New Delhi: In what seems like an agreement to keep intact the tribal votes with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tripura for the 2024 parliamentary polls, the Narendra Modi government has formally entered into a pact with the tribal party, TIPRA Motha, to look at granting “constitutional” rights to the north-eastern state’s tribal population.
The demand has a huge resonance across the state’s tribal Tiprasas which form 30% of the population.
Considerable credit goes to TIPRA Motha or the Tribal Indigenous People’s Regional Alliance, the newest and the most popular among the tribal parties of the state, for uniting the tribal political voice of Tripura towards the demand for a separate state culled out of the present geographical limits of the state. Unitedly, they have been staging a number of rallies, including at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. TIPRA Motha also runs the tribal autonomous council.
On March 1, in a clever move, TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Debbarman held a meeting with the state Congress and CPI(M) leaders for a possible alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
The state has two Lok Sabha seats, one of which has a large number of tribal voters. In the 2014 and 2019 elections, both the seats were pocketed by the BJP. In the 2024 elections, the BJP is aiming at increasing its 2019 tally of 17 of the 25 seats in the Northeast.
After the meeting in Agartala, Tripura Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha told reporters that his party expected TIPRA Motha to join the Opposition coalition in the 2024 polls but was unsure of the regional party’s final stance.
By then, Debbarman had announced sitting on a ‘fast unto death’ to press the Centre to heed to his party’s demand. He called all other Tiprasa leaders to join him also as it concerned the community in general.
A day after meeting the Opposition leaders, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) invited Debbarman to visit New Delhi to seal a written agreement with the Centre to discuss in future granting of constitutional rights to the tribal population. Debbarman had been demanding a written agreement and not a verbal assurance from the Modi-Shah government on that count.
On March 2, a tripartite agreement was signed by the MHA and the state government in the presence of the chief minister Manik Saha “to amicably resolve all issues of the indigenous people of Tripura relating to history, land and political rights, economic development, identity, culture and heritage”.
Though Union home minister Amit Shah, after signing the agreement, termed it a ‘historic day for Tripura’, the pact is somewhat similar to the Framework Agreement signed by the Modi government with the Naga leaders to find a solution to their political issue. The agreement with TIPRA Motha is aimed at weighing solutions to protect various rights including that of the land and tribal population. The Naga Framework Agreement signed in 2015 has not yet reached a Naga peace deal.
Taking to X on March 2, Debabarman sounded careful in celebrating the agreement.
“Yes, we have signed a historic agreement. We have to work harder. Also, we have to be disciplined. Agreements were signed to implement our demands, land rights, financing rights, language (script) issues, political issues,” he said. He also highlighted, “The Indian government has signed an agreement with a regional party for the first time in history.”
It is not yet clear whether TIPRA Motha would cede the Tribal dominated Tripura East Lok Sabha seat to the ruling BJP in the 2024 polls or contest it as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The massive win of the party in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections in 2021 has certainly enhanced its ambition to send a party’s MP to the next Lok Sabha.