The ongoing impasse over the Darjeeling issue has encouraged other small regional fanatic forces in the state to raise demands for separate statehood.
KOLKATA: The ongoing impasse over the Darjeeling issue has encouraged other small regional fanatic forces in the state to raise demands for separate statehood. Most such demands are being raised by groups active in the Darjeeling-straddling districts of north Bengal.
While the state government need not worry about most of them because of their minuscule presence and feeble organisational network, the political wing of the Intelligence Branch (IB) of the state police has cautioned about the increased activities of Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP), which is patronised by Assam-based terrorist group ULFA. The officers of the IB wing feel that unless addressed immediately, the KPP movement can turn violent, mainly because of group’s line of ideology.
Even though a separate Kamtapur state and constitutional recognition of Kamtapuri language are the official demands of KPP, the group has adopted an anti-Bengali stance to push for them. “This the major difference between the GJM and KPP propaganda. The GJM in their demand for separate Gorkhaland state has tried to avoid an open anti-Bengali or any anti-community campaign as far as possible. However, for the KPP, the anti-Bengali campaign is key to their campaigning,” a senior IB official said.
In fact, the statement issued by the KPP president Atul Roy, which has been circulated among select reporters, also has a strong anti-Bengali note. In the statement, Roy has called for boycott of Bengali language, on July 6. The boycott agenda also includes closure of educational institutions which follow Bengali as the medium of instruction.
“Our demand is that Bengali should be replaced by Kamtapuri as the medium instruction,” Roy said. Through his statement, he also threatened for wider agitation in the coming days, unless their demand is fulfiled.
r_sumanta@dnaindia.net
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