Ahead of the declaration of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, the Ministry of Home Affairs in a historical move on Saturday signed a tripartite accord with the Tripura government and the opposition TIPRA Motha party over constitutional solution for the indigenous people of the state.

The tripartite agreement was signed in presence of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah in Delhi. The agreement was signed by the Additional Secretary (NE) of the Ministry of Home Affairs Piyush Goyal, Chief Secretary of Tripura government J K Sinha, founder of the opposition party in Tripura TIPRA Motha Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman, LoP Animesh Debbarma and Bijoy Hrangkhwal of TIPRA Motha. Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, former Chief Minister and MP Biplab Kumar Deb and others were also present in the agreement signing ceremony. 

Addressing a press conference from Delhi after the signing of the accord, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Today is a historic day for Tripura and through this agreement, we have looked at the future by honouring history, making amends and accepting today’s realities.”

“Tripura will be a key partner in Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s dream of a Viksit Bharat and will move forward as Viksit Tripura,” Shah said, adding that the Centre had signed at least 11 big agreements in last 5 years to bring peace and prosperity in the Northeast.

The agreement reads, “Agreed to amicably resolve all issues of indigenous people of Tripura relating to history, land and political rights, economic development, identity, culture and language.”

“It was agreed to constitute a Joint Working Group/ Committee to work out and implement the mutually agreed points on all the mentioned issues in a time-bound manner to ensure an honourable solution. In order to maintain a conducive atmosphere for implementation of this Agreement, all stakeholders shall refrain from resorting to any form of agitation/ protest during this period, starting from the day of signing,” it reads.

Responding to the agreement, founder of TIPRA Motha Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman said, “I am not concerned with politics, but this is the victory of our community in Tripura. The work is half done, we should celebrate but we should be mindful that hard work comes after this.”

“Committees will be formed and we have to then work together and give even more effort to ensure that our language, our rights, political, economic, social, land is all ensured within the time frame of this agreement,” he said in an interview with a television channel.

He said, “I am satisfied, but the most important thing is we have to now work together cutting across political lines as Tiprasas to ensure constitutional rights for our Tiprasas.” He however thanked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Government of Tripura and other stakeholders for joining in this accord.