BJP candidate of Mandai Tarit Deb Barma is seen here being photographed. His coach for elections Kiran Pal Singh is sent by BJP from Delhi. Singh in blue kurta can be seen in the background.
On the afternoon of February 11, Tarit Deb Barman, a BJP candidate of West Tripura’s Mandai constituency was driving around in a convoy of SUVs in a village called Raktia. About twenty five men and women, old and young, were brought from the nearby villages by the BJP workers to attend Deb Barma’s Patha Sabha (street-corner meeting). After speaking to me and my companion, an ace local journalist Vishnu Debnath, Deb Barma drove off deeper into his constituency Mandai.
A middle aged man watched the convoy disappear in the hills. He is Gautam Rupini, a trader. He said that the BJP will not get many votes from the Mandai constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). Mr Rupini explained that the people in autonomous tribal areas are worried about the Citizenship Act (2019). “No one will talk about it openly because people have obligations. Like my brother works in the Central Government. But that has not reduced his anxiety,” he said.
The concern about the 2019 Act in the North East in general and Tripura in particular is historical and complex. At the core of this story – how the indigenous communities of Tripura slowly became a minority – is a deep fear of defeat in the number game.
While indigenous people constituted over 50 percent of the population in the 1901 census in Tripura, today only one-third (30 percent) of the population are from the community. That is, they are a minority which was the main cause of militancy in Tripura in the 1990s. The sentiment behind that 1990s movement to expel ‘Bengali immigrant-settlers’ seems to have returned to the tribal areas of Tripura bordering the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), a social organisation turned political party in 2021, gave a call for a separate homeland – Tipraland – for the Tripuris, indigenous population, STs and general category residents to stop further loss of tribal land.
Radhacharan Deb Barma, CPI(M) Candidate
The main reason for this separate homeland call – politicians believe – is the passing of Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 or CAA. CPIM’s long-time tribal leader, former chief executive member of the tribal council and Mandai constituency candidate Radhacharan Deb Barma said, “more than how reasonable or unreasonable the demand of TIPRA is, the point is BJP has managed to bring back the old fear of further loss of land.”
Precisely this fear had triggered both militant movements in the past and steered mainstream indigenous political parties to contest the polls in Tripura.
The Tripura Tribal Youth Association was formed in the 1970s, as the number of Bengali refugees multiplied. Since then, almost in every decade, new indigenous parties have emerged in Tripura. They win seats by contesting elections independently and then merge with major non-tribal mainstream parties. Usually, within half a decade of coming to power in alliance with non-tribal parties, the tribal parties fade away and a new front emerges, like BJP’s 2018 ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) is now fading to make space for TIPRA. This phenomenon occurs in many hill areas and underscores a cardinal truth about the politics in tribal areas. It indicates people’s sentiment to protect identity and land remains in place for decades but the parties – which are often purchased – are replaced depending on the depth of their commitment to the cause.
In 2023 the commitment was delivered by TIPRA, led by Tripura’s royal family chief Maharaja Pradyut Deb Barman. Tipra Motha Party (TMP) was floated was floated earlier in 2021.
All the election posters of Tipra Motha are of Pradyut Deb Barman
Tipra Motha’s rise changed equations
The pressure that TMP’s rapid rise has put on the BJP on the one hand and the Left Front on the other, is evident from their respective poll promises. The BJP has practically accepted the TMP promise to form or at least move a few steps forward to form Greater Tipraland for the indigenous population. BJP promised in its manifesto: ‘Within the framework of the proposed 125th Constitutional Amendment Bill, we will restructure the TTAADC (Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council) to provide greater autonomy and additional legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers.’
Radhacharan Deb Barma said that the power given to the Autonomous Tribal Council is bereft of necessary constitutional reforms. Moreover, it is limited and partly ‘worn out’. Therefore the Left Front made its own promises. In a wall poster distributed in the tribal areas, the Left Front writes, “In the 125th Constitution Amendment Bill, there will be a strong fight for the supreme power of the Constitution for tribals’ land, language, economic-socio-cultural and public life of the tribals.” There is considerable doubt as to whether mainstream political parties in Tripura would have expressed their desire to reform the constitution and empower the Autonomous Council without TMP’s rise. This is the first major success of TMP weeks before the poll.
Jitendra Chowdhury, the state secretary of the CPI(M) party in Tripura, said that there is no major difference between the Left and the TMP on the fundamental issues. “We have a difference of opinion on only one issue. That is, we do not support their demand for the creation of a new region or (state) division of Greater Tipraland. There is no difference of opinion with them on other issues, including social, development, employment related demands.”
