Tripura: BJP’s ruling ally IPFT to re-launch movement against CAA

Agartala: With just a few months left for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ruling ally — Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) — has announced to conduct a sit-in indefinite protest demanding separate Tipraland and scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Khumulwng, the headquarters of TTAADC, from January 6 onwards.

Speaking with reporters, party general secretary and Tripura forest minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia said that despite meeting Union home minister Amit Shah on various occasions over the demand to keep Tripura out of CAA, nothing concrete has come out till date.

“We have been fighting for a separate Tipraland so that the rights of the indigenous people can be secured, but so far no positive response has been made by the Centre. The Centre has passed the CAA without exempting Tripura from the Act even after making a request to the Centre during the meeting held in New Delhi,” Jamatia said.

He also said that the life of the indigenous people has been affected by the continuous influx in Tripura and any further increase of population in the state would be dangerous for the culture and tradition of the indigenous people who have already become a minority from the majority, Jamatia added.

Meanwhile, the Joint Movement against Citizenship Amendment Bill (JMACAB), the platform of regional indigenous political parties, civil society organisations and students’ organisations, has announced to re-launch their movement against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) unless Tripura is exempted from the purview of the Act.

INPT general secretary Jagadish Debbarma said that a meeting with home minister Shah was held on December 12 and a demand to exempt Tripura was made. “We were assured of a solution on this matter but so far no communication or steps have been made by the government,” he said.

“We will re-launch our protest against the CAA and continue until the government exempts the Act for Tripura. We can no longer take the burden of illegal immigrants in Tripura. We will start the movement against the Act,” Debbarma added.