The Tripura Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) and the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) on Tuesday organised a joint conference in Guwahati.
The meeting decided to work for forming an anti-BJP joint platform of regional parties in the Northeast for all-round development of the indigenous people.
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In a joint statement after the conference, the TIPRA, led by erstwhile Tripura Royal family member Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman and the AJP, headed by Lurinjyoti Gogoi, said that the indigenous people of the northeastern states have been facing betrayal and deceit for a long.
They said the two regional parties have decided to take the initiative to form a united forum of all political parties of the Northeast.
Initially, the two parties would continue to hold various campaigns highlighting five demands including repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC), constitutional provisions for the protection of identity and culture of all indigenous people, the acceptance of Tipraland/Greater Tripraland, and implementation of the Assam Accord in totality.
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It said that the people of the Northeast are realizing and “even paying off for the consequences occurred due to the BJP’s aggressive agenda in order to strengthen their foothold in the Northeast”.
“As a part of the BJP’s divisive and communal politics, they are trying to implement their concept of ‘Hindutva’ which is different from the as old traditions of Hinduism based on love and compassion. As a result, many ethnic traditions and languages have become either extinct or endangered.”
It said that the governments led by BJP at the centre and few states of the northeast have been trying to ignore the voices of the indigenous communities of the region to fulfil their narrow political ends.
With Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Sarma as convener, the BJP-led, anti-Congress North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) was formed a few years back and the ruling parties of most northeastern states including Meghalaya’s National People’s Party and Mizoram’s Mizo National Front are its members.