Shah plans north Bengal visit amid statehood demand, CBI post-poll violence probe

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit north Bengal in mid-September to hold talks with various ethnic groups to bring permanent political solutions to the issues of the region. The planned visit comes days after his meeting with several north Bengal outfits in Delhi.

The West Bengal BJP is gearing up for Shah's visit; all BJP MLAs and seven MPs of north Bengal are participating in a meeting on Wednesday. TMC MLAs and the lone Congress MP would also be invited to the meeting. Out of 54 Assembly seats from Darjeeling to Malda, BJP had won 29 seats. To make Shah's visit a government programme, the ministry of home affairs would also invite Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and leader of the opposition of West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari.

Adhikari was supposed to visit north Bengal on Wednesday to hold a meeting with all 29 MLAs, but he postponed his visit due to concerns about defection from BJP to TMC in Bongaon, where BJP won five Assembly seats in the just-concluded election. One MLA, Biswajit Das, went back to TMC on Tuesday.

Mamata has also planned a trip to north Bengal during which she would mainly stay in Darjeeling hills where a political realignment is taking place. The GJM has broken into several factions loyal to its original founders—Bimal Gurung, Binay Tamang and Anik Thapa. Fresh trouble has begun after a faction broke away from Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) founded by Subhas Ghising, who had for long fought for separate state of Gorkhas encompassing different parts of the sub-Himalayan areas including Siliguri.

Shah’s planned visit has gained huge significance as he would be the second Union home minister who would hold an administrative meeting in the region after P. Chidambaram in 2011. Chidambaram, however, was present to sign the accord between GJM and government of India over the formation of GTA. At that time, Chidambaram's visit was to douse the fire in north Bengal as GJM, like GNLF, had carried out a violent agitation.

Things in north Bengal, however, took a new twist two months back after two MPs of BJP raised the demand for formation of separate Union territory, covering sub-Himalayan region of north Bengal. Interestingly, both the MPs—John Barla and Nisith Pramanik—have been accommodated as ministers in the latest reshuffle of the Narendra Modi government.

What added a fresh twist was Pramanik being given the role of minister of state in the ministry of home affairs. The MPs demanded the new status for the region owing to post-poll violence that occurred in north Bengal along with the rest of the state. Very importantly, Shah’s visit would happen at a time when four joint directors of CBI along with 120 officials have been engaged in investigating post-poll violence in West Bengal as directed by Calcutta High Court. Four companies of CRPF have also deployed to assist the CBI in doing the investigation across the state.

Amid all these developments, the trip of Shah is gaining huge significance given the political stance taken by the BJP. State president Dilip Ghosh, who had earlier opposed the idea of separate statehood, recently went to north Bengal and sitting beside John Barla, minister of state for minority affairs, defended the demand of separate state of north Bengal and Junglemahal as demanded by another MP from Bishnupur, Saumitra Khan.

“Nothing has been decided yet. If anything is done, it would be done by consulting everyone,” said Ghosh when asked.

While the meeting is to be convened by the home ministry to find “permanent political solutions” in north Bengal, several ethnic groups in north Bengal have opposed the idea of it being made a Union territory. Gorkha parties opposed the demand, saying, “it would not solve the old demand of the Gorkhas in the region”.

Nikhil Roy, president of Kamtapur People's Party, a party of Kamtapuris, another prominent ethic group, also said separate statehood would not be the real demand for them.

“UT will not solve our problems,” said Roy.

Rajbangshis, the largest ethnic group in the region, also said it would be unacceptable.

“We fought for a long time for Rajbangshi state, not Union territory,” said B.B. Barma, a leader in Cooch Behar.

The other groups are Bengalis ethnically connected to Bangladesh; Biharis, as the region borders Bihar; and Lepchas, Tibetans, Adivasis and tribal groups.

It is not known whether the chief minister would accept the proposal of attending such a meeting if it was convened. If she does not, then TMC MLAs would also not attend, for sure.

Shah’s meeting thus would not be smooth sailing. Rather it would be an uphill task to find a permanent political solution in north Bengal.