The Anti-Merger Agitation

I will discuss at length the plot by the then chief ministers of West Bengal and Bihar, Dr B. C. Roy and Shree Krishna Sinha, respectively to usurp the identity of Bengal and how the people of West Bengal rose against t against the merger plan. Dr Meghnad Saha, lawyer Atul Gupta and many other nationalists were with us.

An anti-merger committee was set up with Mohit Maitra as its convenor. The two chief ministers issued a joint statement on January 23, 1956, proposing the merger and attested the documents. We were told that they even named the proposed state as "Purba Pradesh". Prime Minister Nehru also supported this and said that the two chief ministers had set an example for the country!.

On January 24, the Politburo issued a statement saying that such indiscriminate merger proposals would only accentuate differences and create disunity. Our party unit in West Bengal discussed the issue at length and unanimously decided to fight the proposal.

On June 26, I held a joint press conference with Jogindra Sharma, secretary of the Bihar unit of the party, where the merger proposal was described as "exremely reactionary, confusing and anti- democratic". On the same day, I presided over a rally against the proposal at Wellington Square. Some of the speakers were Mohit Maitra, Jatin Chakraborty, Sunil Das and Satyapriya Banerjee. The then leader of Bolshevik Party, Barada Mukutmoni, also spoke.

On January 31, the Opposition stated a walkout in the Assembly and on February 2, over two lakhs students organised a successful strike against the merger proposal. On February 5, the Provincial Committee of the Bihar Communist Party issued a statement which said the national unity would be at stake. Before this, I had said that the Congress working committee’s proposal was totally opportunistic and did not have any fragment of natural justice.

It was only to negate West Bengal’s justified demands that the commission recommendation to ensure a division on the basis of language was ignored. The Congress government had only increased the sense of deprivation of Bengalis by keeping out large Bengali speaking areas of Purulia from outside Bengal. I called on the people to launch a sustained attack on such policies.

The joint statement issued by Sharma and myself detailed our anti-merger stand. It said that this merger would not only harm national unity but divide the Biharis and Bengalis everywhere. It was also important to realise that Bihar, which was less developed than Bengal, would become an easy hunting ground for big businessmen of Calcutta. At the same time ,reactionary forces of Bihar would try and destroy the already established Left labour forces in Bengal. There would be a tremendous rivalry between the Bengalis and Biharis and the tenet of natural justice would be given the go-by. While the rest of the country was moving towards the setting up of states on the basis of language, this merger would be a step backward. It would be a throwback on the state of affairs during the Raj regime.

The economic reasons cited against the merger said that Congress leaders of these two states were always against any development. Our statement also said that the British imperialists had made out an almost similar case while trying to divide the people. I have spelt out the almost the entire statement because of its enormous significance; while the Congress was trying to spread the seeds of communalism nationwide, it was significant that the Communists of two states tried their best to maintain national unity and integrity.

On January 14, the committee set up to go into the re-organisation of states with Mohit Kumar Moitra as its secretary and members like myself, Makhan Pal (RSP), Sunil Das (PSP), Barada Mukutmoni (Bolshevik Party), Nihar Mukherjee (SUC), Hemanta Bose (Forward Bloc), Satyapriya Banerjee (Forward Bloc-Marxist), Baren Daw (Councillor, Calcutta Corporation), Pramode Sinha Roy (CL) and Jyotish Jowardar (SP) issued a statement at the end of a special meeting which said, "This is a case of total injustice and treachery by the Congress. This is emerging as a major challenge in front of the people of West Bengal. The people will give a befitting reply." We called upon the people to take part in a protest programme on January 21, 1956.

On February 14, while taking part in the debate on the Governor’s address in the Assembly, I said that there had been no primary and major changes in the country during the First Five Year Plan period. Farmers, labourers and middleclass salaried people continued to suffer. Since the merger issue was not mentioned in the Governor’s address, I said, "Is the Governor trying to ignore this critical life and death question of Bengal or is he against the merger..? I also said_and there are Assembly records to crosscheck _ that it was West Bengal’s good fortune and Dr Roy’s bad luck that the people of the people of the state were still alive with a sense of trust and courage. The Congress had given the go-by to the aspirations of the people nurtured for the last 50 years. The anti-merger agitation spread like wildfire not only in West Bengal but some other states too. It was certainly taking the shape of a national movement.

During the middle of all this, there was shocking news from Delhi that Dr Meghnad Saha had died of a heart attack. Dr Saha had been elected the Calcutta North-West Lok Sabha constituency as an Independent candidate with the support of Left parties. He was fiercely against the merger and played an active role in the agitation.

I clearly made out a case alongwith the PSP’s legislator Sudhir Roy Chowdhury in the Assembly on March 17 that the chief minister was gambling dangerously with the fate of West Bengal. The next day around 50000 people assembled at a massive rally at the Maidan and pledged that the merger would be resisted at all costs. This rally was presided over by veteran revolutionary leader and legislator Jyotish Ghosh. It was made clear in the proposal moved by Mohit Maitra that the agitation was not aimed against the people of any state but the policies and plot of the government to divide the people of the two states. We also advocated the cause of reorganisationb of states on the basis of language.

I said "It’s a happy day for us. Under pressure from the people, the chief minister has been forced to say in the floor of the Assembly that the merger issue will not be moved during the current session."

I also announced that the chief minister had issued a challenge to us in the byelections which had been necessiated by DrSaha's death. I added that we had accepted the challenge.

In the meantime, a decision was taken to stage dharnas outside various courts and collect signatures of 15 lakh people in favour of the movement by March 23. We issued an ultimatum that if the government did not relent, then there would be no stopping us, but Dr Roy remained stubborn. This, however, only served to fuel the agitation.

That the Congress and its government were slowly moving away from the people was evident from the result of another byelection. The Left supported PSP candidate Lal Bihari Das won by over 20,000 votes against the Congress nominee Bhikari Mondal from Midnapur’s Khejuri seat. The by election has been necessiated by the death of Congress member Kaustavkanti Karal. This meant that the Left had wrested a seat from the Congress with a huge margin.

On April 30, speakers at a rally held to felicitate the movement leaders at Wellington Square said that the Khejuri byelection result had calegorically proved that the merger proposal had been rejected by the people of West Bengal.