BANGA VANGA AGAIN?

The first Partition of Bengal (1905) was the division of then Bengal Presidency in the name of territorial reorganization of the Bengal Presidency by Lord Curzon during with Hindu dominated areas of now West Bengal and then Muslim majority districts as East Bengal (later East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) under the British Raj. Though it was undone just six years later, it laid the foundation of the painful partition of the country in 1947. Nearly eight decades later, similar controversy is taking root for making north Bengal as part of the North East on the ground of development of the underdeveloped part of the huge province.

The Union Minister and state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar had met the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi recently handed him over a proposal on the similarities between the North East and north Bengal. “This is why north Bengal can be inducted in the North East. He will take call on this and if north Bengal is included with the North East as a part of Bengal, in the future the undeveloped north Bengal will receive more central funds,” he said in a video clip shared by the party last month.

But the firebrand leader of the opposition, in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari of BJP who had so far maintained a striking silence on the issue, finally broke it telling journalists categorically that the BJP has a clear stand on it. “It is against the division of Bengal”. But at the same time Adhikari also said that it’s true that north Bengal is tremendously deprived. The TMC government has to ensure the development of north Bengal. They should set up AIIMS, an IIT-like institution here. He said his party supports the demand of north Bengal’s people who don’t want to come to Kolkata for their work. Their work related to the administration should be done in north Bengal itself.

As if just waiting for the god-sent opportunity to hit back at its arch rival, Trinamool Congress took no time to pounce on the saffron camp and accused it of plotting to “divide Bengal”, even though Majumdar had specified that his proposal was to include the northern districts of the state into the North East “as a part of Bengal”. It’s however only natural that the TMC, which won two crucial elections on the plank of labelling the BJP as anti- Bengal, would come down heavily on Majumdar. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself reacted to the minister’s statement and registered her protest on two occasions this month.

In her known aggressive style, she said “from ministers to BJP members, they are all conspiring to split Bengal. There is already an economic blockade; then there is geographical and political blockade. They want to surround us from all sides”. Other members of her party including Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy have also spoken against Majumdar’s demand. Later in the assembly, a resolution was passed unanimously condemning any such move.

However, it is pertinent to note here that all this is not new. Even in June 2021, days after the BJP’s dream of “200 paar” in the Bengal assembly polls was crushed and they ended up with only 77 seats; MLA Sikha Chatterjee raised a demand for dividing the state, echoing then Alipurduar’s MP John Barla, who had proposed a separate state for north Bengal. This in turn prompted BJP Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan to call for a state for the western districts.

The blanket logic behind all these demands was that these districts/ areas have been allegedly deprived of development and carving them out as separate states would help in their progress. They maintain this way more central funds and development would come to people of this region and hope the state government will have no objections and rather, will only cooperate. Their logic, though politically not viable for the party as a whole, is that the culturally rich North Bengal has vast resources but gets only 0.002 per cent of the West Bengal’s annual budget.

In fact, the idea of inclusion of the region in the north east may help overall development of the area as the entire problems of the region such as unemployment, health and education, tea and tourism can well be eradicated through such a move. Also, from a national interest perspective, it may be appropriate as the interstate trade and commerce between the NE states and other states of the country can be possible only through this route of north Bengal region. Moreover, international trades and commerce such as Indo-Nepal trades, Indo-Bhutan trade, Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-China trade is also mainly dependent on the route of this region. Besides the entire north east region including Sikkim have always been affected by frequent impasse in north Bengal region.

North Bengal is an important part of the state of West Bengal being the bouquet of myriad cultures, languages, ethnicity, literatures, folk and music etc. Hence, it is often regarded as ‘mini-India’. The region is also well known for its biodiversity, soothing climate and mesmerizing scenic beauty. However, since the last couple of decades the region has witnessed several violent agitations and unrests. The most prominent among them are the violent agitation of the 1980s in Darjeeling followed by the movement of 2007, 2013 and 2017 consecutively. During the different phases of this agitation, thousand lives have been lost; enormous public properties have been vanquished but still the fulfilment of the aspiration of the people of Darjeeling Hills seems to be a distant dream.

Different parts of the region have distinct and different historical settings. Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Dooars, Alipurduar, Dinajpur etc. have distinct socio- cultural backgrounds. However, in the process of making modern India all these places formed themselves as one unit and became the north Bengal region. Historically, Darjeeling was part of Sikkim which was declared part of North East after its inclusion in North Eastern Council (NEC). In the process of development or in the process of making India as a nation all these independent kingdoms and regions amalgamated into one region known as north Bengal Region.

It is evident that the native people of this region viz. Gorkhas, Adivasis, Meches, Koches, Lepchas etc have been deprived socially, economically and politically since the last many decades. Thus, it is an urgent need to include this socially, politically and economically excluded ethnic caste groups and communities into the mainstream developmental process of the nation. So, inclusion of the entire region of north Bengal in the North East could well be the remarkablesolution to eradicate the problems of this region.

Observers say that historically besides Darjeeling, Siliguri was also once part of Sikkim. Darjeeling and Sikkim share its culture, language, folk and mores etc. However, it is interesting to note that while Sikkim is a member of North East Council and enjoys the various socio-economic benefits and safeguards through NEC, Darjeeling and other north Bengal regions are still crying for development.

However, insiders in the BJP say that back then, the party had realised that their core strength lies in north Bengal and it is important they should nurture the separatist feeling to keep their vote bank intact. And this claim is buttressed by the fact that in 2019, BJP won seven of the eight Lok Sabha seats north of Farakka. In the elections held earlier this year, the number dropped to six as it lost Cooch Behar to the TMC.

Caught in such a dilemma, it seems certain that the BJP will officially not take a stand in favour of dividing West Bengal due to the negative impact it will trigger from the rest of the state, which has a huge number of 34 Lok Sabha seats. Besides, any such plan is against the party’s ideologies. Furthermore, by merely hinting at such a prospect, the BJP would only further strengthen the TMC’s anti-Bengal plank against it. Yet, from time to time, some of its leaders may and will continue to raise the issue, probably to engineer polarisation and consolidate its votes for their own personal gains. It is though, up to the BJP to take a final call on the issue.

Source: Himalayan News Chronicle