The Tripura Peo­ples Front led by iron-lady Patal Kanya Ja­ma­tia, fight­ing the Cit­i­zen­ship Amend­ment Act 2019 since the pass­ing of the dra­con­ian leg­is­la­tion by the Union gov­ern­ment of In­dia, has whole-heart­edly wel­comed the am­i­cus cu­riae in­ter­ven­tion by the UN Hu­man Rights Coun­cil chief Michelle Bachelet. Though late in the day, it is heart­en­ing to note that the UN has re­alised that the CAA is not an in­ter­nal mat­ter of the coun­try but a mat­ter or sur­vival and iden­tity for peo­ple of Tripura and oth­ers in the North East.

THE IN­DIGE­NOUS PEO­PLES OF TRIPURA AND THE NORTH­EAST have heaved a sigh of re­lief and sat­is­fac­tion at the UN move to chal­lenge the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ity of the CAA in the Supreme Court of In­dia.

Spelling out the spe­cial sit­u­a­tion of the peo­ple of Tripura, the leader of the peo­ple’s move­ment across the state -Patal Kanya Ja­ma­tia has said, “it is im­por­tant for the United Na­tions to ap­pre­ci­ate our sit­u­a­tion and not club the peo­ple of this re­gion with the whole coun­try.”

The re­ported step of the United Na­tional Hu­man Rights Coun­cil to ap­proach the Supreme Court of In­dia and seek a de­ci­sion on the Cit­i­zen­ship Amend­ment Act has been ap­pre­ci­ated and wel­comed by the Patal Kanya Ja­ma­tia -the pres­i­dent of the Tripura Peo­ples Front.

Con­grat­u­lat­ing the UN High Com­mis­sioner for Hu­man Rights, in a press re­lease, Patal Kanya said, “We are pleased to note that the UN has in­ter­vened and taken up this mat­ter. Un­doubt­edly, this mat­ter is not an in­ter­nal mat­ter of In­dia. It con­cerns us all and es­pe­cially the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity to en­sure com­pli­ance of In­di­a’s in­ter­na­tional com­mit­ments.”

The Tripura Peo­ples Front has said that “the UN is op­pos­ing the CAA due to the fear that the il­le­gal Mus­lim im­mi­grants will be­come state­less in In­dia.”

“The Naren­dra Modi-led BJP gov­ern­ment has in­tro­duced CAA to pro­vide safe pas­sage and res­i­dence to il­le­gal Hindu mi­grants from Bangladesh, Pak­istan and Afghanistan im­mi­grants to make In­dia a Hindu Rash­tra, de­stroy­ing not only the sec­u­lar fab­ric of In­dia but also threat­en­ing the very ex­is­tence and sur­vival of the in­dige­nous peo­ples of the North East.”

The Tripura Peo­ples Front is cat­e­goric that “In­dia is a fed­eral coun­try with var­i­ous lan­guages, eth­nic and cul­tural di­ver­sity and peo­ple of no any par­tic­u­lar re­li­gion can be a dom­i­nat­ing peo­ple to the detri­ment of the other.”

The in­dige­nous peo­ples of Tripura are in a par­tic­u­larly per­ilous sit­u­a­tion and In­dia has failed to pro­tect all sec­tions of so­ci­ety by not fol­low­ing the prin­ci­ple of equal­ity be­fore law and the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia.

Ex­plain­ing the pe­cu­liar sit­u­a­tion of Tripura, Patal Kanya said that ‘one man’s goose is an­other per­son’s gan­der.” “While the CAA is il­le­gal and wrong for every­one in the coun­try, the NRC may not be sig­nif­i­cant in many ar­eas of the coun­try, but the NRC is cru­cial in Tripura and other parts of the North East for our very sur­vival and ex­is­tence,” she added.

“Noth­ing short of the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the UN De­c­la­ra­tion for the Rights of In­dige­nous Peo­ples will be ac­cept­able to the peo­ple of Tripura and I ap­peal to the UNHRC to take strong ini­tia­tives un­der var­i­ous in­ter­na­tional in­stru­ments, covenants and treaties to­wards this end.” 

Patal Kanya Ja­ma­tia, chief, Tripura Peo­ples Front

The press re­lease noted that, “It is quite ev­i­dent that af­ter the As­sam ex­per­i­ment the NDA gov­ern­ment is not in­clined to pro­tect the peo­ple of Tripura who have been dras­ti­cally re­duced to a mi­nor­ity by the il­le­gal in­flux Hin­dus, Bud­dhists and Mus­lims for the last seven decades. The in­dige­nous peo­ple of Tripura are re­duced to mi­nor­ity from 93 per cent to 19 per cent due to il­le­gal in­trud­ers and are be­ing per­se­cuted end­lessly in their own home­land, their iden­tity is threat­ened, the lands have been snatched and they are on the brink of so­cio-eco­nomic and po­lit­i­cal dis­as­ter.”

“Noth­ing short of the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the UN De­c­la­ra­tion for the Rights of In­dige­nous Peo­ples will be ac­cept­able to the peo­ple of Tripura and I ap­peal to the UNHRC to take strong ini­tia­tives un­der var­i­ous in­ter­na­tional in­stru­ments, covenants and treaties to­wards this end,” warned Patal Kanya.