Alipurduar: Modi woos ethnic groups to take on Mamata

Pramod Giri, THT, 8 Apr 2016, Kolkata: The BJP is banking on the ethnic groups of North Bengal to take on the Trinamool Congress in its citadel – Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Birpara, which was attended by thousands of supporters of the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association (GCPA) (Ananta Roy faction). The attendance by about one lakh people here at Circus Ground (60,000 as per state IB’s claim), with many of them being GCPA supporters, surprised even political pundits.

The GCPA (Ananta Roy faction), which is demanding the creation of a C-category state comprising areas of the erstwhile Cooch Behar kingdom, is considered the largest group of the Kamtapuris in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts.

Different GCPA factions, Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party, Kamtapur Progressive Party and Kamtapur People’s Party (United) are also demanding inclusion of the Kamtapuri language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. SS Ahluwalia, the BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling, first raised the issue of Kamtapuri language in Parliament in 2014. Though the BJP is silent on the demand for the creation of C-category Cooch Behar state. BJP leaders are alleging that the subsequent state and central governments never bothered about the issue of the Kamtapuris or the Rajbonsis. On Thursday, addressing the rally, Roy spoke about the pride of erstwhile Cooch Behar kingdom and credited the BJP for looking into various problems inflicting former subjects of the erstwhile kingdom.

Though Modi on Tuesday conspicuously avoided a comment on C-category states, his reference to Roy as Maharaj was an indicator that the BJP indeed has a soft corner for the statehood demand.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election manifesto, the BJP promised to sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long pending demands of the Gorkhas. The BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha manifesto said, “The party will sympathetically examine and appropriately consider the long pending demands of the Gorkhas, the Adivasis and other people of Darjeeling district and the Dooars region.”

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s (GJM) main demand is creation of separate Gorkhaland state. The BJP won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seats in 2009 and 2014 with support from the GJM support. Addressing the rally, Bimal Gurung, the GJM president, appealed to Gorkha, Adivasi and Rajbonshi voters to vote against what he alleged TMC government’s policy of suppression and repression of various ethnic groups in North Bengal.

Playing the Gorkha card, Modi also praised the dedication and honesty of the Gorkhas whose youths guard the nation’s border to ensure that countrymen live in peace.