This story is from March 31, 2019

Identity politics to steer poll battle in Alipurduar’s tea belt

Identity politics to steer poll battle in Alipurduar’s tea belt
Alipurduar: A potholed road leads to the Hantapara tea garden, nearly 60km from Alipurduar town. This once-profitable garden now wears a shabby look. Most workers have migrated to southern states while those who are yet to move out work as labourers breaking stones by the roadside.
This is the story of several tea gardens and its employees in Alipurduar — the gateway to Bhutan along the Sankosh river.

“Workers want a minim-um wage of Rs 250 a day. But that has never been paid heed to,” said Manoj Tigga, BJP MLA from Madarihat. “Workers in gardens like Birpara, Bandapani and Dheklapara have been pushed to live in sub-human conditions.”
Getting a job in the tea gardens is no longer an option for the youth here who have started looking beyond the estates and their closed lives. The Left trade unions that once held the key to Alipurduar politics have lost their clout as the “melting pot” of garden workers makes way for identity politics.
The Adivasis are divided — Ravas, Mechs, Limbus and Totos associate themselves more with Gorkhas and consider themselves part of “extended Gorkhaland” while those from Chhota Nagpur Plateau (Oraons, Tiggas and the Tirkeys) are attached to the plains and the Rajbanshis.
BJP/RSS has been working among the Banabashi/Adivasi for long and have brought many of them into the Hinduism fold. For tourists on the way to the Dooars, Ravas sporting tilaks on their forehead and their wives wearing sindoor is now a common sight. The increasing Hindu influence on the Adivasis (worshippers of pagan gods) is also evident from the number of temples on the way to the Dooars.

Alipurduar also has a co-nsiderable Bengali-speaki-ng population from East Pakistan. Along with them are Bengali families from Ass-am forced to settle in the neighbouring district in Bengal. But there has been a flow of migrants from Banglade-sh (Hindus and Muslims), who have settled along the railway tracks from Hasimara to Alipurduar junction.
BJP chief Amit Shah wants to bind the Adivasis, the Gorkhas and Hindu refugees together under the NRC umbrella in a bid to isolate the Muslim “infiltrators”. The Bengali middle class in Alipurduar town stands divided. Some are alarmed over the infiltration, though they have nothing against the old Muslim settlers.
“In fact, the name Alipurduar comes from the Alis, who used to reside along the Sankosh river in the early 19th century,” said retired government office and researcher Pramod Nath.
There is another section that is alarmed at the growing population of Gorkhas in the foothills. Trinamool is eyeing the Adivasis, who came to work in tea gardens from Chhota Nagpur, as well as large sections of the Bengali-speaking population.
In the 2014 polls, BJP was a close runner-up, securing 27.3% votes while TMC’s Dasrath Tirkey got 29.46%. In the 2016 assembly polls, BJP did even better in constituencies like Madarihat, Kalchini and Nagrakata.
BJP’s John Barla banks on Gorkhas, who comprise almost 19% of the district’s population, tribes of mongoloid origin — Ravas, Mech, Limbus — and Hindu refugees. Barla, a former leader of Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad, built bridges with GJM leader Bimal Gurung long ago. RSP candidate Mili Oraon, on the other hand, is likely to dent TMC Adivasi bases led by TMC candidate Dasrath Tirkey.
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