Statehood demands have shook West Bengal, with two BJP MPs demanding separate states for their regions. While the Mamata Banerjee government has accepted an FIR filed against John Barla, the BJP MP from Alipurduar, who raised the demand of entire north Bengal be turned into a Union Territory, none has taken cognisance of the demand of Junglemahal by Saumitra Khan.
Demand for separate statehood in north Bengal has had a bloody past. It started with the Gorkhaland movement in eighties, with Subhash Ghisingh demanding a separate state. More than 12,000 Gorkhas have died in the violence over three decades. The baton of the demand for separate state is now in the hands of other Gorkha leaders like Bimal Gurung, Mone Ghisingh (son of Subhash Ghising), Binay Tamang and Anik Thapa. The group is a divided lot and needs strong political support to revive their demands.
While Gorkhaland issue is in the hills and in part of Terai region of north Bengal, similar demands by Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), a secessionist group based in Myanmar, led to massive violence in late nineties. KLO-sponsored terrorism took many lives in Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and other adjoining areas. The Left front government refused to talk with them, unlike in the case of Ghisingh, as they demanded a separate state and then country to be carved out of West Bengal and Assam’s lower regions bordering Bengal. Many insurgents were killed in the clashes and top leaders were jailed then. Their top leader, Atul Roy, died early this month.
Another movement of Greater Cooch Behar was launched in 2005 and that, too, took a violent turn, with an IPS officer was killed during an attack. Many leaders of that movement are still in jail.
What's different this time is that demand has been emanating from the leadership of a party which is ruling the country. Demand for separate statehood is not against the law or Constitution. However, one has to ensure that such demands are raised in a peaceful way.
Case has been registered against MP Barla for “inciting the people to do violence and provoking people to wage war against a government”.
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When contacted, Barla said, “I have said nothing wrong. If the state government really wants us with them, then why did they torture our people just because they voted in a different way? You can ask the people and they would say enough is enough.”
North Bengal is the region where BJP has won most of the seats in the recent assembly election (40 out of 77).
Barla has found few takers. Darjeeling MP Raju Bista supported Barla.
BJP national secretary Arvind Menon told THE WEEK, “He (Barla) has not gone against the party line.” Menon denied that the Union government has decided to carve out any state or Union Territory out of West Bengal. “I have no idea. No one has told me this,” he said.
However, Gorkhaland demand has always been in BJP's election manifesto.
The demand of breaking away from West Bengal has had repercussions in the northeast. KLO has welcomed the move. Jiban Singh, the group’s chief, has reportedly said in a video message, “I welcome the demand. And a statehood or Union Territory is need of the hour.”
The Gorkha leaders have not reacted to the development. A Gorkha leader, however, told THE WEEK, “A Union Territory would not solve the issue of Gorkhas. Our problems are different than that of people in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar.”
The West Bengal government has reacted strongly to the demand. Said Education Minister Bratya Basu, “They have been punished by the people of Bengal. So, they would like to break Bengal. Let them try. We will give a befitting reply.”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also said that the state would resist such attempt tooth and nail.
Does state’s voice matter?
State reorganisation is a central subject and the Union government is the only authority to decide about statehood. State assembly can only pass a resolution against or in favour of it and send their views to the Union government. However, such resolution is not binding upon the Centre. It may constitute a body to study the demand and take appropriate action.
So, technically, the Centre can carve out a new state. But, it has to pass the bill in Rajya Sabha, which, in turn, requires the support of JD(U), BJD, Akali Dal and YSRCP. But, if it does, the BJP would remain an alien party for the Gangetic delta regions of Bengal. Can it afford to do that?
Is state reorganisation commission needed?
The last state reorganisation commission, set up in 1956, suggested measures to carve out a state. But many states were born after that based on recommendations of several administrative committees. However, in the past, for every Union government, broad consensus used to be a yardstick except in the case of Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation, where the Centre brought the bill without consultation.
Has there been any recommendation on the north Bengal or Junglemahal?
Manmohan Singh-led UPA government had studied the demand along with Telagana and some other states. But the committee decided not accept the statehood demand for Gorkhaland because of strategic issue. Darjeeling is located close to four nations—China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan—and the chicken neck in Siliguri was somehow a difficult region to handle for many governments in the past because it is close to borders but landlocked. However, it is not known whether such reports had observed anything about making north Bengal a centrally administrative territory.
