North Bengal is an integral part of West Bengal.

The State of West Bengal is bounded to the north by the state of Sikkim and the country of Bhutan, to the northeast by the state of Assam, to the east by the country of Bangladesh, to the south by the Bay of Bengal, to the southwest by the state of Odisha, to the west by the states of Jharkhand and Bihar, and the northwest by the country of Nepal.

West Bengal, therefore, assumes great importance from the point of national security. Unlike in the highly secured Indian borders with Pakistan, its borders with Bangladesh are still fluid, helping migrants to crisscross with ease.

Be these as they may, I thought of sharing my views about North Bengal, including the Darjeeling district. Darjeeling borders Sikkim, which again has a border with China. The highway from India to its state of Sikkim passes through the Darjeeling District. The original inhabitants of the Darjeeling Hills Lepchas, Limbu, Rai. Sherpa, Bhutia, Tamang, Gurung, Magar, Newar, Sunuwar, Yakkha, Thami, Chettri, Bahun, Kami, Damaitec and Tibetans, the last who arrived as refugees in the 50s. The hill culture is distinct and varies from the plains, populated by Bengalis, Biharis, Gorkhas, Marwaris and tribes from the Chotanagpur region and Santhal Parganas.

Successive governments have disregarded the development of Darjeeling and were wary of the Gurkhas, who, fed up with the step-motherly attitude, demanded a separate state for themselves. Gorkhaland, thus became a permanent feature, planting dreams in the minds of the youth. The plan worked perfectly for our recalcitrant neighbour China, which always disputed the annexation of Sikkim into the Indian Union. A major disturbance in Darjeeling against the Indian government could have led to Chinese attempts to usurp Sikkim, thus challenging the Indian integrity and security.

To benefit from the five Assembly seats and a Parliament seat, every party, particularly a former MP from BJP, promised to consider an independent statehood for Darjeeling. Mamata stepped in as the CM and tried to buy peace with the hill people. There was one hurdle, an over-ambitious Bimal Gurung, who tried to challenge the might of Mamata, the latter responding with a combination of diplomacy and the rule of law. Bimal Gurung went absconding. Darjeeling people also saw the hollowness of BJP’s promises of a Darjeeling State and decided to shun the national party to side with Mamata’s AITC. Mamata recently withdrew 72 criminal cases, including serious murder charges, against Bimal Gurung, though I despise such ideas of blanket clemencies. All seemed to be well in the hills once again.

The Bengal BJP, bereft of new ideas after the recent poll debacle, is scared to lose North Bengal their fortress and has started giving bytes through two of their MPs of a separate North Bengal, which was not in their poll manifesto at all. In any case, without ceding Darjeeling District from W. Bengal, a separate North Bengal cannot be created. Unless any state government’s complicity in promoting any anti-national activity causing severe unrest is noticed in the hills, the idea of a separate N. Bengal is fraught with dangers that might cause the end of any BJP presence in West Bengal.

It may be an amateurish plan to teach Mamata a lesson, which cannot be done and should not be attempted by such silly ploys, other than through a ballot box.

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix