NER imbroglio
By Morning Star Sumer
Consternation overwhelmed me while reading the UNI news report straddling across four columns – 5 to 8 – on page 4 of The Shillong Times (June 16, 2016) because I read in it the signs of early disintegration of India beginning with the North-Eastern States, unless the policies of India are orientated to accommodate fully the aspirations of the indigenous people of the region. Failing that, we may kiss goodbye to the much-desired Look/Act East Policy (LEP/AEP). The governments and bureaucrats in New Delhi should not lose sight of the historical facts that the indigenous people of the region are Mongolian in the map of racial/ethnic and cultural identities; and are quite distinct and vastly different and even peculiar from what one finds in mainland India in most respects. However, these differences and peculiarities are not traits that should be magnified, but should be addressed with great caution and circumspection so that the relationship between them and the mainland people becomes stronger for a desired cohesive integration.
That said, it is pointed out that to achieve that desired cohesive integration the powers that be in New Delhi should honestly analyse with great circumspection the past efforts to address the aspirations of the people of the region and their total effects as obtained now. For that purpose, it is necessary to choose a classic example of events in any state in the region. There can be no better example of events to choose from than those to be found in the State of Tripura.
Firstly, it is necessary to remind ourselves that after the overthrow of imperialism in Europe during the European Revolutions of 1848, there emerged democratic governments all over Europe. In India, after the reformations provided for in the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935, had paved the way for the Pethick-Lawrence Cabinet Mission of 1946 to introduce the idea of the Constituent Assembly 1946 to create the Constitution of India 1950, there emerged, among people of every racial/ethnic group, an enunciated common/universal aspiration to govern themselves according to their own genius to preserve their perceived unique identities under the umbrella of political justice secured to every citizen under the preamble to the Constitution of India. Thus, pursuant to this provision for political justice there was the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956 (States Re-Organization Act, 1956), to iron out the kinks in the then extant provisions.
After that exercise, many other changes, good and bad, have been introduced to improve governance. New autonomous states have been carved out of Assam. Unconstitutional and undemocratic governments have been lording it over the indigenous tribals in Tripura.
The Tripura State Assembly itself is unconstitutional and undemocratic because, it is a government formed by the majoritarian alien refugees-turned-illegal immigrants who ought not to have been allowed to participate in the political affairs of the state. That was the root cause of the ‘irredentist movement’ of the TNV. Thereby hangs a tale.
Tripura was a compact unitary princely state inhabited by a proud race of people ruled by Manikya rajas in the days of yore. Like all small states it had its share of the experiences of the vicissitudes of life, and, had weathered the storms it had encountered with success, by the courage of its valiant Twiprasas whose history is a work better undertaken by historians. This article is a humble attempt only to draw attention to the insidious policies which our successive governments at the centre have been following by relying solely on the advice of the alien Bengali immigrant-dominated bureaucracy whose bias against the indigenous Twiprasas is evident in every political move without giving a thought to what might result from such policies.
The initial policy was to bracket Tripura as a full-fledged state among Part C states in Schedule 1 to the Constitution: that was right and fair. After that, it was placed among the Union Territories since 1st November, 1956 by the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956 passed on 19th October, 1956: that also was just and fair because, at that time the indigenous people of Tripura were not yet politically mature to manage their own political affairs. Even now they are, lamentably, politically immature. Ironically, the few indigenous people who seem to be politically aware choose to stay aloof from politics. However, the state of affairs, especially, the demographic imbalance in the state which manifested in the increasingly dwindling percentage of tribal population which, by the census of 1971 had plummeted to 28.95 percent and still continuing to dwindle, was not lost on the young neo-literates who decided to do something to regain lost political power. In this they were like the other neo-literates in other NER States like those in Nagaland, Mizoram etc. These young neo-literates took to violent militancy to wrest back political power little realizing that violence would subject them and their kith and kin to great hardship and would not bring the desired result. By resorting to violence they had only helped their adversaries, the illegal non-tribal immigrants, to brand them as ‘insurgents who revolted against authorities’ and, thereby, invited the forces of law to suppress and treat them like criminals.
The truth is that, as stated above, the so-called ‘insurgents’ are patriots who want to get back their political power: therefore, they are not insurgents but, ‘irredentists’ whose aim is only to get back their legitimate right to govern themselves like all other people in the world. It was in that spirit that Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl led a team of Tripura National Volunteers (TNV), not to revolt against authorities, but, to regain or get back their legitimate right to political power of which the alien illegal immigrants have robbed them by deceit. To add insult to injury, the TTAADC Act, 1979 was enacted to unconstitutionally carve out an area for the tribals within their own state; thus reducing the legitimate inheritors of the state to the status of refugees. It also has the effect of reducing Tripura to the status of a district (within another state?), which it was not!
How had the indigenous people of Tripura lost their political power? In democracy, power is in the hands of the numerous, because, governance is in the hands of the majority. Since the census of 1951 when the Twiprasa population was only 37.23 p.c., their percentage share of the population kept dwindling and fell to 25% in the 1991 census: now it may be even less than 25 per cent. So the Twiprasas population which was dominant in Tripura became a minority since 1951 at 37.23 per cent. Who are the others who swell the population and gain majority population status? The answer is, the illegal immigrants. As every concerned Indian should know by now, the great majority of illegal immigrants belong to the Bengali ethnic/racial group. A great majority of them were refugees from East Bengal/Bangladesh who, by rights, had to return back to where they came from, but, did not: instead, they chose to settle down and swelled the population of illegal immigrants. We should understand that, accepting people as refugees does not mean that they are accepted as bona fide citizens of the State to participate in the political affairs of their hosts. Unfortunately for the Twiprasas, the refugees overstayed their welcome to become illegal immigrants. Since Bengalis form almost 100 p.c. of the illegal immigrant population, I call them Bengali illegal immigrants: not to denigrate the entire community but, to state the simple truth, as I see it, about the situation in the state.
Like in all groups of people whether ethnic, religious, political or anything else, there are bound to be, among them, who are rabidly fanatical. I regret to have to mention here the fact that among the Bengali Diaspora in Tripura, a great majority of them appear to be fanatical about their ethnic identity or community and political association. In the state almost the entire Bengali Diaspora is communist; a deadly mix, of obsessive patriotism with communal or ethnic identity and political fanaticism, is formed to obfuscate rational, ethical vision.
The fanaticism of the Tripura Bengali illegal immigrants is evident in the way that Bengali language and literature and culture are being showcased. Visitors to Tripura would be guided only to Agartala, the State capital, which is proudly presented to them as a ‘Little Bengal’ where the language and culture of the Bengali Diaspora dominate and almost everything indigenous has been obliterated. ‘Ujjayanta Palace’, the pride of the tribals is not now recognized as a palace with its own nomenclature: it is now the ‘Tripura State Museum’ recently inaugurated with much fanfare by no less a dignitary than the Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari, to trumpet the achievements of the Diaspora’s CPI unconstitutional, undemocratic government of Tripura! At the gate of the erstwhile Ujjayanta Palace (now Tripura State Museum) stand statues of Khudiram Bose and Masterda Surjya Sen. Elsewhere, inside and within the palace grounds, are found statues/busts of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, and paintings adulating Bangali heroes/achievers. All this and much else that is happening inside Tripura are ominous signs of the early extinction of a whole proud Twiprasa race right under our noses!