Tripura indigenous parties intensify stir against Citizenship Bill

Agartala: Indigenous political parties of Tripura, including BJP’s ruling ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), have started their protest by calling a bandh opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) which was tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday.

Apart from IPFT, the parties that are supporting the bandh include Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), National Conference of Tripura (NCT), Tripura People’s Front (TPF) and Scheduled Tribe department of Congress, Twipra Students’ Federation (TSF) and Tripura United Indigenous People’s Council (TUIPC).

TUIPC convener and former supremo of All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) Ranjit Debbarma said, “The Centre is not giving importance to the indigenous people living in the Northeastern region. They (BJP) are going to pass the Bill in Parliament and once this Bill is passed we wouldn’t be secure anymore. If the Centre does not scrap the Bill, then there will be a movement in the entire state.”

He also said that the CAB will violate the 1993 peace accord signed between the ATTF and the state government. “It will violate the peace accord and will also violate Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. This Bill is totally unconstitutional. We are opposing it,” Debbarma said.

Reacting over the bandh called by the indigenous bodies, Tripura’s law minister Ratan Lal Nath on Sunday said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is not going to hurt and affect any particular community of the state.

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“The way the different organisations called the strike across the state is meaningless. They have the right to protest and the right to organise a movement, but for our own benefit we cannot affect or harm other’s rights,” he said.

The Tripura police have deployed heavy security personnel across the state to avert any untoward incident in the state.

Additional DGP (law & order) Rajiv Singh said that they have beefed up the security across the state to prevent any untoward incidents in the state.

“We have deployed a huge contingent of Tripura Police, state paramilitary Tripura State Rifles and CRPF jawans to prevent any untoward incident. We are also keeping vigil to every corner of the state to prevent any untoward incident. We hope that the strike goes peacefully in the state,” he said.