Vidarbha, Saurashtra, Gorkhaland, Bodoland, Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh, Mithila are some other regions where agitation for separate statehood is going on, only the intensity varies from place to place.

The situation in Gorkhaland and Bodoland is particularly alarming. There is a virtual siege of Darjeeling Hills and after the recent clashes between the native of Bodo tribes and alleged Bangladeshi migrants, the situation is very volatile in Assam too. These are popular movements and the government can defer the inevitable for sometime but these overwhelming popular demands cannot be avoided perpetually. The government should learn from earlier mistakes and act decisively so that no more damage is done.

Mayawati is not averse to extending statehood to Bundelkhand and has challenged Dr Manmohan Singh to take initiative in that regard. But Congress is yet not ready to shed its formula politics and has not responded in that direction till now. During the ’India Today Conclave’, there was an extensive discussion about the benefits of smaller states. The chief ministers of smaller states agreed that it was easier for them to manage their states as they know even their district magistrates and superintendents of police by name. Monitoring of developmental initiatives would become easy and there are several other benefits too. But Mulayam Singh fiercely opposed the idea and he was not alone in doing so.

Mithila is more closely aligned with Bengal than Bihar, yet it was aligned with Bihar. Magadh was also not considered for a separate statehood and was attached to Bihar. Bhojpuri is the language of around 15 crore people yet there is no separate state for them. Half of them are in Bihar and half in Uttar Pradesh. These three regions, Mithila, Magadh and Bhojpur were clubbed together and the state of Bihar emerged. All these regions have their very own ancient languages yet they were considered ’Hindi’ speaking regions and a disjointed state of Bihar was born. But during these years, the regions accepted ’Hindi’ at the cost of their own languages and never made that an issue. They accepted Hindi with such vigour that it is hard to believe for an outsider that these regions have their own language like Tamil, Marathi and Bengali.

Our politicians should seriously think about popular movements objectively. There is nothing illegal about any movement for the creation of new states as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution. The agitation becomes violent when people are convinced that their peaceful movement would yield no result.

Those regions, which are lagging behind should be given the opportunity to decide their fate. This measure would give an impetus to the developmental activities in these regions. Will the government raise above petty politics and make development its main agenda? If that is so, then some decisive steps need to be taken without any further delay.