File picture of student leader Biswajit Ray being dragged away by policemen during a July rally in Guwahati

New Delhi, Dec. 4: Fighting for Scheduled Tribe status since 1967, the Koch Rajbongshis of Assam have offered Delhi a tougher alternative — statehood for a swathe of areas inhabited by the indigenous community.

Biswajit Ray, president of the All Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to serve an “ultimatum”. He told Singh that Delhi should either take up the issue of granting ST status to the indigenous community during the ongoing session of Parliament or be prepared for an “armed struggle” for statehood.

The memorandum to the Prime Minister states that the student union will be “constrained to choose its own path and means” for the fulfilment of its demand. Singh had received a similar memorandum from the organisation during his visit to Assam in January.

In August, the Greater Coochbehar People’s Association (GCPA) — an organisation of Koch Rajbongshis of Cooch Behar — staged a rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to press for statehood. The organisation has been demanding a “greater Coochbehar” with constitutional recognition as a “C” category state.

Ray said community members in Assam were not averse to joining hands with those in North Bengal to pursue a common goal. “We are now thinking of coming under a single umbrella with our brothers in North Bengal and fight together. We are talking with them (the GCPA).”

The student leader warned that Delhi’s indifference could provoke Koch Rajbongshi students to pick up the gun and go the way of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, which triggered the November 20 train blast at Belakoba that killed seven people.

The Koch Rajbongshis of Assam believe that they would have got ST status and the benefits that come with it had the Union tribal affairs ministry not rejected an official recommendation in the mid-nineties.

The Prime Minister was quoted as telling Ray and his colleagues that their memorandum would be sent to the tribal affairs ministry for a reappraisal of the demand.

The GCPA has been claiming parts of Cooch Behar district, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, North and South Dinajpur and undivided Goalpara district of Assam as the territory of a “greater Coochbehar”. The organisation says that the erstwhile kingdom of Cooch Behar was illegally merged with the Union during the reign of Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur.