Front split on ‘integrity’

Calcutta, June 15: The chief minister wants Tuesday’s all-party meeting to adopt a resolution opposing any move to split Bengal while creating room for talks on the “democratic aspirations of the hill people”.

The Congress and Left Front partner RSP support Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s move to include the resolve to “protect the state’s integrity” in the resolution.

But the CPI and the Forward Bloc fear such a resolve will make the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha more rigid.

The core committee of the cabinet will meet tomorrow to decide the contours of the resolution to be moved by the chief minister on Tuesday, keeping in mind the political compulsions of various parties.

The issue had figured in yesterday’s front meeting, where the CPI’s Nandagopal Bhattacharya sparred with the chief minister, saying the “state’s integrity” as a pre-condition for the talks would vitiate the atmosphere.

Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh had sought a “more congenial resolution acceptable to all”.

But the allies found the chief minister firm. “Do you want a division of the state when there are demands for Greater Cooch Behar and Kamtapur states and the inclusion of three districts in Jharkhand?” a front leader quoted him as telling the CPI veteran.

The arguments reflect the CPI and the CPM’s differences — the former supports the demand for a separate Telengana and Vidarbha while the CPM is opposed to the creation of smaller states.

RSP leader Kshiti Goswami, who has of late been a bitter critic of the CPM, sided with Bhattacharjee. “We have to make it clear that we are opposed to the division of the state,” he said.

Sources said the chief minister and the CPM want to stress the “state’s integrity to make “the Congress, BJP and the SUCI committed to it and pre-empt an attack on the Left in case the situation goes out of hand in an election year”.

“Mamata Banerjee will be politically more isolated if we can carry the Congress and the BJP with us,” said a CPM state secretariat member.

Congress spokesman Subrata Mukherjee said: “We will support the resolution if it is restricted to opposition to the state’s split and an appeal for amity between the hills and the plains.”

The BJP was non-committal. “We are not saying anything supporting or opposing the statehood demand. We’ll consider the resolution if a consensus emerges,” state secretary Rahul Sinha said.

Sources said the resolution will condemn the “bandhs and counter-bandhs” in the hills and the plains.

Sources said it was not clear how the chief minister will articulate his assurance to keep “his doors open for talks on more financial and adminsitrative autonomy” for the hills. “But he’d like it to be part of the resolution.”