TRIPU RA is on the boil. Six people were reportedly injured in police firing and around 20 shops were destroyed as tribal organisations, including the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT), the Twipra Students Federation (TSF) and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the State, staged a violent protest against the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, on January 8.
Responding to a call for a bandh in the north-eastern States by the North East Students Organisation (NESU) in protest against the Bill, tribal organisations picketed the national highway. The situation spiralled out of control as clashes broke out between the protesters and the police. The police opened fire at the protesters near Madhavbari, under Jirania police station in West Tripura district, less than 25 km away from the State capital of Agartala. The situation was brought under control following heavy deployment of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and police personnel, but the region continued to remain palpably tense. Internet services in the State were suspended for 48 hours from 3 p.m. on January 8.
In an exclusive conversation with Frontline , the State’s Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, Rajiv Singh, gave details on what had transpired:
“The situation is now under control. Forces, including the Assam Rifles, the CRPF and the police have been deployed in all the vulnerable areas. The agitators had assembled to block the national highway. We tried to persuade them to withdraw but they refused, and dialogue with their leaders did not yield any result. For several hours the highway was blocked and people on either side of the road were getting restless. We tried to disperse the mob by using water cannon, but they retaliated by pelting us with stones. They also had catapults and petrol bombs. We then tried to disperse them with tear gas. We were able to push them back a bit, but more reinforcements came their way, this time more heavily armed. Their numbers would have been around 500 or more. The agitators started attacking the police and their vehicles and started burning shops. At least eight police personnel were injured. The situation was getting out of control and life-threatening. There was no other option but to resort to firing at that point…. A lot of restraint was shown by the police, but to save life and property we had to open fire as a last resort. We recovered [the following day] a large cache of countrymade guns and other weapons.”
The incident has put the ruling BJP, which came to power (for the first time in the State) with the support of the IPFT in the 2018 Assembly elections, on the back foot. The IPFT had stated that it would give moral support to the bandh but would not take an active part in the agitation. But, according to sources, IPFT activists, particularly those belonging to the youth wing of the party, indulged in violence on January 8. This has put pressure on the already fragile relationship between the two allies.
What is particularly troubling for the BJP government is that tribal dissatisfaction over the Citizenship Bill cuts across political lines. Even tribal leaders in the BJP have openly expressed their solidarity with the protesters.
The issue of ethnic identity is a sensitive one to the tribal people of Tripura. There is deep-rooted resentment and insecurity among the tribal people, who have been reduced to less than 31 per cent of the total population in the State. Parties such as the IPFT have been demanding a separate tribal State.
On an earlier occasion, N.C. Debbarma, Revenue and Fisheries Minister and IPFT president, had told Frontline : “When kings ruled the region, tribal people formed more than 90 per cent of the population. Today they have been reduced to 31 per cent. This will reduce further in the coming years. Our existence in our own land is becoming insignificant.” Following the police firing, tribal leaders of the State reportedly demanded that Debbarma and Tribal Welfare and Forest Minister M.K. Jamatia resign from the Cabinet.
Many people, including a section within the BJP, feel that the situation was exacerbated by the fact that Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who also holds the Home portfolio, did not make any statement on the matter, nor did he visit the troubled areas. The State’s Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Industry and Commerce, Sudip Roy Barman, visited the region around Madhavbari on his own initiative. “I had told the people in the region to maintain peace and ensure that there was no misunderstanding among different communities…. The State government is likely to form a committee to look into what happened,” Roy Barman told Frontline .
A sizeable section within the BJP is not happy with the way the matter has been handled. A BJP source in Tripura said: “In the same region, when a journalist was killed [in 2017] we had surrounded the residence of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar [the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was in power for five consecutive terms in the State until 2018], and condemned his silence on the incident. Now, the same accusation can be made against the BJP Chief Minister. There are allegations that some of the bullet injuries were received in the back. A simple reassurance from the Chief Minister that the matter will be looked into is what the people want.”
On January 10, the Chief Minister finally broke his silence and announced that a magisterial inquiry would be held into the incident.
The CPI(M) and its tribal wing, the Gana Mukti Parishad, have condemned the police firing. Manik Sarkar, who is a CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, has demanded an inquiry.
Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay
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