khmer Empire is clear.

With the ethnographic context in place, let’s look at the two primary figures which we get from the paper. The first figure shows a phylogenetic tree of the relationships of the populations in their database, color-coded by ethnolinguistic group. Next to that tree there’s a STRUCTURE plot at K = 14, which means 14 ancestral populations. They’ve colored the bar components to match the ethno-linguistic classes (e.g., red = Austro-Asiatic, an Austro-Asiatic modal component). The second figure shows two PCA panels. PC 1 is the largest component of genetic variance in the data set, and PC 2 the second largest. I’ve added a label for the Papuan populations.

Going back to the chronology above, we know that the Thai came last. The Sino-Tibetans came before then. The issue I wonder about is the relationship of the Austronesians and Austro-Asiatic groups. Interestingly the Austronesian proportions are high not only in island Southeast Asia, but also among many South Chinese groups. In contrast, among the Mon-Khmer hill tribes of Thailand, who are presumably representative of groups which were present before the Thai migrations, it is absent. And it is notable to me that not only does Austro-Asiatic exhibit fragmentation in relation to Thai and Sino-Tibetan, but it does so to some extent with relation to Austronesian! The indigenous folk of central Malaysia seem to speak a Austro-Asiatic language. Finally, the Austro-Asiatic component rises in frequency on the southern fringes of island Southeast Asia, in densely populated Java.

Because of the thicker textual record for mainland Southeast Asia we know that the Austro-Asiatic groups predate the Thai and Sino-Tibetan ones. I believe that the Austro-Asiatic element also predates Austronesian in Southeast Asia. That is, I believe that an Austro-Asiatic substrate existed before the arrival of Austronesians from the zone between the Philippines and Taiwan. The Negritos of inner Malaysia, who are genetically and physically distinctive, speak Austro-Asiatic languages. This should not be surprising, it seems that hunter-gatherer groups often switch to the language of resident agriculturalists. Because of their isolation some of these groups have persisted in speaking the languages of the “first farmers” of Malaysia, even after those pioneers were absorbed by newcomers.

The PCA shows clearly that the Austronesians are the genetically most varied of these Southeast Asian groups. Why? I believe it is because they are late arrivals who have admixed in sequence with whoever was resident in their target zones. In the east of island Southeast Asia the admixture occurred with a Melanesian population. Both the STRUCTURE plot and the PCA show evidence of this sort of two-way admixture. The STRUCTURE is straightforward, but note the linear distribution of the Austronesians in relation to outgroups in the first panel, and implicitly on the second.

Why is the Austro-Asiatic fraction higher in Java than to the zones in the north? Java is today the most densely populated region of Indonesia because of its fertility. I hypothesize that the spread of the Austronesians was facilitated by a more effective form of agriculture which could squeeze more productivity out of marginal land. Relative to Java the Malay peninsula, Borneo, and Sumatra, are agriculturally marginal. The densities of the Austro-Asiatics was greatest in Java, while they were very thin in the regions to the north. It seems likely that the Austronesians engaged in a series of “leap-frogs” to islands and maritime fringes which were not cultivated by the Austro-Asiatic populations. Some Indonesian groups, such as the Mentawai who live on the island of the same name off the western coast of Sumatra, cluster with the Taiwanese, as if they transplanted their society in totality.

One thing that needs to be mentioned when talking about the genetics and prehistory of Southeast Asia are the “Negritos.” As indicated by their name these are a small people with African-like features. As is clear from the charts above these people are not particularly genetically close to Africans. The Philippine Negritos seem to have some relationship to the Melanesians. Interestingly they speak an Austronesian language; again following the trend where marginalized indigenes seem to pick up the language of their farming neighbors. The Negritos of Malaysia are somewhat different, but note that one of the populations exhibits Austro-Asiatic, but not Austronesian, admixture. This comports with my supposition that the Austro-Asiatic populations were the first to marginalize these tribes before themselves being assimilated by the Austronesians.

Someone with a better ethnographic understanding of Southeast Asia than I could probably decode the results above with greater power. But at this point I think we’ve got a chronology like so:

1) First you have hunter-gatherer populations of broad Melanesian affinities in Southeast Asia.

2) Then Austro-Asiatic populations move south from the fringes of southern China. Some push west to India, while others leap-frog south to zones suitable for agriculture such as Java.

3) Then Austronesian populations sweep south along water routes, and marginalize the Austro-Asiatics in island Southeast Asia, though the not on the mainland.

4) The Bamar arrive from southern China over 1,000 years ago, and marginalize the Austro-Asiatics in Burma.

5) The Thai arrive from southern China less than 1,000 years ago, take over the central zone of mainland Southeast Asia, and make inroads to the west in Burma.

I will hazard to guess that the Malagasy of Madagascar are Austronesians who have very little of the Austro-Asiatic element in their ancestry. I believe this is so because they were part of the leap-frog dynamic where societies were transplanted from suitable point to point by water (the Malagasy language seems to be a branch of dialects of southern Borneo!).

So far I’ve been talking about the north to south movement. And yet the paper observes a south or north gradient in genetic diversity, which implies to the authors migration from south to north (the northern East Asian groups being a subset of the southern). But the past may have been more complex than we give it credit for. It is entirely possible that modern humans arrived in northeast Asia via a southern route, retreated south during the glaciation, and expanded north, with some groups pushing back south again. As it is, looking at how distantly the Melanesians relate to East Eurasians I think the most plausible model is that there wasn’t a relatively recent expansion from Southeast Asia. Rather, the ancestors of most East Eurasians survived in refugia in China, and a sequence of agriculturally driven expansions have reshaped Southeast Asia more recently. These populations admixed with the indigenous substrate, more or less. This would have resulted in an uptake of genetic diversity. Finally, the massive expansion of Han from the Yellow river basin may have caused the extinction of many lineages across China within the past ~3,000 years.

