We didn’t fight for this: Veteran communist

KOLKATA: The CPM may have been in favour of Paschimbanga but veteran communists who fought against the proposed merger of the state with Bihar in 1956, claimed that they had taken up the cause of Bangla. The anti-merger movement was spearheaded by then MP Mohit Maitra and several communist leaders, including Saroj Mukherjee and Jatin Chakraborty, were jailed.
“It is a strange understanding that has been reached between the Trinamool Congress and the CPM over the renaming of the state.Can such a ridiculous decision be taken simply because a majority of people’s representatives were in favour of Paschimbanga? Next you will get to hear that a man has been hanged as the representatives deemed it fit. I was 16 years old when I joined the anti-merger movement. Our slogan was: Bangla-Bihar ek kora cholbe na (We won’t allow the merger of Bengal and Bihar). There was no mention of anything like Paschimbanga. In my opinion, the Trinamool and CPM have shared a trophy while the state has lost,” said veteran communist Dilip Mukherjee.
He was sent to jail along with Saroj Mukherjee, Chakraborty, Jyotish Joardar and others. “Even Congress students’ wing at Calcutta University, led by Parimal Mukherjee, had backed us. Everybody was then in favour of Bangla. I don’t know where Paschimbanga fits into the picture,” Mukherjee said. The States Reorganisation Act came into being in 1956 and a proposal was made to merge the state of Bihar and West Bengal.
The movement started after then chief minister B C Roy and his Bihar counterpart Krishna Sinha issued a joint statement, advocating the merger. Jyoti Basu later wrote in his memoirs how leaders like Ranen Sen and others had been in favour of reorganization of states on the basis of language. “No wonder, we were fighting for Bangla and not Paschimbanga or West Bengal. Even B C Roy wasn’t in favour of the merger,” Mukherjee said.