Tripura Elections: Its Progressive Vs Anti-National Forces

The forthcoming Assembly elections in Tripura, one of the smallest states in India, have acquired huge importance, drawing attention across the country. This is because for the first time in India’s electoral history the Left will be locked in a statewide battle with BJP. In states where the Left has a strong presence, like W.Bengal and Kerala, the BJP has been a marginal force. So, this confrontation never really took place before.

Actually, in Tripura too the BJP remains a marginal force. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when Modi swept to power, BJP got just short of 6% votes in Tripura while the Left Front got a phenomenal 65% of votes. In the previous Assembly elections, BJP got just 1.5% votes compared to the Left Front’s share of 52.3% votes.

So, how has the BJP suddenly become a challenger of the Left Front? The answer is chillingly educative and should be known across the country. It reveals the true character of the party that is ruling the country and whose leaders, including PM Modi, endlessly sermonise everybody on ‘nationalism’, ‘patriotism’ and claim that they always put ‘India first’.

In Tripura, the BJP has aligned itself with an openly separatist tribal outfit called the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT). The history of this organisation is well known to Tripura’s residents. It is a reincarnation of a long line of separatist tribal outfits that have one thing in common: use violence to incite a tribal-nontribal conflict and demand a separate tribal state.

The BJP is hoping that by allying with this incendiary anti-national outfit, it will be able to attract tribal votes, which make up about a third of the state’s electorate. In 2017, leaders of IPFT had reportedly met senior govt. functionaries including the home minister, the minister at PMO at a meeting convened by the PM himself. They are reportedly in touch with several bigwigs of the BJP including Hemanta Biswa Sarma, a Congress turncoat who is now minister in Assam’s BJP led state govt. and who is in charge of the election campaign in Tripura. And on January 5 this year they met PM Modi himself to cement the alliance.

It is this IPFT that announced its political ambitions by imposing a two-week blockade of the sole national highway that connects Tripura to the rest of the country in July 2017. The demand raised via this blockade was clear: separate Tipraland to be carved out of the state of Tripura. It was also reported that the blockade was lifted after discussions with PMO.

Earlier, in March 2017, the IPFT had split after one group alleged that the other had accepted Rs.2 lakh from BJP to allign with them. The alleged bribe takers were led by Naresh Chandra Debbarma.  It is this faction that is now tied up with BJP.

The BJP’s problem – of not having a base in Tripura yet wanting to rule it – is not fully resolved by jumping on board the separatist tribal bandwagon. By fanning these dangerous flames of ethnic tribal demands, how will other non-tribal Tripura residents react? So, BJP is insidiously working amongst the Bengali population fanning Hindutva based feelings. It was reported that BJP was planning to bring in Yogi Adityanath, UP CM, to woo the Nath community among Bengalis. At local levels, BJP activists are enthusiastically siding with Bengali chauvinist groups. Tripura has a history of extremist Bengali violence led by the Amra Bengali outfit, which was backed by the Anand Marg. BJP is also propagating that it has amended the Citizenship Act 1955 to allow refugees of all religions except Islam to get citizenship in India.

So, BJP that claims to unite India, appears to be so desperate to win power in a small border state that it is willing to set fire to decades of harmony between tribals and non-tribals and side with separatists.

BJP has also embraced all the discredited members of the Congress and Trinamool Congress in Tripura including six Trinamool MLAs. It organised public functions to welcome activists from both parties. This is the thin sliver of political base it has hammered together in the past year to bolster its claim of being the challenger to Left Front.

But all these shenanigans cannot hide the fact that the BJP remains a rather weak challenger to the Left Front. This is because the Left Front has worked tirelessly – and successfully – to marginalise extremist and violent groups in the state. This is something that is rarely seen in the Northeast. This peace has paid its dividends because it was utilised by the Left Front to carry out widespread developmental work. The Left Front has thus developed deep roots in the population and is widely seen as providing an honest, hardworking and people oriented government. This is the reaason for theor continued victories in elections – from Los Sabha down to panchayat and Autonomous Development Council seats.