Agartala, The tribal-based parties in Tripura, including the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), the junior ally of the BJP-led government in the state, on Monday opposed the Central government’s proposal to revoke Article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
In a big triumph for the government, the Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, tabled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and adopted the resolution to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution.
The Bill, which proposes to split J&K into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly and Ladakh sans one, would now be tabled in the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing.
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing BJP Yuva Morcha held a rally led by party President Tinku Roy, which hailed the Central government’s move. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in a tweet praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah said that a new era of peace and good governance will start (in Jammu and Kashmir). “Dream of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s ‘Ek-desh, Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan aur Ek Nishan’ came true today,” Deb tweeted.
Tripura’s oldest non-Left tribal-based party, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), opposed the proposal to revoke Article 370.
“We strongly oppose Home Minister Amit Shah’s proposal seeking to axe Article 370 of the Constitution,” IPFT President and Tripura’s Revenue and Fisheries Minister Narendra Chandra Debbarma told IANS.
He said: “The IPFT always wants to continue both Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution to accord special powers to Jammu and Kashmir. We want to maintain the status-quo on both the important provisions of the constitution.”
Debbarma said they would soon write a letter to the Central government not to knife Article 370 and Article 35A.
The IPFT has been agitating since 2009 for a separate state to be carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which has jurisdiction of over two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km area, home to over 12,16,000 people.
IPFT, which had forged an alliance with the BJP before the February 2018 Assembly polls, has two ministers in the 8-member council of ministry headed by the Chief Minister and has eight legislators in the 60-member state Assembly.
Opposition Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) also opposed the move to revoke Article 370.
INPT leaders said that if the Centre scrapped Article 370 and Article 35A, it would hurt the sentiments of the majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Status-quo must be maintained on Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution to avoid any further trouble,” INPT General Secretary Jagadhish Debbarma told IANS.
Leaders of the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist refused to comment on the issue, saying that their central leaders would react on the matter.
