The fiery West Bengal Chief Minister’s latest battle at hand is against the saffron camp’s attempts to have north Bengal as a separate State
The ever-feisty Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, is back to doing what she does best: Calling out the BJP-led Union Government and the saffron party’s leaders in her State who, as she perceives it, are going all out to fan separatism and further break Bengal down. The immediate trigger for her provocation is that a few BJP leaders have been demanding division of West Bengal and the creation of a new State comprising its northern parts.
The Chief Minister, who was also seen dancing hand-in-hand with tribal women to
adivasi music in Alipurduar district recently, wasted no time in rolling up the sleeves when asked for a comment on the issue. Asserting that she was ready to even shed her blood to thwart “any such attempts to divide the State”, Mamata lashed out at the saffron camp for “trying to fan separatism in the State ahead of the 2024 general elections”. Alipurduar, which is the 20th district of Bengal, was formed in 2014 under
the Mamata Banerjee Government’s regime.
Actually, Mamata may have a valid point when she talks about the saffron camp’s attempts to rake up Bengal’s division. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi eyeing a possible third term in New Delhi after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is raising demands for separate statehoods, sometimes seeking ‘Gorkhaland’ and, at other times, a separate State of north Bengal. It’s also a matter of record that all the communities in north Bengal have been living in harmony for decades.
The simmering issue has come to boil since separatist group Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) chief Jiban Singha released a video, calling the State Government a
“bohirgata” (outsider) and claiming that Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik, Jalpaiguri MP Jayanta Roy and Alipurduar MP John Barla were “supporters” of a separate Koch-Kamtapur state. Once considered a stronghold of the Left Front, Alipurduar was clinched by the TMC in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. However, the saffron camp gained ground in the area and won the Lok Sabha seat in 2019. In the 2021 Assembly election, the BJP won all the seven seats under the Lok Sabha constituency. The region, which shares the international border with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, is also strategically important for the country due to the Siliguri corridor, commonly known as ‘chicken’s neck’, as it connects the mainland with the Northeast States.
Historically speaking, even during the pre-Independence period when the issue of Bengal’s division came up, Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry, then an important member of the Indian National Congress, led the revolution against the partition of Bengal. Sri Aurobindo started organising revolutionaries to oppose Lord Curzon’s plan to bifurcate Bengal. These activities even landed him in trouble with the British authorities, and he was soon arrested for his suspected involvement in the Alipore bombing case. As much as Pakistanis, let us Indians also not forget that Bangladesh is also a product of partition. Had there been no partition, there would have been no Bangladesh. How much blood did Lt General Tikka Khan let flow in the erstwhile East Pakistan, we in India need to remind ourselves. A local journalist, writing in Bengali, had said that Tikka Khan and Lt General AK Niazi spilled more Bengali blood than the Ganga and the Brahmaputra carry into the Bay of Bengal. This is the manner in which Bangladesh has repaid the blood of Indian soldiers who laid down their lives on the fields of ‘Sonar’ Bangla in 1971. Unfortunately, this may have been forgotten over the last 50 years.
Also, regular and frequent references to secularism appear in the media. But seldom is a mention made of the Bernard Stasi report which is the latest thesis on what is a secular State. It was submitted in 2003 and was treated as the backgrounder for the secular law passed by the French National Assembly in 2004. It defines three essential principles as freedom of conscience, equality in law for spiritual and religious beliefs, and neutrality of political power. The only restrictions decreed in the Stasi report were in the interest of public order. It has stated that Islam is believed to be incompatible with secularism. This was the provocation to the investigation carried out of Bernard Stasi and the subsequent passing of the legislation. These provisions ensure not only the neutrality of political authority but also the freedom of conscience and belief as well as equality before the law.
The Stasi Report has emphasised secularism as a cornerstone of a democracy. “Every State is sovereign and has the right to frame its Constitution as well as other laws according to the needs of its society,” it categorically states. Lastly, it must be carefully noted that ‘Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava’ does not add up to secularism. The spirit behind these words was universal tolerance. Secularism is essentially the separation of the Church from the State but India never had a big enough Church nor did it ever interfere in the running of the State.
So, let’s rather focus our attention and energies on development issues such as health and employment.
(The writer is Coordinating Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)