Popular legend has it that the rulers of Cooch Behar and Rangpur used small parcels of land as stakes in Pasha games.
But root of the problem can be tracked to the dogged resistance put up by the king of Cooch Behar against Mughal attacks in the 18{+t}{+h} century. The war ended inconclusively in 1713 with both sides occupying adverse territories, now regarded as enclaves. During Partition, Rangpur went to East Pakistan. The princely state of Cooch Behar, ruled by the Koch dynasty, acceded to India in August 1949, to become a district of West Bengal. The enclaves were also divided accordingly.
Three international accords in 1958, 1974 and 1992 couldn’t be implemented. The story was almost repeated after the erstwhile UPA Government neared a Land Boundary Agreement with the Bangladesh Government in 2011. The BJP and the Trinamool Congress put up stiff resistance against the pact. The BJP felt it would cost them some Hindu votes in the Barak Valley in Assam. Mamata claimed it would result in a net loss of land for West Bengal.
Finally, in 2013, the UPA Government placed a Constitutional amendment to redraw the territorial boundaries. But the BJP claimed that changing territorial limits violated a 1973 Supreme Court order that barred amendments, and said it was tantamount to changing the basic structure of the Constitution.
But the BJP has changed its stance since coming to power this year. On June 25, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj went to Dhaka on her first overseas mission, to convey India’s commitment to ratify the treaty.
The Trinamool Congress also saw futility in opposing the move, which will inflate the voter list of Cooch Behar by 14,000 people.
The draft Bill was supported unanimously in the Parliamentary standing committee and was recommended for submission. Once cleared by the Rajya Sabha, it will easily be passed in the Lok Sabha.