After BJP MPs Soumitra Khan and John Barla it is now the turn of the saffron party MLAs to make demands for a separate State.
BJP MLAs from Dabgram-Fulbari and Naxalbari-Matigara Sikha Chatterjee and Ananda Roy Burman have raised their voices for a separate State comprising the North Bengal districts.
Both Dabgram-Gulbari and Naxalbari-Matigara are the satellite townships of Siliguri — the largest city in North Bengal which is also called the gateway to the North East.
Backing Barla the BJP’s Alipurduar MP, Chatterjee on Wednesday said that “neither the Left nor the Trinamool Congress Government have taken any measure to develop the backward regions of North Bengal and its people … so the only way development can be achieved in North Bengal is by making a separate State here…. If anyone raises a voice for a separate State it is well within one’s rights to do so because everyone has a right to develop in a democracy and our constitution declares that India is a democratic country of which we are the free citizens.”
Roy Burman too backed Barla saying “the Alipurduar MP has done the right thing by demanding a separate State because from our long experience we have seen that the Government from Kolkata only takes care of the southern part of the State and leaves the northern part to starving State … this cannot go on for long and the local people are gradually awakening to their cause of a separate State which is the only way through which their all-round development can be achieved.”
Curiously Barla continued to raise his demands for a separate State the way he did before the BJP State president Dilip Ghosh rejected views that the saffron party had anything to do with such demands. “It is his private statement and the BJP has got nothing to do with it … maybe such leaders are making such statements out of frustration after seeing their workers being battered and their properties looted every day.”
Refusing to withdraw his demand for separate State despite his party’s “declared stance” against it and partly buttressing the argument of Ghosh the Alipurduar MP on Wednesday said “what else can I do as a BJP MP … I am seeing the people of my party being hounded out by the Bangladeshi supporters of the Trinamool Congress … here are several families who have come from Assam border in Cooch Behar district … they have fled for their lives … their properties have been looted by the Bangladeshi Trinamool men … these are the sons and daughters of the soil and are being attacked by the foreign intruders backed by the ruling party … this cannot be tolerated and so I have no other way but to raise my voice for a separate State … I will take it to the Governor of Bengal and even New Delhi.”
