INDO-PAK RELATIONS- Hopeful Signs

Volunteers (TNV), Tripura Tribal National Council (TTNC), ITPF also includes Tripura Hill People's Party (THPP) which has been an ally of the Left Front since 1983. The ITPF demanded an upgradation of Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council to a separate state, and identification and deportation of persons who entered Tripura after March 25, 1971 as per the Indira Gandhi- Mujibur Rehman pact. These demands are also very much on the agenda of tribal militant outfits like the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT). The ATTF had called a 10- day bandh in June last year to drive out post- 1949 immigrants. The growing marginalisation of tribals in the state is at the root of the strife. The various tribal ethnic groups which formed more than half the population of the state before independence, have now been reduced to around 25 per cent of the population. Both the major political parties in the state, the Congress and the CPI(M), have raised the bogey of non-tribals to play on the susceptibilities of the tribals, and dislodge the party in power The state is now reaping the disastrous consequences of the tribal-non-tribal schism promoted by the parties for electoral gain.