LONE FIGHTER
The only organisation which has been relentlessly fighting insurgency over
the past one year is not an NGO but the traditional
community council or 'Hoda' of the Hindu Jamatia
tribesmen. According to Tripura's traditional history the
Jamatia community formed its 'Hoda' (community council) in
1510 during the reign of king Dhanya Manikya to act as
guardian of the society and its religio-cultural matters.
The 'Hoda' is headed by two 'okras' (social leaders) whose
writs are final on all issues pertaining to the Jamatia
community, third largest tribal group of Tripura. In the
wake of NLFT's gun-point conversion drive the Jamatia
"okras" Bikram Bahadur Jamatia and Haricharan
Jamatia launched a massive campaign since October last
year and forced a large number of Jamatia activists of
NLFT to lay down arms to 'Hoda'. In order to retaliate the
NLFT militants killed two members of 'Hoda' and made
futile attempt on the life of Haricharan Jamatia. Finally
they kidnapped 21 volunteers of Jamatia 'Hoda' from an
area under Killa police station of south Tripura on
January 29 but in the face of massive search operations
conducted by 'Hoda' members with the help of police the
NLFT was forced to release all 21 volunteers on February
8. The Jamatias still continue their active resistance
programme by organising armed volunteers and they have
stopped paying 'tax' to the rebel coffer.
It is, however, a reality
that the left front which once used to portray Jamatia 'Hoda'
as a feudal body has been rendering all assistance to them
in the fight against militancy presumably to occupy the
political space being opened by the 'Hoda's resistance
programme and also realising that the hold of the 'Hoda'
over the Jamatia community is unshakeable. PROSPECTS
The overall prospects of the state in terms of insurgency and it's
solution is bleak as stated above already. It is so
because the insurgency in Tripura, unlike in other states
of Northeast, is devoid of any political content, ideology
and idealism. The movement sprang from negative ethnicism
and it is propelled by hatred for non-tribal segment of
the population.
The ease and gleefulness with which horrendous brutality is perpetrated on
unarmed civilians including women and children by the
so-called militants is possible only when a paranoid
hatred clouds the judgment of the perpetrators.
The members and commanders of such insurgent outfits as NSCN of
Manipur-Nagaland and ULFA of Assam can not even dream of
indulging in such mindless violence against unarmed
civilians. They follow a strict code of conduct while
carrying out operations and liquidate a civilian only when
he is identified beyond any reasonable doubt as police
informer or enemy of the movement. The argument that the
cult of hatred is bound to emerge because non-tribal
settlers have swamped the indigenous tribals also does not
hold as Assam where ULFA is active is faced with the same
predicament in a bigger way. However, another important
point to note in this regard is the composition of the
insurgent outfits. The leaders and lay cadres of the
insurgent outfits in Tripura are mostly semi-literate
school drop-outs, having little political perspective or
sense of strategy and tactics while the majority of their
counterparts in ULFA and NSCN are reasonably
educated. The situation is exacerbated by the new-found
proselytising zeal of the NLFT rebels who have been trying
to convert Hindu tribals to baptist variety of
christianity at gun-point. There has also been a number of
killing with religious motivations. On August 27 last year
NLFT rebels shot dead a leading Hindu tribal saint Shanti
Kumar Tripura, popularly known as 'Shanti Kali' in his
ashram at Khumlwng area under Sadar subdivision for
refusing to leave the Hindu fold and convert with his
followers to Christianity. Similarly, two Hindu tribal
Vaishnavas Tachhidas Reang and Sanjit Reang were brutally
murdered on September 5th last year at Mandirghat area
under Natun bazaar police station simply because of their
religious identity. Again on September 14 Anukul Debbarma
a Hindu tribal and acitivist of 'Banabasi Kalyan Ashram',
a outfit of RSS working for upliftment of tribals all over
the country was kidnapped because he had refused to work
for the Church even after repeated threats. He is still
untraced and is believed to have been killed long back.
The experts here feel that despite the NLFT's demand for a vague 'free
holy land of Tripura' the outfit will be prepared to lay
down arms after a round of negotiations with centre.
Keeping the precedent of TNV accord in mind the militants
may press for concession like increased representation for
tribals in the state assembly and raise other such
demands. As part of the TNV peace accord signed on august
10, 1988 the centre had raised the number of tribal
reserve assembly seats from seventeen to twenty though the
decision was not legally valid. There is also the
precedent of bipartite peace accord between A.T.T.F.
militants and the third left front government signed on
August 23, 1993. One of the clauses in the accord reduced
the number of seats reserved for non-tribals in the twenty
eight member Autonomous District Council from seven to
three to appease tribal sentiment. When the ADC was formed
for the first time in 1982 seven out of altogether twenty
eight elective seats had been reserved for non-tribal
Bengalis living within ADC areas-two more seats are filled
by process of nomination -but the left front reduced the
number to strike a successful bargain with the A.T.T.F.