However, the politics of Tripura like everywhere is connected to its history. Thus if any promises are made to the indigenous people of the land, it will be discussed threadbare among the non-tribals in the plains, especially the Bengalis. The promise has raised an eyebrow or too in the plains.
Various aspects of Bengali-tribal politics in elections
BJP focussed on traditional Tripuri-Bengali divide in the polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have tried to address the sentiment of the Bengalis in the plains during their campaigns. The Prime Minister said, without naming TMP, that it was backing the Left Front-Congress alliance. Shah went a step further to say, “Congress and CPI(M) have done nothing for tribals. And now to get the votes of the tribals, an Adivasi has been put forward as a chief ministerial contender.” He was referring to the CPI(M) secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, a tribal leader. Tripura’s first and only indigenous chief minister was Dasarath Deb Barma, a legendary tribal-peasant front leader of first CPI and then CPI-M.
TMP leader Pradyut Deb Barman retaliated without naming the BJP. In a public meeting, he said, “Bengali-tribal, Hindu-Muslim – these differences do not exist in Tripura. The leaders are creating this divisions for their own benefit.” This – however – is not entirely correct. There is a latent tension between Bengali and indigenous population, but it rarely emerges as a major issue.
A senior journalist of Agartala made an observation, perhaps worth remembering.
The journalist said, “It is very much like the Hindu-Muslim politics of West Bengal, which is not always visible but exists under the surface. But when it comes to elections, a controlled brand of communal politics has been on the fore in West Bengal for years. So in Tripura, a Bengali-Tribal divide silently surfaces,” he said.
“But a big difference between here and West Bengal is that Tripura is a tribal state, which has become a Bengali one in the last 50 years. There is an anger among the tribals here and that anger has turned into fear due to the introduction of CAA,” he said.
At the same time, “it cannot be argued with all confidence that TMP is not lending support to the Left-Congress alliance. TMP has not fielded a candidate against Jitendra in Sabrum (south Tripura seat), although there is a large tribal population there. Tipra has fielded a weak candidate against the CPI(M) in Mandai too,” the journalist argued. Both the Left-Congress and TMP oppose the Citizenship Act. TMP has also openly indicated that the BJP should not be ‘allowed to benefit’ by the division of votes. The opposition to CAA possibly has brought Left-Congress and TMP closer.
The united opposition to the CAA is a cause of concern for the BJP
Indigenous people fear that if this law is implemented, the ‘settlers’ will get a right to buy land and settle in tribal areas. Radhacharan indicated, while tribal land cannot be purchased by the non-tribals, yet the fear has its basis. “If non-tribals purchase land next to a tribal one, the pressure on tribal land and population will increase. This is the fear,” he said.
The Mandai candidate of BJP did not want to comment on the matter.
“CAA is a national factor. Our national leadership and central government are looking into the issue. Besides, CAA was once an issue. The issue now is development. People want development, and the BJP has told us that larger tribal councils will be created to focus on the problems of the residents. As a result, the speed of development will increase,” said Tarit Deb Barma. The candidate was escorted by a central envoy of the BJP, Kiran Pal Singh from Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Singh was seen coaching Deb Barma about ‘do’s and don’ts’ during a campaign. Mr Singh said, “the tribals are very simple minded people, they are being divided, people are trying to take advantage of their simplicity.” Mr Singh said that local inhabitants are ‘confused’ by the opposition who are pushing CAA as an issue.
BJP is not at ease in the 2023 assembly elections in Tripura. In states where the BJP comes to power, they usually do not lose within the first five years, rather they consolidate. In Tripura, BJP appears to be way more wobbly than in other states. BJP’s state officials were candid to indicate that ‘crude in-fighting and appalling four years of former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb’ are responsible for the apparent set back. If BJP loses in Tripura, it will be a historic turnaround of the Left Front and Congress alliance.
Nonetheless, a week before the results on March 2, it is supremely difficult to predict the results in Tripura. BJP has spent an outstanding amount of money, the poll process was overseen and managed by Assam Chief Minister Himanata Biswa Sharma, a leader with an enviable record of managing elections, and BJP’s national leadership. It will thus be an inordinately difficult task to defeat BJP in Tripura.
TMP, however, expects to bag a dozen out of 20 ST seats. If so, Maharaja Pradyut Deb Barman will emerge as a new face of the indigenous people of the North East and pose a challenge to BJP’s Himanta Biswa Sharma, who is now considered as the main face of both the indigenous and the non-indigenous people of the North East.
This story is turned around from Bangla, first published by Prothom Alo. Reporter: Suvojit Bagchi’.
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