GUWAHATI, Sept 7: Regional parties, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) on Tuesday decided to join hands towards political cooperation and initiate a regional political movement by forming a united forum of all regional parties of Northeast.
“A final decision in this regard will be announced soon after having dialogues with all regional political parties of Northeastern states,” a joint statement by AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and TIPRA chairman Pradyot Manikya Debbarma, informed here.
“The governments led by BJP at the Centre and some states of the Northeast have been trying to ignore the voices of the indigenous communities of the region to fulfill their narrow political ends. With this aim, the NDA government at the Centre enacted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) ignoring the rightful protests of the indigenous people of the Northeastern region,” the statement said.
The TIPRA chairman, who is on a two-day visit to Assam, addressed a programme organised by AJP in the city on Tuesday.
“It is a known fact that due to influx of illegal foreigners from erstwhile East Bengal, the Tripuri population of Tripura has become minority in the state. As a result, the language of the Tripuri people, Kokborok has also become out of place in the state,” it said.
“Similarly, illegal influx has also affected Assam in a big way due to which the Assamese-speaking population has also gone down to a great extent. In such a state, the decision of implementation of CAA in Assam by NDA has thrown Assam into a great crisis,”
The two regional parties also listed a charter of demands, including immediate repeal of CAA, which has already been passed in Parliament and completion of the National Register of Citizens update process without any further delay.
“We demand constitutional provisions for protection of identity and culture of all indigenous people of Tripura. The demand of Tipraland/Greater Tipraland has to be accepted in writing. We demand immediate implementation of the Assam Accord in its totality,” the joint statement said.