A set of BJP and Trinamool Congress MLAs on Thursday competed against each other needling up regional and sub-regional slogans - the former once again asking for a separate North Bengal State and the latter demanding an exclusive State flag.
Manoranjan Vyapari a TMC MLA from Hooghly while delivering a speech inside the Assembly "floated an idea" for an exclusive state flag for Bengal even as he reasoned, "There are quite a few States that have their distinct State songs and State flags, so why cannot Bengal have its own state flag.
We already have a state song. Thanks to our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. I only offered a small idea to the House to ponder about it, besides there is no constitutional hindrance for having a state flag."
Though there is no instance of a state flags some Indian states do have their own songs.
These include Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, as well as Bengal. The BJP and the Left promptly reacted to the idea of a state flag wondering whether the TMC was plotting a secessionist plan.
Union Minister and state BJP president Sukanto Majumdar chided Vyapari saying, "they came to Bengal after being kicked out of Bangladesh, now they are trying to divide India, but we warn them against any such sinister design, any poke at India's national sovereignty will be very ruthlessly dealt with."
Not to drop behind North Bengal BJP MLA Shikha Chatterjee too roll out rolled out a competing idea: this time proposing to effect a partition of Bengal.
Reportedly disgusted with lack of development of North Bengal she said if the Mamata Banerjee Government could not keep its promise then it should better let the northern part of the State go.
"If you cannot develop North Bengal then it is better to bifurcate it," she said.
"There has been tall promises made by the Government. They have constructed an Uttar Kanya (a second secretariat at Siliguri in North Bengal), just for the sake of it, nothing happens there.
My simple logic is if you cannot develop North Bengal simply let it get separated," Chatterjee an MLA from Dabgram Phulbari constituency adjoining Siliguri said.
"This is not my call. This is the people's voice that I am raising. We are people's representatives and we have to listen to the refrains of the common voters regularly.
There is massive unemployment problem, people have minimal facilities, there is continuous river erosion, hosts of other problems that the people are plagued with. They are asking us as to what we are doing in Kolkata. They are telling us to resign and return if we cannot do anything.
So I am forced to raise this issue. If the Government cannot develop let them segregate North Bengal," she said.
Though this is not the first occasion that a similar demand has been raised what makes Chatterjee's statements different is that it has for the first time made inside the Assembly and was recorded in the proceedings, experts said. Earlier other saffron leaders like John Barla and the saffron MLA from Naxalbari had raised such demands too.
When asked to comment on the issue Sukanto Majumdar however said that, "division of Bengal is not the party's stand," adding however that the party wanted a composite development plan for North Bengal.
"We want the development of Bengal along the lines proposed by Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. If regions like North Bengal are neglected then we will see if some other arrangement can be made, but we are not for division of Bengal," he said.
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee however accused the BJP for hatching divisive plans after having failed to win in elections.
"They know that they are fast losing the ground beneath their feat. They have failed to win elections repeatedly in North Bengal too they have lost ground losing all the recent by-elections. So they are making a hue and cry for partitioning Bengal. But this will not only be not allowed. This will also boomerang against them," Chatterjee said.