New Delhi: The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has prepared a draft framework agreement to address 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 said.
Debbarma, the titular head of the erstwhile Manikya dynasty of Tripura, had threatened to sit on an indefinite hunger strike from Wednesday against the “Centre’s delay in finding a constitutional solution” for the state’s tribals. He founded TIPRA Motha (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance), which emerged as the state’s principal Opposition party in the 2023 assembly election.
But he left the protest site, located nearly 40 km away from the state capital Agartala, after a brief address in which he claimed to have received a call from MHA officials inviting him to Delhi for talks. “I am going to Delhi empty stomach and empty-handed, but shall not return empty-handed,” he told the gathering.
Debbarma Thursday told ThePrint that while he is camping in Delhi, he is yet to hold talks with the Centre.
Earlier, Debbarma said he had to threaten to take the agitation route ahead of the Lok Sabha election as 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 asked.
The draft framework, he said, covers a range of areas like land, cultural, political, and historical 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 said.
Debbarma served as the Congress’ working president in Tripura before he quit the party in 2019. In the 2023 polls, TIPRA Motha — with its demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’ being its main poll plank — won 13 out of 42 seats it contested in the 60-member state assembly, two more than the CPI(M)’s 11. The BJP, winning 32 seats, had a majority and formed the government for the second straight term.
However, TIPRA Motha’s conception of ‘Greater Tipraland’ remains vague. While, initially, most TIPRA Motha leaders said they were demanding a separate state under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, they have also hinted they might settle for more autonomy, particularly financial, to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), among other concessions.
TIPRA Motha currently governs TTAADC.
TIPRA Motha is not the first political outfit to raise this demand. Local players such as the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the BJP, have also raised this demand. It stems from the social and cultural anxieties triggered by Tripura’s demographic shift in the pre and post-partition years due to a large influx of Bengalis from Bangladesh (erstwhile east Pakistan) into the state.
Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl, a former rebel leader who had signed a peace accord with the Union government headed by Rajiv Gandhi in 1988, is currently the president of TIPRA Motha. He will also be at Hatai Kotor, or Baramura, the site of Debbarma’s fast.
The timing of the proposed indefinite fast is not lost on anyone. But Debbarma brushed aside suggestions that he is trying to pressurise the BJP to clinch a seat-sharing deal ahead 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 said.
Last week, Debbarma also held talks with the leaders of the Tripura Congress unit, sparking a buzz that he was also keeping open the possibility of tying up with his former party. Tripura has two Lok Sabha seats, currently represented by the BJP, including one reserved for tribals.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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