New Delhi:

Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose, who has shredded the Mamata Banerjee government repeatedly over the young doctor’s rape and murder, spoke to her parents today, assuring them that he would make every effort to get them justice. In response to the parents’ complaint that they did not even receive a copy of the First Information Report, he said he would look into the matter. He also requested for a meeting, saying he would visit them at their convenience on his return from Delhi.

There was also a message for Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, posted on X by his office soon after the Supreme Court hearing on the matter. 

“The nation, the entire nation, hear with great relief the pronouncements of the Supreme Court. Remember, every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. Anybody listening? Will Mamata Banerjee please raise her hand?” he said.

Later, from his newly initiated mobile control room for the ongoing agitation over the rape-murder, the Governor spoke to the father of the woman, and said the entire country is standing by them.

“We all are with you. You will get justice. Today I am in Delhi, I held discussions in detail about the matter. I will go to your residence as per your convenience,” he was seen telling the father in a video message released by his office.

Mr Bose was in Delhi today, where he met President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.  He reached Cuttack in the evening, from where he dialled the doctor’s mother.

His move, though, was strongly criticized by the Trinamool Congress. Party MP Derek O’Brien posted: “Your video today disrespects the high constitutional post you hold… The telephone call you had with the father of the rape victim was recorded by you and then publicized. Tasteless. Unethical. Please do not use your high office and a gruesome tragedy for self publicity.”

The mobile control room, the Governor’s office said, was meant for the ongoing agitation in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a 2nd year PGT female resident doctor of R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital Kolkata. “Anyone may call up the numbers if they wish to convey anything to HG (Governor of Kolkata),” added the post.

When Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India in 1905, announced the partition of Bengal on religious lines, the decision was met with stiff resistance from a section of people. Bengalis, mainly from the Hindu-dominated western part of the province, alleged that the step was part of the British colonial policy of divide and rule. Among the intellectuals who actively led the protests against the bifurcation was Rabindranath Tagore.

The celebrated bard, in an ode to Mother Bengal, composed a song in support of the resistance against the partition of the state: “Banglar mati, Banglar jol, Banglar baayu, banglar phal, Punyo houk punyo houk, punyo houk hey bhagoban”. Loosely translated, it says this: “The soil of Bengal, the water of Bengal, the air of Bengal, the fruit of Bengal, blessed be them, blessed be them, blessed be them, Oh Lord”. As per historical records, he also initiated a “Raksha Bandhan Utsav” to unite Hindus and Muslims against the division. 

The Raj claimed that the partition was intended to improve administration, with Calcutta being the capital for the western part and Dacca for the east. However, the protesters dubbed it as a ploy to drive a religious wedge among Bengalis. Ultimately, towards the end of 1911, King George V annulled the partition and declared the reunification of the eastern part with the then Bengal Presidency.

Why Few Are Buying The Idea

It’s against this background that the votaries of the “divide Bengal” theory today find themselves facing strong opposition from the people of Bengal, where linguistic and cultural bonds are held above religious beliefs. In fact, the 2024 mandate proved that the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has managed to successfully navigate the issue of “outsiders” beyond religious lines. Nonetheless, another division, which led to the formation of East Pakistan amidst widespread bloodshed, went against political prudence. 

The northern parts of Bengal and the western areas lying along the borders of Jharkhand and Odisha have seven Lok Sabha and 49 assembly segments each. Any decision to bifurcate or trifurcate the state may affect the TMC electorally in the remaining 28 Lok Sabha and 196 assembly constituencies spread across the rest of the state.

Sporadic voices for a bifurcation, or trifurcation, have been raised by individuals who find that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has done well with voters in the north and southwestern parts of the state. Around half of the dozen seats the BJP has won in Bengal this year are from the north and four from the southwest.

Incidentally, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) too has been working with tribals and other inhabitants of Jangalmahal (the forested areas in the southwestern region of the state) for over two decades, and their work bore fruit for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. However, subsequent internal events – including infighting among some state leaders and their followers – have stagnated its growth. Yet, the party enjoys the status of being the largest opposition in the state.

Two Movements

In north Bengal, separatist movements like the Gorkhaland agitation in the Darjeeling hills and the Kamatapur movement by Koch Rajbongshis of Cooch Behar, have been going on for decades. The Koch Rajbongshis movement – which has always aimed to pressurise the ruling governments in the state – has found the BJP being sympathetic towards it. The party’s leadership has not officially accepted its demands, though a few MPs from north Bengal have expressed open support. 

Undoubtedly, the BJP has enjoyed support in these areas of the state; the party has been winning Darjeeling since the 2009 national election. It also won the Cooch Behar seat for the first time in 2019, though it lost it later, apparently due to the notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) rules ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The Rajbongshis claim that the rules will allow people who migrated from across the border to continue living on their ancestral land.

The disquiet was again evident when Nagendra Ray, a BJP representative in the Rajya Sabha and staunch advocate of a separate state, reiterated on July 25 the demand for a Greater Cooch Behar state. Ray goes by the name of ‘Ananta Maharaj’ and claims that he is a direct descendent of the erstwhile rulers of the earlier Cooch Behar state. In the Rajya Sabha, he claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured him that he would look into the demand for a separate state and that the Prime Minister too had instructed the Home Ministry regarding that.

Not An Easy Route

But as was the case with Gorkhaland, a separate state for the Koch Rajbongshi community would entail carving out portions of not only Bengal but adjoining states as well. Such an attempt may not sit well with the adjoining northeastern neighbours, where the BJP has been doing well with support from its North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) partners.

