Ex-Congress leader Tripura ‘Maharaja’ makes a strong comeback, says he won’t accept any post in new tribal council

A two-month-old political party, TIPRA (The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance), has emerged as a powerful regional alternative in India’s Northeast. Led by Tripura ‘royal’ and former state Congress president Pradyot Manikya Deb Burman, TIPRA and its ally have swept the local council polls, defeating the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].

This is the first defeat for the BJP since it stormed to power in 2018, ending the around two-decade-long Left rule in the northeastern state. The saffron party managed to win just nine seats while TIPRA and its ally Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) secured 18 out of 23 seats it contested in the April 6 elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTADC).

For the past 15 years, the 30-member council constituted under the Sixth Schedule to the Indian Constitution had been ruled by the Left, which along with the Congress and BJP’s ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), failed to open its account in this election.

Two seats are reserved for members nominated by the state’s governor.

“I led a positive campaign. People don’t like if you say too much of negative things,” Deb Burman, who has a huge fan following, especially among the youth and the state’s indigenous population, said.

“And let me tell you…I am not going to accept any position in the newly-formed council. I will not take the CEM (chief executive member) post. Rather, I will allow one of my trusted colleagues to take that post,” he told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview ahead of the party’s crucial meeting to announce the CEM candidate on Saturday afternoon.

Autonomous District Councils have similar powers and responsibilities as in states in respect to legislature and executive. The executive powers are vested with the executive committee headed by the CEM.

“I want to prove those people wrong who are gossiping and spreading rumour that I will take the CEM post. Instead, I will work from outside to ensure that promises we made to people are fulfilled,” Deb Burman, who is addressed as ‘Maharaja' by his followers, added.

The sole heir of the 800-year-old Manikya dynasty, Pradyot Deb Burman had quit the Congress following his differences with the party over the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He also led peaceful protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which grants Indian citizenship to Hindus and other religious minorities from neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

“Strangely, while the Congress joined anti-CAA protests in the rest of the country, in Tripura, both Congress and the Left did not take any stand. We went to the ground and made our position clear,” he said.

‘Greater Twipraland’ would include every tribal person living outside the TTAADC, to preserve the greater cultural and linguistic autonomy of all Tripuris within and outside the state.

- Pradyot Deb Burman

Deb Burman also said CAA would have been acceptable to the people of the Northeast had the BJP-led Centre made provisions for settling the migrants outside the region.

States such Assam and Tripura are busting at the seams because of the migration from the neighbouring Bangladesh. In Tripura, the situation is more alarming given that the unchecked influx of Hindu Bengali refugees had completely changed the state’s demographic, reducing the indigenous people to a minority.

A former princely state, Tripura joined India in October 1949. But the migration had started before that and continued even after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. This led to armed tribal insurgencies - and violence and bloodshed in the state - between 1980 and 2010. It took a lot of effort and some innovative ideas by the previous Left-front government to douse the fire of militancy and ethnic unrest.

Today, Bengalis comprise almost 70% of Tripura’s total population (36.74 lakh), according to the 2011 Census, and the rest are the indigenous Tripuri groups such as Reang, Jamatia, Halam and Hrangkhawl, among others.

A strong advocate of the rights of the indigenous people, Deb Burman had in 2019 filed a plea in the Supreme Court demanding implementation of NRC, an exercise that was conducted in neighbouring Assam to weed out suspected illegal immigrants. This had earned him the wrath of the Congress, which apparently forced him to withdraw the petition, leading to his resignation as state Congress president. Later, he quit all party posts and the primary membership.

When asked for his comments on the Congress’ future, Deb Burman said the grand old party has “made several mistakes”. “Starting from Mamata Banerjee to Jagan Reddy to Himanta Biswa Sarma and also me,” he said explaining how the Congress failed to retain young leaders in its fold.

“It’s a loss for the Congress; what else can I say,” he quipped.

Explaining his idea of ‘Greater Twipraland’, Deb Burman said it would include every tribal person living outside the TTAADC, which accounts for two-thirds of the state’s geographical area. He said this would ensure greater cultural and linguistic autonomy of all Tripuris within and outside the state.

“This is the only way which will help us preserve our cultural and linguistic heritage,” he maintained.