Kolkata
At a time when West Bengal BJP in order to nurture Bengali sentiments is observing ‘Pashim Bangal Divas’, a section of the party MPs is also raising demands to divide the state. After Alipurduar MP John Barla, Darjeeling MP Raju Bishta said people of North Bengal have been ignored for the last 45 years.
WHAT BISHTA SAID
“John Barla has said what he had to but the truth is North Bengal has been ignored by both former Left Front and present Trinamool Congress government. In TMC era both tourism and other business have crashed in North Bengal. Didi said she would transform Darjeeling into Switzerland but failed to keep her promise. As far as separating Bengal is concerned this is not the right time to say,” stated the BJP Darjeeling MP.
WHAT SUVENDU SAID?
“We haven’t decided on anything about dividing the state. John Barla had said so as people of North Bengal are not happy. Even I, along with other BJP MPs who are from western part of the state, aren't happy and whatever our party chief had said we will stick to it,” mentioned the Leader of Opposition.
WHAT DILIP GHOSH HAD TOLD FPJ
“We don’t support breaking West Bengal. We are there for the people of North Bengal and in keeping with the democratic set up, we will work for the people,” Ghosh had said.
Notably, even on Sunday at an organizational meet, Ghosh claimed that BJP doesn’t believe in divisive politics but believes in serving people. The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, didn’t leave any stone unturned to slam the saffron camp over their demand in breaking the state. TMC leader from North Bengal Gautam Deb said the hidden agenda of the saffron camp is to break Bengal and also claimed that the BJP will get the befitting answer in the next election as well as people of Bengal don’t want the state divided.
Incidentally, celebrating the ‘Paschim Bangal Diwas’ (West Bengal Day), BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari slammed both the Left Front and the TMC for not letting people know about the contribution of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in retaining West Bengal.
“Shyama Prasad Mukherjee fought for West Bengal and made it a part of India as had it been in Pakistan than this state would have been Islamabad or Dhaka. The Left Front and the TMC didn’t let people know the contribution of a Hindu Bengali,” Suvendu said, adding if other states can observe their state’s day the West Bengal will also follow suit.
TMC MOCKS BJP
Slamming BJPs move of celebrating West Bengal Day, TMC leader and transport minister Firhad Hakim claimed after poll debacle the saffron camp is trying to put up a Bengali image. “BJP plays communal politics for which people denounced them and now they want to display themselves as Bengali to woo the Bengali sentiments. This attempt of BJP will also fail,” stated the minister.
HAUNTING PAST
The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, divided the British Indian province of Bengal based on the Radcliffe Line between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Hindu-majority West Bengal became a state of India, and the Muslim-majority East Bengal (now Bangladesh) became a province of Pakistan. —SOURCE WIKIPEDIA
FPJ VIEW
The West Bengal unit of BJP must get its act together. After Barla spoke of a separate identity for North Bengal on Saturday, Darjeeling MP, Raju Bishta, on Sunday "joined" the chorus and said the people have been ignored for the last 45 years and Didi hasn't kept her promise of making Darjeeling... India's Switzerland! He stopped short of asking for a separate identity for the region but his comments came on a day when the Saffron party had made arrangements to celebrate West Bengal Divas. In a quick fix mode, Suvendu's move to follow the state unit's president's words provided some balm on the sticky situation. This, however, gave TMC the chance to mock at the BJP over the entire episode.
