By Morning Star Sumer
The article, “S O S/mayday call from Tripura”, (ST September 3, 2016), has successfully drawn the attention of interested and seriously concerned readers to the palpable facts that reveal the grave injustice being perpetrated for decades, by both the State and the Union governments against the indigenous citizens – the Twiprasas – of an erstwhile princely state – Tripura.
That grave injustice is the deprivation of political power which is against both the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India, 1950: it also goes against the grain of character of our founding fathers who had, individually and collectively, contributed their wisdom in the process of framing it.
It should never be forgotten that those founding fathers were chosen to represent us, through our then extant ancestors, in the then extant Constituent Assembly with a precise mandate to create it. Through a process of discussions, dialogues, and by deliberation, among themselves, over/upon representation (s) from the then extant citizens who were our ancestors, they accomplished the mandated task on twenty-sixth day of November, 1949 when they finally resolved to give it to the New Indian Nation of a new country – India – to use it and cherish it for all time into perpetuity with necessary changes which should not contradict its preamble both in letter and spirit.
That said, it should be clear to all those who have read and understood the preamble and know, even ever so little, about the political situation in Tripura, that the indigenous Twiprasas of the State are being denied their right to self-governance. Nowhere else in the country is there a state where the population of foreigners-turned-illegal immigrants exceeds in number that of the indigenous population – in the proportion of 80 foreigners to 20 indigenous citizens – as in present day Tripura.
The state’s administration had been in the hands of foreigners (Bengalis) even before 1947. The foreigners used their own language – Bengali – and culture to run the affairs of the state. It is conveniently forgotten now that during the British Raj, the official language in Tripura was Bengali while in the rest of the country it was English. This is the situation even now to give the impression that Tripura is a Bengali State – not Indian. Bengali is spoken by the foreigners and some of the indigenous people who belong to the creamy layer of Twiprasas. No wonder then that the development and preservation of indigenous peoples’ language and culture receive step-motherly treatment at the hands of foreigners-turned-illegal immigrants who have been ruling the roost until now.
After close observation of the historical events in the state for decades one would not be wrong to conclude that every political move of the unconstitutional and undemocratic state governments was designed to perpetuate the grave political injustice against the indigenous people of the state. The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) Act, 1979 serves as an outstanding example of this fact. It has the dubious distinction of
- being the only Act of any state in the country that needed and received sanction of the Union government vide the Constitution (Fourty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1984.
- unconstitutionally creating a tribal area in a former princely state; thus reducing its status to that of a district of a province under the provisions of the Government of India Acts, 1915-1919 and 1935.
- segregating indigenous Twiprasas from foreigners-turned-illegal immigrants; thus legitimizing the unconstitutional citizenship rights of the foreigners-turned-illegal immigrants who have no right to reside within the state as bona fide citizens of the Indian State; still less to participate in its political affairs.
- treating the legitimate inheritors (Twiprasas) of the state like foreigners in their own state as if they (the indigenous citizens) are there only at the sufferance of the benign foreigners-turned-illegal immigrants who have been ruling the roost without being questioned by any Indian authority/authorities about either the constitutionality or the ethics of their presence in the country.
- drawing attention to the allegorical narrative of an Arab and his camel in which the camel was allowed to place only its head inside the tent but gradually inched its way into the tent until its whole body occupied the tent to oust out the compassionate and generous Arab.
After being informed of the grave injustice perpetrated and being perpetuated against the indigenous people of Tripura, as highlighted above, the leaders of other NER states should wake up and take steps to ensure that the same thing should not happen in their respective states.
Since it appears that the present leaders of NER have duly taken note of the development in Tripura, it may not be long before they all join hands and work out a plan to contain their differences to achieve a strong cohesive integration of all NER states so that together they may present a bulwark against forces that may lead each one of them into disintegration. To prevent the disintegration, it is necessary for each state to make sure that political power in their respective states is firmly in the hands of the indigenous people. Except in Tripura, the political power in the NER states appears to be in the hands of indigenous people though still tenuous: it should be firm and unambiguous. The NER leaders should concentrate on the present perceived flaws in the Sixth Schedule with the intention to remove them by suitable amendment (s). If the Schedule is to really serve the interest of the tribes of NER, political power should be seen to be in their hands and should not be tampered with at the whims of those who hold the reins of power in their respective states.
In Meghalaya, for instance, the presence of pockets of areas – the European Ward/Municipal areas, Shillong Cantonment areas, etc., and more that may be added later as is being attempted now – placed out of the ambit of District Council under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, is an ominous sign that things are likely to turn out the Tripura way which would eventually lead to the displacement of indigenous Khasis/Syntengs and Garos to be segregated from the future majority refugees-turned-illegal immigrants who would dominate the political scene. To obviate that occurrence, the non-indigenous residents of those areas should not be allowed to participate in the electoral politics of Meghalaya. The Constitution provides that each citizen has the right to use only one vote: that vote should be cast in the state where they were/are indigenous citizen(s)/resident(s). This will require amendment (s) to some sections of the Representation of the People Acts, 1950 and 1951.
In private conversations with some so-called insurgent leaders like Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl, they had candidly expressed their disappointment with the accord signed by some of them, after having been persuaded to abjure violence, give up secessionist demand, and, to negotiate peacefully for solution of problems, within the ambit of the Constitution. They and their large following of Twiprasas had fulfilled their part of the accord but, there have been no moves to negotiate peaceably within the ambit of the Constitution, for handing over political power to the sons of the soil. The present government is neither constitutional nor democratic because it is a government by the majoritarian illegal immigrants who had immigrated as refugees and overstayed their welcome to become illegal immigrants and, worst, to gain political power by deceit – by a facade of comradeship as fellow-travelers, and, of supportive companionship – to usurp the right to govern by subverting the meaning and purport of democracy.
The irredentist movement leaders feel now that they had been inveigled to sign the accord document without proper and exhaustive discussions and deliberation over the terms in Para 3.5 of the accord, because, it now appears as if they had agreed to be satisfied only with a proportionate number of seats in the State Legislative Assembly – 20 out of 60 seats. In fact they now aver that the Bengali Diaspora should have no place in the State’s politics. The state government should be in the hands of the indigenous Twiprasas. The refugees-turned-illegal immigrants should be helped to return to their home state or country of origin, now that their home state and country of origin has returned to normalcy and there are no more threats of religious and political persecutions. Whatever had happened in the past had weighed heavily against the interests of the indigenous Twiprasas. It is injustice dealt to the backward people of Tripura and perpetuated by successive Acts of the State and the Central governments. It is the realization that this issue is not being pursued that many of their followers have become restive that there is fear that violence may erupt again on this account.
It is necessary, at this stage, to remind the biased, ungrateful fanatic members among the Bengali Diaspora in Tripura that not very long ago, a Bengali communist leader, Jyoti Basu, had enunciated his communist party’s view that Bengal was for the sons of the soil. Now, the indigenous people would like to make the Bengali Diaspora in Tripura see the justice of letting the sons of the soil in Tripura chart their own course, on their own path, towards their own tryst, with their own Destiny. To that end, they (members of the Bengali Diaspora) should now desist from further subverting the Constitution of India, and, democracy itself, by claiming rights which, by all accounts and by rights, belong to the sons of the soil in Tripura. They should gracefully vacate every position of democratic office to make room for the indigenous Twiprasas.