Opinion Pradyot Kishore denied audience with Gomati district magistrate; TIPRA Motha and CPM condemn his behaviour

Pradyot was en route to Agartala after an event in South Tripura when he went to T K Chakma’s residence at Udaipur, accompanied by Purna Chandra Jamatia, Chief Executive Member of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which is ruled by Motha.

Pradyot told reporters later that he had been trying to contact Chakma but his phone calls were not picked up.

“I didn’t come for any of my personal work. There were some issues of Ampi and other areas of Gomati district that I wanted to talk to him about. I have been trying to talk to him for one month. If he doesn’t want to meet, what can I say?” he said.

The Gomati district magistrate has not officially commented about the incident.

The Youth Tipra Federation (YTF) said civil servants were expected to cater to the needs of the public 24×7 and that the Gomati district magistrate had failed to live up to this expectation by turning away Pradyot and the TTAADC chairperson.

“We don’t want such a DM in Tripura. We request Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha to dismiss this district magistrate at the earliest,” YTF leader Prashamit Debbarma said.

The tribal youth organisation also said it would launch a statewide movement and stall work in all government offices as a sign of protest unless Chakma is transferred out of Gomati district immediately. It also claimed Pradyot had been trying to contact him for several weeks to take up some issues related to government work but in vain.

Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury of the CPM said in a social media post, “DM, Gomati’s behaviour with two public representatives is not at all acceptable and condemnable. Dereliction of duties as a public servant and sheer arrogance.”

Pradyot Kishore’s appeal

Meanwhile, Pradyot urged everyone to be united and refrain from targeting any community for the action of a single person. “No doubt you might have some anger in your mind that he (Gomati DM) didn’t meet nor talk. That’s a different thing. Many people say something about the Chakma community. I want to tell you something: connecting a person’s action with the entire community will be wrong. That DM could be Bengali, Tiprasa, Debbarma, Jamatia, Hrankhawl, Muslim, Christian or Buddhist. That was his personal action. Please do not associate it with a community. Today when we need to have a united approach, I think that blaming any community or religion will not be good for us,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

Pradyot added that many Chakma people supported him and that he had supported them when they faced racial discrimination in Delhi.

“Whenever something wrong happens, when our people are killed in Bangladesh, I have supported them. A man’s action should not be used to tarnish an entire community. And I want to tell my people: kindly don’t attack the whole community for one mistake of one person. This is my thinking. If you feel that I am showing weakness by saying this, I am not showing weakness. From a king’s family, thought should be big and heart should be big,” he added.

Later, Pradyot expressed concern over illegal immigration and warned that illegal immigrants could decide the election outcome in 2028. “You (people) have heard that the home minister and the Supreme Court said that illegal immigrants don’t have the right to stay in India. I have been saying this for the last 10 years I have also filed an NRC case. The case is still with the Supreme Court. This is very important because today Rohingya and Bangladeshis are not only coming here but they are getting voter IDs and ration cards.”

“These people will decide who will be our MLAs, MPs, and chief minister in 2028. We should not allow this. So, I ask all my MLAs to talk to SDMs, BDOs, and DM in their respective areas to know who are getting ration cards illegally, who are sitting illegally and who are trying to become voters of India illegally. The day when they become voters, they will play with our future, they will play with your children’s future. This is not the time to fight, it is time to unite to stop all these illegal Bangladeshis. We need to save India and Tripura. We need to stop them from getting illegal cards. For this we need to be one,” he added in the Facebook video.

BJP cautious

BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee has responded cautiously to the incident involving the royal scion-turned-politician and the Gomati district magistrate.

“I was out of station. They (Motha) are our alliance partners. We will enquire about what happened and I will try to know what happened and what didn’t happen,” he said.

The Congress also criticised the district magistrate. “Pradyot Kishore and others went to meet Gomati DM yesterday. They weren’t even extended the courtesy of being asked to sit and a security guard on duty informed them that the DM wouldn’t meet them… Political representatives often have to meet the DM since he runs the district administration. A DM must be willing to receive telephone calls or meet people. Anyone–ministers, MLAs, or common people–can go and meet him… He could have called Pradyot Kishore Manikya back over the phone…but he didn’t… We condemn it and ask the CM to take immediate action,” Congress veteran Birajit Sinha told reporters.

Journalists allege threat

Also on Monday, YTF activists had a heated exchange of words with reporters who were covering the TIPRA Motha youth association’s press briefing in Udaipur. The journalists said they were called “Bangladeshis” and threatened.

“They wanted us to call him (Pradyot Kishore) Maharaj. We journalists never use any additional appendage before anyone’s name while reporting. Personal relationships are a different matter. But we were assaulted just because we did our job of questioning,” one of the reporters said, adding that the journalists had complained to the Gomati additional superintendent of police about the incident.

The ASP confirmed the complaint and said action would be taken as per law.