Amid calls to detect, identify and deport illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Rohingya people, the TIPRA Motha on Wednesday met officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi to push for a Bihar-style special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Tripura.
TIPRA Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma wrote on X, “Today the TIPRA Motha delegation met the ECI officials at Delhi to press for an implementation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Tripura. Illegal migration is affecting our state and northeast and today if we don’t identify illegal voters there will be no tomorrow for our next generation. The good news is that the ECI has assured the delegation that SIR will be conducted across the country including Tripura”.
Pradyot went live on social media later in the evening and said, “I am not against citizens of any religion. My single thought is that if illegal people from Bangladesh or Myanmar keep on coming to Tripura and become legal Indians, get Aadhar card, become MLAs even, get government facilities, whose loss is it? When we became a part of India, we didn’t become a part of Bangladesh. I went to ECI and asked them not to disturb genuine people but identify those who changed names and entered India. They will take the jobs of the children of all of us, create a national security issue, and if it doesn’t stop, Tripura will become Assam before long.”
In a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the TIPRA Motha delegation, headed by Pradyot, said Tripura’s demographic composition had undergone significant shifts over the past several decades, raising apprehensions among the indigenous population and other vulnerable communities about the erosion of their political and cultural rights.
No cut-off year mentioned
The move comes a week after the BJP-led government formed special task forces in districts to identify and deport illegal immigrants. Chief Minister Manik Saha has said the drive will apply only to those who entered India after December 2014, since those who came before that would be recognised as per the Citizenship Amendment Act. The TIPRA Motha, an ally of the BJP, has not mentioned any cut-off date for its demand.
Sources within the tribal party say they are most likely pushing for 1971, which was the cut-off year as per the Indira Mujib Pact for Indian citizenship for people who came from the erstwhile East Pakistan.
Drawing the commission’s attention to Tripura’s 856-km-long border with Bangladesh, much of which remains porous and inadequately fenced, the TIPRA Motha delegation said that the state was faced with a “serious challenge” in monitoring and preventing illegal immigration.
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“The unchecked influx of undocumented immigrants has not only disrupted the socio-economic balance of the region but has also led to the dilution of electoral rolls, threatening the democratic rights of the indigenous tribal communities and undermining electoral fairness. In particular, it is now an open secret that many illegal immigrants have obtained EPIC, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, driving licenses, and even passports, often by fraudulent means and with the assistance of corrupt officials, local brokers, and political strongmen. In some cases, they have even managed to shift their Register of Residence (RoR) records from one place to another for electoral advantage. This is no longer just a Tripura-specific issue, it is a matter of national security, with serious implications for the democratic fabric of the country,” the party wrote to the ECI.
‘1,48,000 illegal voters in 2012’
The Motha delegation also cited an incident from September 2012 where around 1,48,000 illegal voters were identified in Tripura. Although the then Election Commissioner Vinod Saxena directed authorities to rectify the electoral rolls, the directives were never acted upon, and the anomalies have continued unchecked, according to the delegation.
The delegation also cited Census data from 1971 to 1991 to argue that Tripura had experienced a rate of population growth far above the national average during that period. “The pattern continues to this day and is visible in various demographic and electoral indicators,” its letter read.
Stating that their concerns were not “statistical or bureaucratic”, the TIPRA Motha said integrity of electoral rolls in Tripura is directly tied to the fairness of representation in Scheduled Tribe-reserved constituencies. The tribal party also claimed the very purpose of reservation for tribal communities was being undermined and that the indigenous population was being further marginalised in both governance and policy-making.
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‘Risk of political misuse’
Expressing concerns about the “risk of political misuse” of “flawed” electoral rolls, the delegation urged the ECI to conduct a Bihar-style special intensive revision by using trained personnel independent of local political and administrative influence.
Pradyot further said that 52 lakh people had been excluded as per Bihar’s special intensive revision and that Tripura should not become the next West Bengal, where the BJP accuses the ruling Trinamool Congress of being soft on illegal immigration from Bangladesh in order to appease its Muslim voters.
The Trinamool Congress has alleged that while the special intensive revision is being conducted in Bihar, the “real target” is West Bengal, where the saffron party has not been able to come to power.
The Trinamool Congress had also criticised the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam.