Considering the history, a further division of Bengal is thus an idea that may never come to fruition even if it continues to loom over the state. In any case, Mamata Banerjee will try to gain as much political mileage out of the issue as she can ahead of the 2026 assembly election. 

(Jayanta Bhattacharya is a senior journalist writing on polls and politics, conflict, farmer and human interest issues)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

New Delhi:

The West Bengal government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging Governor CV Ananda Bose’s refusal to give assent to eight bills. The state’s counsel, Astha Sharma, urged the court to list the petition for immediate consideration.

The controversy arose after Governor’s rejection of these bills without citing any reasons, prompting the Trinamool Congress-led government to argue that this action violates Article 200 of the Constitution. According to the state’s submission, denying approval to bills without providing grounds undermines democratic governance.

“The Governor’s oversight poses a threat to democratic governance and infringes upon the rights of the state,” argued the state’s lawyer.

Responding to the development, the Chief Justice stated that the Supreme Court will consider the matter.

Kolkata:

Maoist leader Arnab Dam, who is currently in jail in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, appeared for an interview in the Burdwan State University on Wednesday for his PhD degree in history.

Dam, who appeared for the interview under the watch of the police, is in jail in connection with an attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp at Silda in West Midnapore district in February 2010.

He was convicted in February last year.

Dam had cleared the State Eligibility Test (SET) after appearing for the examination from jail. As the prison authorities were reluctant to allow him to do his PhD, he sat on a fast.

After the human rights group Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) took up Dam’s case, the prison authorities softened their stand.

Dam is known to be a meritorious student who cleared the IIT entrance test and got into IIT-Kharagpur. While on campus, he got attracted to Maoist ideology and absconded after his third-semester exam.

He was arrested in 2012 as an accused in the Silda EFR camp attack case.

Dam completed his graduation and post-graduation from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) while in prison. Thereafter, he applied for a PhD from the Burdwan State University.

Kolkata:

Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress has been up in arms against a controversial comment by High Court judge-turned-politician Abhijit Gangopadhyay that targets Mamata Banerjee. The former judge’s purported comment — videos of which are circulating online — has provided massive ammunition to Trinamool, which has tagged the BJP as “anti-women” since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Didi-O-Didi” taunt in 2021.

The BJP claimed it was a “fake video”. “We don’t agree with the existence of any such videos. This is a ploy by the TMC to release fake videos and malign the BJP. But that won’t make any difference in the elections,” BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India.

The purported video of Mr Gangopadhyay, who is contesting from Tamluk, comes amid the Sandeshkhali row and the subsequent battle for the support of the state’s women voters.

“A leader who has worked as a politically-minded upholder of the legal system and then went to the BJP, has made a disgusting comment about the only woman Chief Minister of the country,” said senior party leader Santanu Sen.

Mamata Banerjee, he pointed out, is a seven-time legislator, a former Union minister and a three-time Chief Minister. Now, a remark in such poor taste has been made against her, he said. “Is this Modi’s guarantee that in the interest of politics, women will be accorded no respect?” he added.

“I cannot even repeat the kind of language Ahijit Ganguly used for our Didi. They said ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. But when the same daughter is being disrespected, PM Modi is silent,” said the BJP’s Kirti Azad. “The cases of Unnao, Hathras, Bilkis Bano, are in front of us… This kind of disrespect can only be dished out by the BJP,” said former cricketer and BJP leader Kirti Azad.

In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s taunt for Ms Banerjee was seen as a factor in the Trinamool’s landslide victory in the assembly election. After Congress’s Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha after his allegedly derogatory comment on backward classes, the Trinamool demanded that the Prime Minister also be disqualified over his “derogatory comments” on women.

In December last year, Union minister Giriraj Singh’s “thumka laga rahi hai” comment about Ms Banerjee shaking a leg with celebrities had infuriated Trinamool.

“It’s evident that the BJP leaders find it incredibly hard to fathom a woman in power challenging their authority. Their archaic mindset, steeped in gender biases, is blatantly on display,” the party had posted on social media.

New Delhi:

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate a Ram Mandir-themed Durga Puja Pandal at Santosh Mitra Square in north Kolkata on October 16.

This unique pandal, organized by the Santosh Mitra Square Puja Committee, is modelled after the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Kolkata and inaugurate this Durga Puja pandal.

According to BJP leader Sajal Ghosh, the inauguration ceremony is set to take place at 4 PM in the Santosh Mitra Square Puja. This particular Durga Puja is also known as Sajay Ghosh’s Puja. The theme for this year’s celebration is the Ram Temple, inspired by the ongoing construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The pandal at Santosh Mitra Square has been beautifully decorated.

It’s worth mentioning that Amit Shah previously inaugurated Puja pandals during the 2021 Assembly elections in Kolkata. The BJP itself organized Durga Puja celebrations in Bengal during that time, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually present for the inauguration.

Howrah:

A 25-year-old man who was in judicial custody died in a hospital on Saturday, prompting a group of people in Panchla area of West Bengal’s Howrah district to block a road alleging that he died because of torture.

The police reached the spot and lifted the blockade which caused a traffic snarl in the area.

Somnath Sardar was arrested in his home on August 29 in a case of abducting a minor girl six years ago, police said.

After a complaint was lodged by the girl’s family, he fled from the area. After the police got information that Sardar returned home, he was arrested.

When produced before a court on Wednesday, the man was remanded in judicial custody.

Police said he fell ill in the correctional home on Friday and died on early Saturday in a hospital where he was taken.

After the news of his death reached his village, his family members and locals put up a road blockade in Panchla area claiming that torture in custody was the reason for his death.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)