Tripura’s ruling tribal ally welcomes MHA committee on indigenous people, says panel would favour ‘Tipraland’

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has denied demand of ‘Tipraland’ so far and said the party wouldn’t support a separate state. Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said, his party wouldn't support division of Tripura.

‘Tipraland’ is a proposed separate state with indigenous communities in Tripura demanded by IPFT.

Tripura’s ruling ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) Saturday welcomed a high-level committee formed by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to look into social, economic, cultural and linguistic issues of the indigenous population in the state. The party said the committee would help to fulfil the party’s demand for ‘Tipraland’.

‘Tipraland’ is a proposed separate state with indigenous communities in Tripura demanded by IPFT. The party was floated in the late 1990s with the demand of greater tribal autonomy. It later suffered splits and resurfaced under NC Debbarma in 2009 with the demand of a separate state.

“We welcome this committee and thank the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). This has been our long-standing demand. Though ‘Tipraland’ is not formally included in the ambit of the committee, it will eventually go towards fulfilling statehood agenda”, said IPFT spokesperson and Assistant General Secretary Mangal Debbarma in a press conference.

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The thirteen-member high-level Committee formed by MHA was announced on September 27 with nine members on board including Special Secretary of Internal Security, MHA, Joint Secretary (NE), MHA, Joint Secretary of Tribal Affairs ministry, MHRD, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Advisor of NITI Ayog, Joint Secretaries of Ministry of Skill Development, Ministry of DoNER.

Three other members in the committee would be inducted from representatives delegated by the state government. The committee would submit its report within 60 days.

Asked why the committee didn’t have any representative of IPFT on board, the party spokesperson said the issue would be discussed at the next State Executive Committee meeting on September 30.

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has denied demand of ‘Tipraland’ so far and said the party wouldn’t support a separate state. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said, his party wouldn’t support division of Tripura. IPFT leaders have, however, said statehood is their main agenda and they wouldn’t budge from the demand.

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Reacting to IPFT’s statements, BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb said, “Our agenda is EK Tripura, Srestha Tripura. The state government is also working in that direction. The central government promised ahead of the Assembly election to conduct a study on socio-economic, cultural aspects of the indigenous communities. We thank the central government for keeping their promise. We are hopeful that the long standing problems of indigenous communities in Tripura will be solved”.

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