TIPRA Motha’s Pradyot Kishore urges non-partisan support to his fast ‘for tribals’ future’

The protest venue will be at Sadhupara in Baramura Hills in the West Tripura district, 30 km from Agartala. The party has also announced that it will block National Highway 8 as part of the protest.

Pradyot said he was called to New Delhi by senior officials of the home ministry after he announced his fast-unto-death scheduled to be held at Hatai Kotor, which is the rechristened official name of the Baramura Hills range in the indigenous Kokborok language.

However, he did not reveal details of what transpired in the meetings in New Delhi. He later met Tribal Welfare (TRP and PTG) Minister Shukla Charan Noatia and sought his support to the fast. He also met Swapan Debbarma, general secretary of the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), at the minister’s residence.

Pradyot later said his protest would be non-partisan in nature. “There will be no flag of any political party in the fast-unto-death at Hatai Kotor. It will have no political colour, but only people’s emotions. This is a fight of the Tiprasa (Tripuri tribals) and not of any political party,” the royal scion-turned-politician said in a video message posted on social media.

Greater Tipraland demand

Pradyot recently said that issues such as land, economic and political rights promised to tribals before the 2023 Assembly elections were not fulfilled by the state government, adding that he was ready to engage with the government to expedite the solutions.

His protest comes as a result of the frustration over unfulfilled expectations and a series of inconclusive discussions over the demands such as Greater Tipraland and direct central funding for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, where his party is in power.

TIPRA Motha, which was floated in 2021, has grounded its political discourse on ethnic identity and claims tribals were deprived by successive governments since the erstwhile princely state merged with the Indian Union in 1949. The party swept the tribal council polls two months after it was floated and has now emerged as the principal Opposition party with 13 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly.

Motha’s core demand of Greater Tipraland started off as a call for separate state spanning the tribal council areas, areas outside it, parts of Assam and Mizoram where Tripuri tribals reside in large numbers, and parts of neighbouring Bangladesh. However, it underwent several changes in the past three years.

The party also demands that the 125th constitutional amendment Bill pending in Parliament, which allows direct funding from the central government to the Tripura tribal council, be passed.

Hatai Kotor and protests

Pradyot inspected the protest venue at Hatai Kotor on Tuesday. It had witnessed a series of popular agitations, including a naked protest in 2017 by the IPFT, now the BJP’s ruling partner, over the demand for Tipraland.

While different frontal organisations of the TIPRA Motha will join the protest, the Twipra Students’ Federation, one of the oldest surviving tribal students bodies in the state, has offered support to the Motha founder’s fast.