With the Lok Sabha elections just weeks away, the Centre's move to announce the rules of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) is being seen by a section as an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) to win votes in West Bengal. Its implementation had long been a demand of the Matua community, who sought refuge in the border state after fleeing religious persecution in East Pakistan (later Bangladesh).
Matuas are Namashudras and constitute more than 17% of the Scheduled Castes (SC) in West Bengal. They are the second largest SC group in the state after the Rajbongshis of North Bengal.
Why both BJP and Trinamool want Rajbongshi support
Both the opposition BJP and the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) have been trying to woo the Rajbongshis in north Bengal. The community, whose population is over 33 lakh, inhabits Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda and Murshidabad districts. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP swept the region, largely thanks to the support of Rajbongshis.
Several organizations in this part of West Bengal are demanding a separate Greater Cooch Behar state, which includes seven districts in North Bengal, besides Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Dhubri in Assam. They say the incorporation of Cooch Behar into West Bengal was “illegal” and that the current situation violates the treaty signed on August 28, 1949 by the government of India and their then king, Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur. Some also point out that between 1971 and 2011, the community's share of North Bengal's population fell from 80% to just 30%. They claim that the influx of people from across the border has increased and that these “invaders are living on land once owned by Rajbongshis”.
The people pushing for a new state
Bangshibadan Barman, the leader of a faction of the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples' Association (GCPA), recently reiterated his opposition to the implementation of CAA during a telephone conversation. He stated that the Union government has not discussed the issue with them. Barman, who was said to have considerable influence among the Rajbongshis, also raised the issue of the 1949 merger agreement and stood by their demand for the creation of a new state.
Barman was taken into custody in 2005 after three people were killed in unrest. In 2016, three more died in renewed protests. While several leaders of the GCPA were taken into custody, top leaders, including Barman, are said to be missing.
Barman harbors political ambition, which some of his followers consider necessary to cultivate political power to pursue their demands. He even contested, albeit unsuccessfully, the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate from Cooch Behar.
Another faction of the GCPA is led by Ananta Rai, who is said to be the descendant of the former ruler of Cooch Behar and who goes by the title “Maharaj” by his name. The BJP recently nominated Rai to the Rajya Sabha.
Deporting illegal immigrants
The BJP MP from Cooch Behar, Nisith Pramanik, who is also the Union Home Minister and Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, is said to be in touch with Ananta 'Maharaj'. Although Pramanik won by a margin of over 54,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he emerged from the Dinhata segment in the 2021 Assembly elections with a lead of less than 60 votes over Trinamool's Udayan Guha. He later resigned, preferring to keep his parliamentary seat.
In the subsequent re-election, Guha defeated Ashok Mondal of BJP by a margin of over 1.64 lakh votes, constituting 85% of the vote share. The main reason for this turn of events was attributed to a change in the voices of the Rajbongshi community.
Other Rajbongshi groups demanding a separate state include the Kamatapur People's Party, the Greater Cooch Behar Demanding Committee (GCDC), the All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union and the Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani.
Many of them want the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to track down illegal immigrants and pave the way for their deportation. Yet the state remains a priority for the restive groups.
BJP sympathetic, but not supporting it
Although the BJP has not supported the Greater Cooch Behar theory, it is seen as sympathetic to the Rajbongshi cause. Many officials and supporters have justified carving out North Bengal from the state and making it a Union Territory. They claim that despite making a significant contribution to the public purse, the area remains poor and deprived. They also argue that as its strategic location is crucial, the area cannot be left to state governments, which may be influenced by vote bank politics.
Opponents complain that this is just a strategy to cut off the influence of the ruling party from Calcutta as the state's ruling dispensation has always been in opposition to successive Union governments since 1977. However, there were brief periods of friendship when the Left – then in power in the state – supported the United Progressive Alliance-1 (UPA) government at the Centre. Once again, the TMC remained part of the NDA and the Union Cabinet even when Mamata Banerjee returned home to become chief minister.
Now leaders of various Rajbongshi organizations are threatening to take to the streets to once again push for a separate state. Meanwhile, BJP leaders have been asked to keep quiet on the controversial issue until at least the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, something the party sees as a fear that the rest of Bengal would not accept further partition of the state .
(Jayanta Bhattacharya is a senior journalist who writes on polls and politics, conflict, farmers and human rights issues.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author