Huge Deputations Warn ADC’s INPT Leaders

ON May 31, thousands of people surged to the headquarters of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC) at Khumulawng, West Tripura, in a landmark mass deputation at the call of Tripura Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (GMP) to demonstrate against the out and out corruption and collapse of the ADC administration ever since the INPT usurped this constitutional body with the help of extremist guns in the May 2000 ADC elections. It was a militant march of the peace-loving and democratic minded people of the ADC areas, braving extremist threats and signaling their determination not to sit silent until fulfillment of their 16-point charter of demands and resurrection of the role of the ADC for development and welfare of the backward tribal areas in Tripura.

The INPT is the overground political wing of the outlawed extremist organisation NLFT’s and an ally of the Congress party.

To protest against the blatant and unbridled corruption at the cost of the ADC funds sanctioned by the state government, and to press for such demands as providing food and work throughout the year and re-opening of such schools in ADC areas as were closed due to extremist atrocities, mass deputations have already been held at several zonal offices of the ADC. The tremendous popularity of such demands was underscored by the massive and militant march of May 31 to Khumulawng, pointing out that the absolutely corrupt and inept INPT leaders have failed the people of the ADC areas and have no moral right to rule the ADC which was the fruit of a prolonged mass movement of the tribal and non-tribal people.

Although the May 31 programme was limited to the West Zone, the march to Khumulawng, covering both the ADC West Zone and the ADC headquarters, set a milestone in the history of the mass movement by being the biggest rally of the ADC population since its formation in 1981. In the blazing heat of the mid-day sun when it is difficult even to stay indoors, thousands of thundering people surged through a five-kilometre stretch from Tripura Engineering College crossing at Jirania, West Tripura, upto the ADC headquarters at Khumulawng. A sizeable section of supporters also participated in the protest march against the ADC corruption and collapse. Before 1.00 p m, when the march started, people had assembled at the college crossing, coming all the way from the hills and dales and several remote areas of Sadar, Bishalgarh, Khowai and Sonamura subdivisions in West Tripura  district. The vanguard of the march included GMP leaders such as the CPI(M) Central Committee member Aghore Debbarma, state secretariat member Niranjan Debbarma, state committee member Radhacharan Debbarma and others. Other leaders like the Central Committee member Bijan Dhar and CPI(M) MP, Khagen Das, also joined the march. To express solidarity with the march, people flanked the route, clogging the traffic for a long time on the intersecting national highway. When the frontline of the march reached the ADC West Zone office at Khumulawng, the message over the police walkie-talkie indicated that streams of people were still thronging the college crossing for joining the march.

Immediately after a rally started in front of the West Zone office, a nine-member deputation led by Ramchandra Debbarma met the zonal development officer with the 16-point charter of demands. A minute of silence was observed in the memory of the tribals and non-tribals who were killed in extremist attacks.

Addressing the rally, GMP general secretary Aghore Debbarma lashed out at the corruption and mal-administration of the INPT-ruled ADC threatening the very existence of the tribals. He also pointed out that non-tribals are being dislodged from their hearth and home in the ADC areas and their lands distributed among the kith and kin of extremists, besides pampering and sponsoring the extremists with the ADC funds meant for development and welfare of the tribals.

GMP vice president Niranjan Debbarma said the day’s mass deputation was a launching pad for the people’s fight-back against the INPT-led ADC’s three-year long misrule at the instance of the outlawed militants. He affirmed that this united rally of the tribal and non-tribal people would pale into insignificance all the extremist death threats. He also urged the people to intensify their struggle against the Congress-INPT combine which had hatched a heinous though abortive, plot to replicate the ADC experience throughout the state by hijacking with the help of NLFT guns the February 26 assembly elections in Tripura.  

Opposition leader in ADC, Radhacharan Debbarma, pointed out the utterly undemocratic and unparliamentarian attitude of the ruling INPT at the ADC sessions to muzzle the opposition by brute force. Let the ongoing mass movement against such flagrant misrule be the steppingstone towards a regime change at the ADC, he said, to the thunderous cheers of the thousands. (INN)