Politics of appeasements is a common phenomenon in Indian democracy. Such politics are more glaring in areas where different communities –religious, ethnic, linguistic etc are living together. The idea behind the paper bouquet of political proposals is simple – to woo a particular and targeted group of electorate, sway their mood and sentiment in favour of the party before elections and in the process turn the group a committed ‘vote bank’.
Come elections the political parties appear with several such offers- and as it appeared time and again, most of these offers and ideas are simply preposterous and impossible to implement. Quite expectedly, after elections are over the offers are either sent to the back burner on different and varied pretexts. Some are swept under the carpet, forever. A case in hand is ‘Tipraland’ demand of the IPFT.
Notwithstanding the fact that it is not, as the situation stands, going to materialise, TIPRA Motha led by Pradyot Kishore Debbarman has come up with a far more impractical and absurd demand of ‘Greater Tipraland’—which, in fact, seeks to incorporate the land mass of indigenous Tripuri inhabited areas of Bangladesh, Assam , Mizoram etc.
For most of the people this may sound outrageous –say for example inclusion Bangladesh land in proposed ‘Greater Tipraland’, but for TIPRA Motha it is an important political agenda, no matter how many of the party leaders themselves believe it is possible to implement. Nevertheless, the party has succeeded to achieve its first step to sway the targeted group and come to rule the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections.
However, the competitive politics of appeasement has a tendency to throw up some brilliantly inflated ideas. Latest being that of the Tripura Pradesh Congress led by newly appointed president Birajit Sinha.
Sinha says, the Congress will demand ‘Development Councils’ –one each- for all the 19 tribes of Tripura as well as 41 categories of OBCs of the State for their effective participation in planning and monitoring the development process.
Sinha has a model in his hand : Assam , where former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi introduced similar Development Councils for 31 communities.
Sinha said, “ Development Council for the individual tribe and OBC category will pave way for respective socio-economic and cultural development. Representatives from the individual community will form the Council and Government will allocate fund for every Council which will be spent for the uplift of the community”.
“Former Chief Minister of Assam and Congress leader Tarun Gogoi introduced the concept of Development Council in Assam and it was a big success”.
Wrong.
It was a total failure and later BJP government had to dissolve most of them. Some could not be dissolved as there were court cases relating to them.
There are several reasons to see such a proposal as impractical. Some of them are 1) fund allocation problems 2) political nepotism 3) corruption 4) scattered settlements across different geographical areas.
While the time tested and decades old TTAADC is still complaining of fund allocation problem the position of the proposed Development Councils for 19 tribes, 41 OBCs-total being 60- can very well be gauged.
Fact is, even the Tarun Gogoi government could not run their Development Councils properly and channel the fund. Before its rout in 2015-16 financial year Tarun Gogoi government did not give any fund to the DCs.
As for political nepotism the Development Council will be , as the experience says, another rehabilitation centre for the ‘ defeated MLAs’ and leaders in need of money and position.
However, one of the most important factors is settlement of the targeted groups. In Tripura they are scattered across the state and there is virtually no homogenous area for any of the communities.
In any case , there is no harm in raising demands- practical or impractical, especially when people here are accustomed to such political hyperboles. And considering the present condition of the Congress in Tripura such exaggerated proposals can always be allowed with a small smile and accepted with a pinch of salt.
