For a long time there has been a clamor from the BJP to cut off West Bengal on the lines of Jammu and Kashmir. So far, the party has rejected the vote, calling it a ‘personal opinion’ that does not reflect the BJP’s official stand. However, the meeting as well as the demand of BJP MPs is seen as an indication that the party is moving closer to that goal.
On Wednesday, Union Minister and Bengal BJP Chief Sukanta Majumdar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to recognize eight districts of West Bengal as part of North East ending with Sikkim. After the meeting, Majumdar said: “I have submitted a proposal to the prime minister on why North Bengal should be considered a part of the North East and equality between the two. If he accepts my proposal, this backward region of Bengal will get more funds from the Centre. I is of the opinion that the state government will cooperate.
WHY IS THIS MORE THAN A MEETING?
There are many reasons why this is not just an ordinary meeting, but shows the trend of the BJP formally asking for the bifurcation of the state in the near future. Sources said the prime minister spent nearly half an hour with Majumdar, giving a sense of the importance to the proposal.
Secondly, Majumdar is the Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region and as such, the proposal is considered important. He is also the West Bengal BJP president, which adds to the political significance of the demand. In the past, Majumdar had to reject many demands for a separate North Bengal by BJP MPs as ‘personal opinion’. Interestingly, he hails from Balurghat constituency, which is also in North Bengal.
While Majumdar could argue that even if the prime minister accepts the proposal, unlike bifurcation, the TMC calls it ‘anti-constitutional’.
Senior TMC MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy said: “He (Majumdar) took an oath of the Constitution to uphold it. But his plea is against the Constitution because there is no land called North Bengal in India. The eight districts called North Bengal are an inalienable part of West Bengal. They are called North Bengal because they are the North of West Bengal. Roy went further to say that after failing to defeat the TMC in the elections, the BJP is “conniving” to “split the state”.
BJP MP Requests UT
While Majumdar met PM Modi, another BJP MP – Anant Maharaj – sought to declare a part of North Bengal called greater Cooch Behar as a Union Territory. Maharaj heads an organization called ‘Greater Coochbehar Peoples Association’ which wants to carve out a part of North Bengal from the existing West Bengal and declare it as UT. They have increased demand since 2015.
What makes it difficult is that Anant Maharaj controls the votes of the Rajbangshi community. This time, BJP’s Nishith Pramanik crushed by a margin of 39,250 votes in Cooch Behar in the Lok Sabha elections believed to be due to Maharaj’s lack of support for the leadership. In fact, this is the only seat in North Bengal that the BJP lost from the 2019 tally.
HISTORY OF BJP’S ‘SICK BENGAL’ NAME
Anant Maharaj is not the first to make such a request. John Barla, a former minister in Modi 2.0, was vocal about the same demand. Born in Jalpaiguri, Barla had earlier demanded a separate Gorkhaland – a long-standing demand of the Gorkhas that included Darjeeling and parts of the plains. In 2021, Barla, a BJP MP from Alipurduar, also in North Bengal, raised the issue of a separate state for North Bengal beyond Gorkhaland – something Majumdar was fighting to include in NE.
“To escape from atrocities, I request that North Bengal be declared as a Union Territory. I will resolve this matter with Delhi (leadership),” he said.
Amit Shah’s deputy, Nishith Pramanik, also voiced similar sentiments but stopped short of demanding a separate state like Barla. After becoming a minister, he said: “In a democracy, people are the most important factor, and considering people’s sentiments, appropriate decisions will be made.” He has admitted that the allocation for the flyover in Kolkata is not even commensurate with the allocation in North Bengal.
Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, adamant on the Gorkhaland demand, raised the issue in Parliament when he demanded a “permanent political solution” last year.
Reminding the Modi government of the importance of the ‘Siliguri Corridor’ from the “national security perspective”, he said: “I also told the Parliament that the security and safety of our region can only be achieved when the indigenous people of the region are safe. Therefore, the people of Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars seek justice and solution under the Constitution of India.
Speaking to News18, Bista and Maharaj supported Majumdar’s efforts. “Greater Cooch Behar and North Bengal should be carved out 100 percent. I support this move to attach it to the North East,” said Maharaj.
Raju Bista, while talking to News18, said: “You will be surprised to know that the annual budget of West Bengal is Rs 3.78 lakh crore. But Norrh Bengal, where three crore people live, gets only Rs 860 crore, which is 0.002 percent.. .I think Majumdar’s plea has a point and the Center should think about it.
So far, all of these requests have been labeled as personal opinions. However, Majumdar’s proposal is seen as the first concrete step towards the BJP changing its official stand.