End of a day?

End of a day?

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 10:19 PM IST
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It would of course have been too optimistic to expect Bengalis to call it a day after Dr.B.C. Roy’s statement that the Prime Minister, right or wrong, should be supported on his Berubari commitment. Dr. Roy himself perhaps helped to keep the issue aflame by implying that the Prime Minister was more wrong than right. One result of the Roy surrender, sensible and practical as it is, is that it closes a dangerous rift within the Congress party. With an elder of Dr. B.C. Roy’s stature fighting the Prime Minister, it would have been impossible for the Congress to keep its crumbling house in order. But by closing the rift for all practical purposes, the Congress has only invited upon itself fresh and serious problems. It is by now certain that the emotional appeal of the Berubari problem will be fully exploited by the opposition parties and indeed by a substantial chunk of the West Bengal Congress, to keep popular anger against the present Congress leadership at boiling point. As a matter of fact, Bengal may well see the repetition of the Samyukta Maharshtra movement which almost threw the Congress out of popular favour in Maharashtra. It was the timely realisation of the Samyukta Maharashtra ideal that took the wind out of the Samiti’s sail and strengthened the position of the Congress well ahead of the 1962 elections. Will this process be reserved in West Bengal to the detriment of the Congress party?

15th December 1960.

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