Analysis of gorkhaland issue in Assam
Demands for separate states is not new in this region. Along with Gorkhas, Rajbongshi community from Coochbehar or Kamtapuries are asking for different statehood for ages. Their demands revolve around these six districts( Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, CoochBehar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda) and a portion of the state of Assam.
Gorkhaland demand: Gorkhas want Darjeeeling and parts of Jaipaiguri(Terai and Doors) to come under the territorial boundary of their demand state of Gorkhaland. Below is the map for the same.
Demography of Darjeeling district:
Gorkhas are in majority in Darjeeling , Kalimpong, karseong, Mirik and in majority of the hill areas in the district, and they are also in majority in the entire Darjeeling district. But when it comes to the town of Siliguri Bengalis are in majority. More than 75% population of Siliguri are Bengalis , and hardly 15% constitutes Gorkha population . Now it’s very natural that 85% population of Siliguri does not want to secede from West Bengal. It is also alleged that a portion of Nepali population in the district are foreigners because India and Nepal has an open border and over the years ruling party CPM helped them to get ration cards and voter id cards.
Demography of Jalpaiguri district: In the Terai and Doors region ( marked in red border) of jalpaiguri district Nepalis constitute hardly 30% of the entire population where Adivasis and Bengalis constitute the rest 70%, now they are also staging protest against the demand of Gorkhaland formation.
Greater Coochbehar or demand of Kamtapur : Rajbonshi or Kamtapuries are also demanding separate statehood for ages . Below is the proposed map for the same which also includes parts of Assam.
Now I want to raise few points regarding this issue:
If we consider the demand of Gorkhaland as separate state then we should also consider demand of Kamtapur or Greater Coochbehar and Bodo Land in Assam as separate statehood. Now the problem is there is territorial overlap between proposed Greater Coochbehar and Gorkhaland and there is also territorial overlap between proposed Greater Coochbehar and Bodo Land in Assam.
Should not we consider majority opinion of Jalpaiguri district and Siliguri subdivision who don’t want to secede from West Bengal?
there were 520 princely states in India when India got independence, If we consider demand of Gorkhas then tomorrow there will be more than 500 states in india because we should also consider demands of many other communities like Bodos, Rajbonsis in diff states along with them, more or less in every states people from diff communities asking for diff statehood for diff communities in India.
RajyaSabha representation will not be very easy if Gorkha majority areas will be curbed out of west Bengal because their population is still very less to gain even one rajyasabha seat from west Bengal.
Govt should conduct strict census of current demography of Gorkhas and other communities in these districts and compare them with 1971 population status, because people are alleging that a portion of them are foreigner and they are migrants from Nepal.
Smaller states are obviously easy to govern but central govt. should set some criteria to get new states based on area, population , language and culture because formation of new states with just thousands of people does not make sense, it will be a new way to drain more money from central public fund.
It’s not that I don’t support the rights of Gorkha people, neither I am against the formation of Gorkhaland but I can’t support inclusion of Siliguri subdivision and Jalpaiguri district within the territorial boundary of proposed Gorkhaland because these are not Gorkha majority areas.Even though Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supports BJP in the centre, BJP recently cleared its position against Gorkhaland formation because they are also afraid of losing ground in the mainland of Bengal which they have created over the last two years.
ಕಾಮೆಂಟ್ಗಳಿಲ್ಲ:
ಕಾಮೆಂಟ್ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