Tripura: Say sorry to Pradyot Kishore Debbarman, apex tribal body tells TPF chief

AGARTALA: The Council of Tiprasa Hoda (CTH), the apex body of indigenous communities of Tripura, asked the Tripura Peoples' Front (TPF) chief Patal Kanya Jamatia to seek an unconditional apology on behalf of her cadres to royal scion and TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Debbarman for heckling and abusing him at ADC headquarters in Khumlung last week.The CTH, in a statement, alleged that Patal Kanya and her party TPF has been raising communal slogans against Bengalis terming them "intruders" from Bangladesh and TPF workers harassed Pradyot Kishore with abusive words.Pradyot Kishore was seen crying after the insult by the indigenous people for whom he had been fighting for unity to develop the communities and with folded hands he sought support from a cross section of society for development of the state, which was unprecedented and derogatory to all the indigenous communities, CTH statement said."Unless Patal Kanya seeks an apology in the next two days in public to the royal scion, she will be excluded from Tiprasa (indigenous tribal) society. In our tradition, Bubagra (king) is the supremo of all the indigenous communities and he has to be respected everywhere irrespective of caste, colour, community or creed, but TPF cadres have violated the social norm that set a bad precedent in the state," it stated."Not only Bengalis, even the tribals who fled after the creation of Bangladesh were considered illegal migrants and we have been persuading the government to take action against the intruders. There are a large number of Bengalis residing in Tripura since its accession to the Indian Union in 1949. So, generalising all Bengalis as Bangladeshis is not correct and acceptable," CTH leaders said.