New Delhi: The ministry of dwelling affairs (MHA) has ready a draft framework settlement to deal with the grievances of Tripura’s indigenous communities, TIPRA Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, who dashed to Delhi Wednesday to “hold talks with the Centre”, has mentioned.
Debbarma, the titular head of the erstwhile Manikya dynasty of Tripura, had threatened to take a seat on an indefinite starvation strike from Wednesday towards the “Centre’s delay in finding a constitutional solution” for the state’s tribals. He based TIPRA Motha (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance), which emerged because the state’s principal Opposition occasion within the 2023 meeting election.
However he left the protest web site, positioned practically 40 km away from the state capital Agartala, after a quick handle through which he claimed to have acquired a name from MHA officers inviting him to Delhi for talks. “I am going to Delhi empty stomach and empty-handed, but shall not return empty-handed,” he informed the gathering.
Debbarma Thursday informed ThePrint that whereas he’s tenting in Delhi, he’s but to carry talks with the Centre.
Earlier, Debbarma mentioned he needed to threaten to take the agitation route forward of the Lok Sabha election because the “BJP won’t listen to us after the polls in any case”.
“They (BJP) shared a draft framework agreement with me. The talks are supposed to happen like the Naga peace talks under the 2015 framework agreement. We also sent our response to the MHA after they sent the draft. But since then, there has been no progress. What are they waiting for?” Debbarma requested.
The draft framework, he mentioned, covers a variety of areas like land, cultural, political, and historic rights of Tripura’s indigenous communities. “But, merely preparing a framework is no solution. There have to be separate talks to address all the vexed issues under the framework, be it land pattas for tribals, or a separate script for the Kokborok language, or more reserved seats for them in the state assembly,” Debbarma mentioned.
Debbarma served because the Congress’ working president in Tripura earlier than he stop the occasion in 2019. Within the 2023 polls, TIPRA Motha — with its demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’ being its important ballot plank — gained 13 out of 42 seats it contested within the 60-member state meeting, two greater than the CPI(M)’s 11. The BJP, successful 32 seats, had a majority and shaped the federal government for the second straight time period.
Nonetheless, TIPRA Motha’s conception of ‘Greater Tipraland’ stays obscure. Whereas, initially, most TIPRA Motha leaders mentioned they had been demanding a separate state below Articles 2 and three of the Structure, they’ve additionally hinted they could accept extra autonomy, notably monetary, to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), amongst different concessions.
TIPRA Motha at the moment governs TTAADC.
TIPRA Motha just isn’t the primary political outfit to lift this demand. Native gamers such because the Indigenous Nationalist Occasion of Tripura (INPT) and the Indigenous Folks’s Entrance of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the BJP, have additionally raised this demand. It stems from the social and cultural anxieties triggered by Tripura’s demographic shift within the pre and post-partition years as a consequence of a big inflow of Bengalis from Bangladesh (erstwhile east Pakistan) into the state.
Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl, a former insurgent chief who had signed a peace accord with the Union authorities headed by Rajiv Gandhi in 1988, is at the moment the president of TIPRA Motha. He will even be at Hatai Kotor, or Baramura, the location of Debbarma’s quick.
The timing of the proposed indefinite quick just isn’t misplaced on anybody. However Debbarma brushed apart solutions that he’s making an attempt to pressurise the BJP to clinch a seat-sharing deal forward of the Lok Sabha elections. “I am doing it because they will not listen to us after the Lok Sabha polls. I met the home minister (Amit Shah) at least four months ago. Since then, there has not been any forward movement,” he mentioned.
Final week, Debbarma additionally held talks with the leaders of the Tripura Congress unit, sparking a buzz that he was additionally preserving open the potential of tying up along with his former occasion. Tripura has two Lok Sabha seats, at the moment represented by the BJP, together with one reserved for tribals.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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