Jalpaiguri (WB): The demand for separate Kamtapur statehood has resurrected again as Kamtapur People’s Party (KPP) is all set to start massive agitation and movement in support of this demand. On this count, KPP’s Nikhil Roy faction is trying to unite all the forces under one unit who are supporting the separate Kamtapur statehood demand.
As the different organizations are uniting in support of the demand, tension is mounting in different pockets of North Bengal. Already a section of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha members and MLAs have been vocal in support of this which has also encouraged the KPP to resurrect the separate statehood demand.
In the 2021 Lok Sabha elections, BJP was able to bag seven out of eight Lok Sabha constituencies in North Bengal. Even in the last West Bengal assembly elections, BJP’s performance in North Bengal had been better than what it had been in South Bengal. Soon after that BJP Lok Sabha member, John Barla became vocal on the separate statehood demand, which has encouraged the stakeholders to resurrect the same demand.
Already a secret meeting in this regard has been organized at Moinaguri. In the meeting, an appeal was issued for all stakeholders to unite under an umbrella unit in support of the separate Kamtapur statehood demand. The representatives of Kamtapur People’s Party (United), Kamtapur Democratic Party, Kamtapur Progressive Party and Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party were present at the meeting and decided to get united to start a movement in support of the separate statehood.
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The demand for a creation of a separate state combining Cooch Behar district of West Bengal with lower Assam had been long-standing even there had been bloody movements on this issue before. Despite police actions during the previous Left Front regime, the movement continued for a long time. However, in the past few years, the pace of the movement slowed down substantially.
From 1998 to 2004, the entire North Bengal was bubbling in support of the separate Kamtapur statehood demand. Several local youths joined the movement. However, after the change of regime in 2011, many armed activists and linkmen of KLO fighting in support of the separate statehood surrendered arms one after another. Some of them even came back to the mainstream and were rehabilitated.
Amid the demand for separate statehood, a question that is making the rounds is, will those days of terror and violence in demand of the separate statehood also get resurrected again? KLO once involved the local youths in the movement by handing over arms to them. They were trained by KLO, under the leadership of Jeevan Singh, at secret training camps in Bhutan. It was alleged that armed KLO activists assassinated the Left leaders one after another.
To counter the armed movement by KLO, the Indian and Bhutanese armies conducted joint operations - “Operation Flash Out” - from December 14, 2003, to January 14, 2004. The KLO training camps in Bhutan were hence destroyed. Many armed terrorists were arrested and arms were seized. The KLO chief, Jeevan Singh however, went underground. Recently after the assembly elections, Singh gave a video message calling for a united movement. Naturally, the question arises whether his appeal will follow a fresh round of armed movement by a united umbrella unit of different separatist groups?
According to the president of KLO (United), Nikhil Kumar Roy, they conducted a meeting with all stakeholders to start a fresh demand in support of the separate statehood demand. “The main aim of the meeting is to unite all groups who support the separate statehood demands. There has to be a greater movement now. Separate movements by separate groups are not enough. The previous Left Front government falsely implicated many local youths in the name of anti-movement actions,” he claimed.
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