Yet another old separate statehood demand in West Bengal all set to have a new life soon

SILIGURI: After remaining at low key for over 6 years, the movement for separate Greater Coochbehar statehood is all set to erupt out soon in the northern part of west Bengal. With the legal angles of incorporation of erstwhile princely state Coochbehar within union of India in 1948 as the basis, the activists demand immediate attention of sate as well as center.

“If Government can listen and do so much following demand of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha that is asking for separate statehood for Darjeeling, why should we be left unheared? Our movement is much older and standing on much more solid footage,” said Mr. Bangshi Badan Barman, founder of the Greater Cochbehar statehood demand movement.

Mr. Barman said, “We are not Bengalis. We are citizens of erstwhile princely state of Coochbehar. It was included within India under a treaty between the then GoI and the King of Coochbehar Maharaja Jagadwipendra Narayan on the 28th Aug 1949. As per the treaty, Cochbehar was notified as a ‘C’ type state on the 12th sep 1949. So, inclusion of Coochbehar within West Bengal as a district on 1st January 1950 was unethical, illegal and against the inclusion treaty. People here have been opposing this since then.”

The movement shook the world under the banner of Greater Cochbehar Peoples Association(GCPA) in September 2005 when over three lakh of GCPA supporters started indefinite hunger strike. After running for five days, it ended with a major confrontation between GCPA and police causing death of many party supporters and a senior police official.

But afterward, stringent police action and tactical political movement of the then ruling left parties in West Bengal forced the organization to go low key after its top leader including Mr. Barman were put behind the bars.

But, in the district of over 25 lakh population, demographic share of the communities evolved from the old Coch community is over 60%. That still hosts high level of sentiment in favour of Coochbehar Maharaja, the Royal Family and Coochbehar ‘State.’ Naturally, “Now since Barman is out after his six years long imprisonment, the movement can have solid re-crystallization under the banner of Mr. Barman’s newly formed Great Cochbehar Peoples Party,” said political observers.