nIn a development in which the mainstream political parties of Bengal saw BJP’s “dirty designs” to take half of Bengal by breaking it after failing to win the State elections, saffron MP from Alipurduar John Burla on Saturday demanded creation of a new administrative unit by partitioning the State “in order to achieve true development of Bengal.”
Burla said that he had asked the central Government to create a new State or a union territory in North Bengal (comprising six districts of the region).
“There is no development in North Bengal. We have seen how thousandsof people from North Bengal tea estates have to go out to other statesin search of jobs … the quality of life and income of the people is very poor … this is because no promises made by the politicians have been kept in the past … hence I have asked the Centre either to make a separate State or a Union Territory so that this region can develop,” Burla said adding “it is my view which I have communicated to the Centre … now it is in their hands.”
Though the BJP State unit promptly dissociated itself from Burla’s statements saying the State party did not subscribe to such views, Trinamool Congress leadership saw in Burla’s statement a hidden agenda to carve out an “exquisite saffron zone” for the party. BJP has better organizational stronghold in North Bengal which the party wants to protect by dividing the State, TMC sources said.
Earlier Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told the media “We will never allow any further partition of Bengal. The proponents of such separate status should know that they will get a befitting reply from people of the state.”
She said that such separatist tendencies in north Bengal could be a security threat for the country. Sources close to her reminded how the region falls in the “Chicken’s Neck” where the width of Indian sub-continent is thinnest (barely 60 km) flanked by Bangladesh and Nepal. Banerjee is also known to have reminded of the Chinese presence barely 200 km away.
BJP State president Dilip Ghosh however said that it was Burla’s personal comments. “You can see how the opposition MPs and MLAs are stopped from reaching out to their people … even with relief … there is no democracy in the State … I think he must made those comments in that context,” he said adding “in any case the BJP does not subscribe to his views.”