Agartala: Leader of the opposition party, Animesh Debbarma, on Saturday claimed that if the TIPRA Motha party becomes hostile to the party in power, particularly over its demand for a Roman script for an indigenous language, the Tripura ruling government would collapse like a ‘house of cards’.
The senior TIPRA Motha leader said that if required, over one lakh women activists of the opposition party would march to the civil secretariat to press for their demand of a Roman script for the indigenous Kokborok language.
Addressing a rally organized by TIPRA women federation, a frontal wing of TIPRA, Debbarma said, “Kokborok is our language and Roman script is our choice. Don’t we have the right to finalize a script for our mother tongue? When we ask for Roman script we are told to either use Bengali script or the Devanagari. Why Devanagari if we ask? The answer is this is the script of the Devas. Then what is the use of Bengali script; replace all scripts with Devanagari if it is so pious”.
Launching a scathing attack on the state government, he said that the Tiprasa people are like “sleeping lions”.
“Don’t show the audacity to break their sleep as it will only prove costly for you. If the government thinks that leaving TIPRA Motha workers angry and resentful would bring them political strength, then they are wrong. Without TIPRA Motha, this government could collapse any day. The calculation is simple. They have 31 MLAs. If two people resign, the government will be toppled,” he said.
According to Debbarma, if the demand of Roman script is ignored further, massive protests would be organized all across the state and no government would be in the mode to face such a situation.
“The Chief Minister promised us that a committee will be constituted to look into the demand of Roman script. Months have passed and if it was an act of lip service, years will pass nothing is going to happen. We have time and again said that there are some technical issues linked with the Roman script demand. I throw an open challenge to the Chief Minister. If he dares to accept it, I will give him a couple of Kokborok pronunciations which can only be accurately spelled and written in Roman script. Neither Bengali nor any other script can fix these problems, and this is why this demand has been raised”, Debbarma told the gathering of women activists.
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Speaking on the issue, TWF leader Geeta Debbarma said, “This is not a new demand. This issue has always been surrounded by controversies. We have only one demand. The Governor should consider this issue as his own problem and take speedy redressal initiatives”.
A five-member delegation of the TWF later met the Governor and submitted a memorandum detailing their demands. A face-off like situation also emerged when police barricades prevented the TWF activists from entering into the VIP road near Kunjaban area, but the situation was taken under control. The public meeting was organized in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Kunjaban area of Agartala.
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