RSP against Special Status

Left Front ally RSP today said greater autonomy to the Darjeeling hills under the Sixth Schedule of Constitution may fuel the movement for separate states not only the hills but also in other parts of north Bengal.

Veteran RSP leader and PWD minister Kshiti Goswami today told reporters after the conclusion of the party’s state conference that both the Centre and the Bengal government should consult constitutional experts before amending the Sixth Schedule to implement the agreement with the hill council chairman, Subash Ghisingh.

“We have to see that the greater autonomy does not pave the way for division of Bengal, especially since some groups are again demanding separate statehood for the hills,’’ said Goswami.

“The Sixth Schedule was meant for safeguarding the rights and autonomy of tribals. But its extension to a language group in the hills has made tribal and other ethnic groups like the Rajbangshis (in Cooch Behar) restive,’’ he warned.

The RSP conference endorsed the leadership’s stringent criticism of the “CPM policy of wooing capitalists in the name of industrialisation”.

“We will continue to fight the CPM’s opportunist and reformist policies as they are out to develop capitalism in Bengal. The Congress did it for decades but could not provide jobs to the unemployed,’’ the party’s re-elected state secretary Debabrata Banerjee said.

Though the party has not decided to leave the Left Front right now, Banerjee said: “We have to confront the question of how long we can continue in the Front in view of the CPM’s authoritarian and one-party rule.’