Agartala: Political parties from different tribes in Tripura, including the current ruling BJP’s junior partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), are putting up a demand for a National Register of Citizens in the state.
Biplab Kumar Deb, Chief Minister of Tripura, however said that everyone in the state near the border had valid documents and there was no such demand for a NRC.
The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and the National Conference of Tripura (NCT), which are all tribal-based political parties, have undertaken several protests by putting up the demand for a citizen’s register on the lines of the NRC in Assam.
“We had earlier organised rallies in Tripura demanding initiation of NRC in the state. On August 23 the IPFT will hold a mega rally in (the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council headquarters) Khumulwng,” IPFT Vice-President Ananta Debbarma told the media on Wednesday.
The IPFT, which has eight working members in the 60-member Tripura Assembly, has two ministers in the 9-member council of ministry headed by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
He told that NRC was very important for the protection of the indigenous tribals and actual citizens of India.
As told by INPT General Secretary Jagadhish Debbarma, on Wednesday, a sit-in-demonstration was planned earlier in last month by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-IPFT alliance government did not give any permission for the protest.
“We have filed a case in the Tripura High Court against the Tripura government’s rejection of permission for holding the demonstration,” the INPT leader said.
NCT General Secretary Animesh Debbarma said: “His party is also strongly demanding commencement of NRC in Tripura involving all stakeholders, not unilaterally. Politics on NRC must be stopped. We should protect our future generations.”
The parties comprising tribal people like IPFT, INPT and NCT have also put up similar demand for the withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, which is as of now being reviewed by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), headed by BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal.
The Citizenship (Amendment) bill was introduced for discussion in the Lok Sabha in the month of July 2016 to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.
It tries to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from various countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for citizenship and relax requirements of naturalization specially for them.
These parties are also have been putting up demands for an introduction of an innerline permit to protect indigenous tribals, restoration of alienated tribal lands and inclusion of tribals’ Kokborok language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
As per the media reports, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said that everyone in the Tripura had got valid papers and there was no such demand for a citizen’s register on the lines of the NRC in Assam.
Mr Deb who is also the Tripura Pradesh President of BJP, has expressed confidence that Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal would be able to easily handle the situation after the final draft of NRC was published on July 30.
Mr Deb, who visited Nagpur on Tuesday and met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, said: “Everything is in order in Tripura and everyone has valid papers. Hence, it is not an issue in Tripura.”
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