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Tripura: Friends Turn Foes

Increasing friction between the BJP and its ally IPFT has become Chief Minister Biplab Deb’s biggest challenge.

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Tripura: Friends Turn Foes
Biplab Kumar Deb with N.C. Debbarma (right) at a press meet

In the winter of 2017, when the idea of an electoral alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal political party, was first broached to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, then state BJP president, he had expressed doubts. Deb eventually yielded to the party's central leadership in the interest of the 20 assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). A year later, his apprehensions have been proved right, with the IPFT giving the BJP government more headaches than the rival CPI(M).

The latest flashpoint is the violence in Ranirbazar in West Tripura district over the molestation of a tribal girl on October 18, allegedly by four Bengali Muslim men. The incident has fanned the age-old ethnic conflict between the tribal and Bangla-speaking populations. Some 50 Bengali Muslims fled their village after their homes were looted and torched by attackers in alleged retaliation. Several victims claimed the attack intensified after IPFT leader and revenue minister N.C. Debbarma arrived at the spot, a charge refuted by the minister.

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Since March this year, when the alliance came to power, the BJP and IPFT have clashed over seats in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, panchayat bypolls, MGNREGA work and, most contentious of all, the IPFT's demand for Tipraland, a separate state for Tripura's tribals. The allies contested the September panchayat bypoll separately and have decided to part ways for the 2019 Lok Sabha election as well.

Before the alliance was formed in January, the IPFT dropped its Tipraland demand from its main agenda as the Centre announced a committee under the home ministry to look into the socio-economic, cultural and linguistic problems faced by the state's tribal communities. However, when the committee visited the state in the first half of October, the IPFT raised its demand for Tipraland once again. "This marriage (BJP-IPFT) is like that between the BJP and PDP (People's Democratic Party) in Jammu and Kashmir," says Pradyot Debbarman, working president of the Tripura Congress.

According to a state police report, political violence has increased in the past eight months, averaging 25 incidents a month. In 2017, the average was 10, and six in 2016 and 2015. Deb, however, claims violence has come down and the official records looked cleaner earlier as the Left government did not allow police cases to be filed. "Whenever I receive a complaint, I ensure police action," he says.

The chief minister dismissed reports of a conflict with the IPFT as mere difference of opinion. "The government is working at an unprecedented pace. This has alarmed the Left and the Congress, which are on the verge of annihilation in the state. That's why they are trying to create chaos to distract attention from progressive work," he claims.

Debbarman counters the chief minister, saying, "He has called the Congress a spent force. How can a spent force destabilise a government? It's high time he admits his government's failure in maintaining law and order and takes note of the undercurrents of ethnic conflicts in the state."