Demand Raised for Declaring North Bengal, Parts of Jharkhand Separate State or UT
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 25: The BJP Member of Parliament from Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey on Thursday demanded that parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal be carved out of the two states and declared a union territory to deal with the challenges posed by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. He also demanded the implementation of Assam-like NRC.)
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during zero hour, Mr Dubey claimed if some measures were not taken to stop this illegal migration, “Hindus would disappear from these places.” He claimed that the population of Adivasis in the Santhal Parganas region of Jharkhand declined because of the alleged infiltration of people from Bangladesh.
Mr Dubey demanded that Malda, Murshidabad, Araria, Kishanganj, Katihar and the Santhal Parganas carved out of the two states and declared a union territory. “The state I come from, from Santhal Pargana area – when Santhal Pargana separated from Bihar and became a part of Jharkhand, in 2000 tribals formed 36% of the population in Santhal Pargana. Today, their population is 26%. Where did 10% of the tribals vanish? This House never worries about them, it indulges in vote bank politics,” he said.
The West Bengal BJP chief and union minister Sukanta Majumdar also called on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday and reportedly discussed a proposal to bifurcate North Bengal from West Bengal and declared a north-eastern territory. Incidentally, the northern parts of the state is BJP’s stronghold while the party kept getting battered in the hands of the ruling Trinamool Congress in the rest of the state.
The sudden developments may be indicative of a move that the BJP might be conjuring up some plans to dismember West Bengal and possibly parts of Jharkhand, where also the BJP has failed to come to power for some time, and create a new state or union territory where the party could be in power.
Mr Dubey claimed Bangladeshi intruders are marrying tribal women. “There are 100 tribal ‘mukhiya’ in our area but their husbands are Muslims…Riots broke out in Pakur’s Taranagar-Ilami and Dagapara because people from Malda and Murshidabad were ousting our people and Hindu villages were going empty. This is a serious matter. I am saying this on record, I am ready to resign if what I am saying is incorrect.
“Jharkhand Police is unable to do anything…Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar, Malda, and Murshidabad should be made a union territory, otherwise, Hindus will disappear, and implement NRC. If nothing else, send a Committee of the House there and implement the report of the Law Commission from 2010 that permission is essential for conversion and marriage,” he said. He said the issue wasn’t about Hindus versus Muslims but the settlement of outsiders in the region.
The Trinamool Congress objected to Mr Dubey’s remarks. It said the BJP MP raised a divisive issue. “Our CM Mamata Banerjee has categorically said – we will not allow these issues (NRC) to be implemented…Today, Nishikant Dubey was raising the question of Hindu-Muslim…We lodged a huge protest and we told the Speaker to see that this is expunged from the proceedings,” said TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
