Pandora's Box - The Darjeeling Chronicle

As per Greek mythology, when Prometheus stole fire from Heaven and brought it to the mortal world, Zesus, the King of Gods angered by this act, decided, in vengeance, to create Pandora, the first mortal female, and presented her as a wife to Epimetheus, who was the brother of Prometheus. The Gods presented her with a box and instructed her never to open it but unable to contain her curiosity, she opened up the forbidden box, unleashing sickness, death and many other evil effects, which the box contained. The Greeks believe that her stupidity is the root cause of all worldly evils. This is the story of the Pandora’s box.

Sukanta Majumdar, the President of the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party, isn’t in anyway a Greek lady nor is anyway related to the Gods (notwithstanding the claims of being a non-biological being by his ultimate Guru), but comparison can be made here with Pandora’s stupidity, when he suggests that North Bengal be attached to DoNER (Department of North East Region).

Yes, I know he clarified his stand saying that he did not mean a division of West Bengal but only the attachment of eight districts of North Bengal to DoNER for the purpose of availing the resources that DoNER would offer. The fact remains that many of his colleagues and others associated with the saffron brigade have time and again suggested that the eight districts of North Bengal, including The Hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, be carved out of West Bengal and made into a separate State or Union territory. Some years back, rumours also suggested that five districts of north Bengal, including Darjeeling and Kalimpong, along with two districts of Bihar and a district of Assam was to be created into a separate administrative unit by the name of Simanchal Pradesh. This suggestion as with the suggestion of a separate North Bengal has received support from fringe groups, both in the Hills as well as the plains.

While whether North Bengal be made into a separate state or UT is least of my concern, what worries me is that the Districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong are being included in this idea of North Bengal. This suggestion has stupidity written all over it. Why would we want to get out of the fire and then dive into a frying pan? We would still burn.

The sole idea of having a separate state for the Hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong is based on the fact that the population, culture, history, traditions, language and almost everything else is different from the rest of West Bengal. Our problems are different, our economy is different, our needs are different, our solutions are different, our mind-sets are different, our ways of life are different. We have always believed that we in the Hills are different to the rest of West Bengal in every possible way and hence we want to have the right to determine our own fate and future by having a separate state. Now these stupid suggestions of the Hills be clubbed with other districts to form a separate state or UT, is not just outright absurd but frankly even giving it a though is a disrespect to the hundreds of martyrs that the statehood agitations have created. What happens to the 117 year long demand of ours? Do those who are supporting this downright disgusting idea realize that none of our martyrs sacrificed their life for a settlement as idiotic as this?

Do the propagators of this bizarre idea realize that the population of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts would still remain a small minority if clubbed together with six other districts of North Bengal where the population is distinctly different than ours? North Bengal has eight districts- Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakhin Dinajpur, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduars out of which we are dominant only in two.