A verdict against insurgency

The victory of the CPI (M) candidate in the byelection to the West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency comes as a blow to the State's insurgent groups which had tried to subvert the electoral process.

THE victory of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate in the Lok Sabha byelection held on February 21 in Tripura has come as a setback to the insurgent groups operating in the State. The party's Khogen Das won with a margin of 1,50,843 votes from West Tripura, one of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in the State. (The seat fell vacant as a result of the death of senior CPI(M) Member of Parliament Samar Choudhury.) Seven of his rivals forfeited their deposits. While Das got 3,94,364 votes, his nearest Congress(I) rival, Manik Deb, secured 2,43,521 votes. The Congress(I) contested the election in alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), the political wing of the banned insurgent organisation, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar described the victory as one against terrorism and as a step towards peace and prosperity. Although militants belonging to the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and the NLFT warned voters against casting their ballots in favour of the CPI(M), tribal people turned up in large numbers at the polling booths. However, the militants managed to spread fear in certain areas such as Simna, Mandai, Mohanpur, Majlishpur, Khoirpur and Golaghati.

The Congress(I), which is fast losing its strength in the State, especially after the split that led to the formation of the Trinamul Congress before the last Assembly elections in April 1998, has been trying to make a comeback with the help of extremist groups and even by forging electoral alliances with them. However, the more the Congress(I) seeks the help of outfits that support extremism, the more it is alienated from the people.

On the other hand, the CPI(M)'s position in the State is getting stronger, though militant activity continues unabated in the hill areas. In the byelection, the CPI(M) polled 57.70 per cent of the total valid votes numbering 6,83,424, a sizable increase from the 54.50 per cent the party received in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls. In this election the CPI(M) established a lead in 27 of the 30 Assembly segments in the constituency. (In the 1998 Assembly polls, the Congress(I) had an electoral alliance with the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) and won 13 of the 60 seats. The CPI(M)'s share was 43, while its Left Front partners, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), won two each.)

With the emergence of the IPFT before the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections in April 2000, Tripura witnessed an increase in militant violence. Tribal militants of the NLFT unleashed a reign of terror by stepping up attacks on the Left parties, in order to prevent a Left Front victory in the 30-member TTAADC. Activists of the NLFT abducted relatives of candidates of the Left parties, killed their supporters, burnt the houses of non-tribal people and threatened voters with dire consequences if they did not vote for candidates of the IPFT. Moreover, the NLFT imposed a ban on other parties contesting the elections.

The same tactics of intimidation were applied during the run-up to the recent byelection. On January 13, NLFT militants killed 16 non-tribal people in a crowded marketplace at Singichara in Khowai subdivision. The attack was a warning to the non-tribal people, mainly Bengalis, against participating in the electoral process.

Ethnic killings have long been the most deplorable aspect of militancy in Tripura. Tribal militants belonging to the NLFT or the ATTF have persistently followed a policy of ethnic cleansing. They want to force Bengalis, mostly refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), out of the State where tribal people once formed the majority. Militant tribal leaders know that they cannot achieve their objective of becoming the majority as Bengalis now constitute over 60 per cent of the State's population. Hence, they try to instil a sense of fear in the minds of the Bengali people through violence and ethnic killings.

Many schools in far-flung areas of Tripura are closed as teachers stay away fearing militants. Vehicular traffic along the Guwahati-Agartala highway, the lifeline of the State's economy, is under threat of ambushes by militants. Commercial establishments are often forced to pay protection money. Kidnapping for ransom is almost an everyday affair. Worse still, the killers strike with the avowed objective of forcing Bengalis to leave their property and to sow the seeds of hatred between Bengalis and the tribal people.

The growth of extremism in the State has a long and bitter history. The roots of insurgency in Tripura spread in the late 1960s when the then Congress government used militants to try and break the CPI(M)'s strong bases of support in the tribal-dominated hills. Although successive governments tried to solve the problem through both negotiations and the use of force, they failed. In fact, no one really tried to force the extremists to eschew violence. Even the Centre is blamed for the drift. The emergence of the CPI(M) as a major political force in the State since the early 1990s weakened the extremists.

However, the situation seems to have changed yet again, and the manner in which ethnic and parochial sentiments are whipped up against "outsiders" indicates a return to the vicious pattern of violence that characterised the State's landscape in the 1980s. Moreover, the fact that some of the tribal groups have aligned themselves with established political parties has given the groups some sort of legitimacy. The IPFT is only one of the several groups in Tripura that have donned the political mantle even when their agenda is to establish their dominance by resorting to violence. The IPFT is using every possible means, including its tie-up with the Congress(I), to determine the course of politics in the State.

Extremists in Tripura enjoy an operational advantage as the State is surrounded on three sides by Bangladesh. They escape to Bangladesh, where they find easy shelter, when they are chased by the Indian security forces. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told Frontline that his government had sent to the Centre a list of camps of Tripura militants in Bangladesh. The NLFT and the ATTF together have as many as 51 hideouts across Bangladesh, from where they carry out strikes in the State. The camps are spread over Sylhet, Hobiganj and Mauluvi Bazaar districts and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The Chief Minister said that the State government had sent to the Union Home Ministry maps and other relevant details of the sanctuaries in Bangladesh used by the banned outfits. However, the matter is yet to be taken up with the Bangladesh government. "We have requested Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L.K. Advani to mount pressure on the Bangladesh government to dismantle the bases. But no serious efforts have been made on their part. The State government on its own cannot fight militants who receive regular assistance from the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan," Manik Sarkar said.