Citation: ., Abdulla, M., Ahmed, I., Assawamakin, A., Bhak, J., Brahmachari, S., Calacal, G., Chaurasia, A., Chen, C., Chen, J., Chen, Y., Chu, J., Cutiongco-de la Paz, E., De Ungria, M., Delfin, F., Edo, J., Fuchareon, S., Ghang, H., Gojobori, T., Han, J., Ho, S., Hoh, B., Huang, W., Inoko, H., Jha, P., Jinam, T., Jin, L., Jung, J., Kangwanpong, D., Kampuansai, J., Kennedy, G., Khurana, P., Kim, H., Kim, K., Kim, S., Kim, W., Kimm, K., Kimura, R., Koike, T., Kulawonganunchai, S., Kumar, V., Lai, P., Lee, J., Lee, S., Liu, E., Majumder, P., Mandapati, K., Marzuki, S., Mitchell, W., Mukerji, M., Naritomi, K., Ngamphiw, C., Niikawa, N., Nishida, N., Oh, B., Oh, S., Ohashi, J., Oka, A., Ong, R., Padilla, C., Palittapongarnpim, P., Perdigon, H., Phipps, M., Png, E., Sakaki, Y., Salvador, J., Sandraling, Y., Scaria, V., Seielstad, M., Sidek, M., Sinha, A., Srikummool, M., Sudoyo, H., Sugano, S., Suryadi, H., Suzuki, Y., Tabbada, K., Tan, A., Tokunaga, K., Tongsima, S., Villamor, L., Wang, E., Wang, Y., Wang, H., Wu, J., Xiao, H., Xu, S., Yang, J., Shugart, Y., Yoo, H., Yuan, W., Zhao, G., & Zilfalil, B. (2009). Mapping Human Genetic Diversity in Asia Science, 326 (5959), 1541-1545 DOI: 10.1126/science.1177074

source: discovermagazine.com

Darjeeling Pact Today

Siliguri, Jul 18 : The hills of Darjeeling are set to see a historic tripartite pact on Monday between the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), the West Bengal government and New Delhi. But the Left Front is against it.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Darjeeling to attend the tripartite signing between the Gorkah Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the West Bengal government and the centre.

"The people of Darjeeling are eagerly waiting for the agreement. This treaty will bring development in the hills," GJM spokesman and legislator Harka Bhadur Chetri told IANS.

Apart from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will attend the event at the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) resort in Sukna in Kurseong sub-division.

"People from the Darjeeling hills dressed in traditional attire will receive the chief minister," Chetri told IANS.

After ending the Left Front's 34-year rule, Banerjee opened a dialogue with the GJM to resolve the long pending problem of the hills.

Last month, after a series of meetings with the GJM leadership, Banerjee claimed the Darjeeling issue has been resolved.

The GJM, however, said it has not gone back on its demand for Gorkhaland and called the pact the "foundation of a separate state".

The venue for the historic tripartie pact between the GJM, the West Bengal government and New Delhi. PTI

There is speculation that GJM chief Bimal Gurung opted out of signing the treaty due to resentment among a section of hill people that he had scaled down his demand for statehood.

"It is a decision taken by the president that (GJM general secretary) Roshan Giri will sign the pact. More than this I cannot say," Chetri said.

At the core of the pact is the formation of a new autonomous elected hill council, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), armed with more powers compared to its former avatar, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, formed in the late 1980s.

A nine-member high-powered committee, comprising four members each from GJM and the state government and one from the central government, will be formed to study GJM's demand on demarcating the Gorkha majority areas in the Terai (plains of Darjeeling) and Dooars (foothills of the Himalayas) for inclusion in the council.

The Left Front feels the proposed agreement will only aggravate the problem of the hills. Leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra said he would stay away from the function.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her visit to Mahananda Wildlife sanctuary at Sukna. PTI

Kshiti Goswami, a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), echoed Mishra.

"We are in the dark about details of the understanding. We oppose the change in the nomenclature of the council. We are also against the formation of the committee to include more areas in the autonomous body," Goswami told IANS.

"We fear this agreement will aggravate the problem rather than solving it. We are apprehensive that inclusion of new areas under the hill authority, which the proposed treaty will consider, will create tension and anarchy," Mishra said.

He said his party favoured the area under the hill authority being the same as that under the DGHC.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the Sukna resort. PTI

The GJM leadership slammed Mishra's statement and blamed the Left for not being honest in solving the problem.

"If he says he doesn't know anything about the agreement, then he is not saying the truth. He was present in previous tripartite talks. They (Left) were never serious about solving the situation," said Chetri.

North Bengal, particularly the plains of Darjeeling, saw several shutdowns this week called by political and social groups to protest the proposed pact.

These organisations, which include Amra Bangalee and Rashtriya Shiv Sena, plans to organise protest rallies Monday.

The demand for Gorkhaland covering parts of northern Bengal gained momentum in the 1980s under the leadership of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) supremo Subash Ghising.

But the reins of the movement were later taken over by the Bimal Gurung-led GJM.