Given the bitter ethnic polarisation, intervention from outside is
possible and it may also achieve results provided the
agency which comes forward is able to deal with the ethnic
divide deftly and formulate proposals acceptable to both
sides in the conflict.
ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM
The union government had foreseen even in the late fifties what the influx
of refugees from east Pakistan would mean for the $
ingenous tribals languishing in utter backwardness. The
then Union Home minister Mr. Gobind Ballav Panth had made
a suo moto statement on the floor of the Lok Sabha in 1957
saying 'Tripura has reached saturation point' in
accommodating refugees. But the influx continued unabated.
In 1960 the union government passed the Tripura Land
Reforms and Land Revenue (TLRLR) Act for protecting tribal
interests on land and included this in 9th schedule of the
constitution to preclude judicial invalidation. The centre
had to pass the act because Tripura in 1960 was still a
'C' category state directly ruled by centre. But in 1974
when Tripura was full-fledged state the ruling congress
government amended the TLRLR Act and legalised transfer of
all tribal lands till 31st December 1968. The cut-off date
for restoration of land was made 1st January 1969. This
also caused resentment. It may be mentioned that centre
had earlier identified tribal-compact areas as 'tribal
development' (TD) blocks for special development programme
but precious little was done at the grass root level $ to
implement the well-tentioned schemes.
But both the state government and the centre were jolted out of slumber as
the militant agitation launched by TUJS for Autonomous
District Council (ADC) and supported later by left front
gained momentum. In the aftermath of June 1980 riots the
central government led by Ms Indira Gandhi constituted a
commission headed by former external affairs minister Mr.
Dinesh Singh to go into the problems of Tripura. The final
report submitted by Dinesh Singh committee laid stress on
economic development of the tribals, constitutional
safeguards for their rights on land and autonomy.
Unfortunately the second left front government headed by
Mr. Nripen Chakraborty did not accept the report only
because it had made mildly critical comments on the
failure of the state government to prevent the ethnic
riots in 1979 and 1980. However, the formation of ADC in
January 1982 and its subsequent conversion to one based on
6th schedule of the constitution fulfilled the basic
political demands of the tribals. The kind of power with
which an ADC based on 6th schedule is endowed by the
constitution should be enough to work for the real benefit
of the tribals. The tribal based political parties of the state including the TUJS continue to demand upgradation of ADC to an Autonomous State under the provision of article 244-A of the constitution, specially created for Meghalaya before its emergence as a full-fledged state on and from January 21st, 1972. There are also stray voices for conversion of ADC to a full-fledged state but such voices are still muted and half-hearted. However, a document entitled 'Towards Greater Autonomy' authored by senior Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) party leader Mr. N.C. Debbarma makes out a strong case for greater autonomy within the existing framework of the ADC based on 6th schedule by amendment of the constitution. SEARCH FOR SOLUTION
Experts on the issues of insurgency and tribal problem such as senior
journalist Mr. Sanjib Deb opines that problems of
insurgency and socio-economic and political grievances of
tribals should be taken care of separately. His view is
that for all their depredations the militant outfits have
never really been able to paralyse the democratic process
in the state. This shows that peoples' support behind them
even among tribal people is not total and spontaneous, he
says. Mr. Deb who is a senior correspondent of 'The Asian
Age' feels that both the state and central governments
should aim at breaking the military backbone of the
militant outfits through extensive counter-insurgency
operations of security forces. Mr. Deb's views seem to be
supported by what happened to the insurgency movement in
Mizoram. It was on February 28, 1966 that the former
leader of Mizo National Front (MNF) late Lal denga
launched his 'Operation Zericho', capturing towns like
Aizawl, Lunglei etc in order to secede from India. Despite
achieving initial success Lal denga and his MNF were soon
faced with the full might of the Indian state and within
six years he started toying with the idea of a peaceful
settlement with the government of India. It took time but
finally MNF signed a peace accord with the government of
India on June 30, 1986 and returned to the mainstream.
This happened only because shrewd Lal denga realised in
time that he could not win the battle against the Indian
state and security forces. And Mizoram now is one of the
most peaceful states in Northeast. This had been preceded
by the signing of the Shillong accord by the erstwhile
leaders of Naga National Council including brother of late
Angami Zapu Phizo's brother Kevi Yallay in 1975, virtually
ending insurgency in mainland of Nagaland. The federal
Nagas, as Phizo's followers were known, had been fighting
government of India since early fifties in order to secede
and form a separate and sovereign state of Nagaland. This had also happened because the federal Nagas had realised the futility of fighting the full might of the Indian state. The NSCN was formed in 1980 and carried on a relentless bush war for separation but since 1997 they have also been suing for an honourable settlement and is currently in a state of ceasefire in both Nagaland and the Tangkhul Naga dominated areas of Manipur in Ukhrul district and other areas. According to observers of insurgency scene security forces, be it army or Assam Rifles, should mount pro-active offensive against the insurgent outfits here and this should be backed up with a process of peaceful negotiations within the constitutional framework. A solution thus reached will be durable, experts feel.
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