How BJP plans to win north Bengal with the help of Dalit, tribal votes
About three years ago, a school with just one teacher run by Vanabandhu Parishad started in a nondescript Shiva temple at Hatipota on the banks of the Jayanti river in the buffer zone of Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal.
The informal school called ‘Ekal Vidyalaya’ imparted free tuition to tribal children of staterun primary schools. A committee was formed with the guardians to discuss village development and create awareness about government schemes. Villagers were trained to produce organic fertiliser and grow vegetables. Shree Hari Satsanga Samiti, an RSS-inspired NGO, established a ‘Sanskar Kendra’ to organise religious events and impart ‘nationalistic moral teachings’.
Now, such schools-centric village-development activities are taking place in 60 villages Kumargram block alone. In the whole of Alipurduar district, there are 210 schools, nearly 100 of which were opened during the past two years.
As the panchayat polls draw near, BJP looks all set to reap benefits of the ground work done by the RSS-inspired organisations.
Significantly, comprising 54 of the state’s 294 assembly seats (8 of 42 Lok Sabha seats), north Bengal is the only zone beyond the steamroller of Trinamool Congress’s dominance. This is the region that gave the opposition 30 of their 54 assembly seats. In north Bengal BJP was able to field candidates in more than 90% of the seats in the panchayat polls, though overall in Bengal, the ruling party ensured 34.2% of the seats had only their candidates.
“There were 120 Ekal Vidyalayas in Cooch Behar in 2013. There are 270 now. In Darjeeling district, 100 schools will be added by October to the 186 we have now. In North Dinajpur, 30 schools in 2015 have grown to 270 now,” said Rahul Deb Barman, office secretary of Vanabandhu Parishad, Alipurduar.
Shree Hari Satsang Samiti and Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, too, are active in the tribal-dominated pockets running pre-primary informal schools and hostels for tribal students and secondary and higher secondary schools and holding social events as mass marriage. In areas dominated by Scheduled Castes, organisers of RSS’ ‘jagran wing’ hold meetings with members of various dalit communities. RSS’ dalit wing, Samajik Samrasta Manch, is also active. Arogya Bharati, RSS’ health wing, conducts free medical camps in tribal and Dalit areas. In April 2018, RSS organisers in Malda district, where Muslims, SCs, STs comprise 51%, 21% and 8% of the population, held meetings with members of cobbler and barber communities. “Our focus in north Bengal is set on the dalit and tribal population. The idea is to create a sense of oneness among all sects and castes of Hindu society,” said Tarun Kumar Pandit, spokesperson of RSS’ north Bengal unit.
Pandit said RSS’s daily shakhas have more than doubled in Muslim-majority districts of Malda and Uttar Dinajpur since 2015. “BJP has always benefitted from RSS’ work. All over India, tribal belts now have our MPs and MLAs. North Bengal will be no exception,” said BJP Bengal president Dilip Ghosh, who was a RSS pracharak.
ALIPURDUAR:
WHAT HAPPENED
In a span of two weeks, the two South Asian countries and bitter rivals had tested nuclear devices. In the case of Pakistan, the US was willing to offer many sops, which included lifting sanctions that had been clamped for its pursuit of nuclear weapons; that would have led to larger economic assistance and a more profitable military relationship. In 1985, the US Congress adopted an amendment proposed by senator Larry Pressler to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, banning economic and military assistance to Pakistan unless the US President could certify annually that Islamabad did not possess a nuclear weapon and that US aid would help reduce the risk of Pakistan possessing one. As expected, international condemnation followed the tests, with the United Nations Security Council passing a resolution against them; pressure mounted on both India and Pakistan to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . US sanctions kicked in. But Pakistan had been the most trusted ally of the US in South Asia for long. 9/11 was a watershed for Pakistan too. As he prepared for the war against terror, exercising the authority vested on him by the US Congress in 1999, on September 22, 2001 President George W Bush lifted sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan for their 1998 nuclear tests.