Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has appealed to voters to back the Bharatiya Janata Party in the forthcoming elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), stressing that the party’s victory would ensure continued peace and development in the state.
The 30-member tribal council, which is currently governed by the Tipra Motha Party, is slated to go to the polls later this month.
Addressing a BJP event at Barmura in Khowai district, Saha said the state had witnessed notable progress and stability since the BJP assumed power.
He highlighted that Tripura now ranks second among northeastern states in terms of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and per capita income, while the NITI Aayog has recognised the state as a “front-runner”.
The chief minister also blamed the communists for the ethnic violence that erupted in 1980, claiming that nearly 3,000 tribal and non-tribal people lost their lives during the unrest.
He further alleged that militant outfits such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) were formed during that period and were responsible for widespread violence in the late 1990s.
According to him, the BJP-led government succeeded in bringing many insurgents back into the national mainstream through peace agreements.
Without directly naming the Tipra Motha Party, Saha criticised one of its allies for attempting to dictate terms to the BJP on certain matters. Referring to the slogan of “thansa” (unity), he remarked that those raising the issue now had remained silent during the communist regime.
Saha said the BJP is willing to continue the alliance but maintained that cooperation should reflect the role of a “younger brother” rather than that of a “big brother”.
He added that the party would not allow any political force it had supported to interfere in its affairs.
On the issue of the script used for the Kokborok language, Saha said the government is open to any indigenous script for the mother tongue spoken by most tribal communities.
He reiterated that the state government currently supports maintaining the existing arrangement, allowing students to write Kokborok in either Bengali or Roman script.
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Saha noted that only a limited number of students in Classes 10 and 12 currently opt to write the language in Roman script.
Recently, Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, the chief of the Tipra Motha Party, strongly advocated the introduction of the Roman script for Kokborok, citing the sentiments of the indigenous population.
