Agartala, May 17:Tripura is preparing to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), as announced by Chief Minister Manik Saha, despite opposition parties’ fears of increased communal tensions.
Speaking to reporters in the sidelines of a blood donation camp at a mosque here on Friday, when asked about Tripura’s stance on the CAA, Saha said, “Now what direction has come from the central, of course we are going to implement.”
The Tripura government has reportedly instructed all District Magistrates to form committees and designate officials to process applications received under the CAA. The process includes appointing officials for the State Level Empowered Committee and District Level Committee.
Meantime, Opposition parties, including the CPIM and Congress, have condemned this decision.
They argue that implementing the CAA will alter the state’s demographic pattern, particularly reducing the tribal community’s ratio and led to renewal of communal tensions between the two communities.
Jitendra Choudhury, Opposition Leader and CPIM state secretary, reiterated his party’s longstanding opposition to the CAA, noting he has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against it.
He expressed concern that the CAA’s implementation would negatively impact the entire North Eastern region, which has suffered from significant influxes in the past.
He viewed that to get political mileage in the election and divert the attention from the electoral board issues it is being implemented now.
The CPIM leader warned that Tripura’s once-majority tribal population, now a minority due to these influxes, could face renewed communal tensions if CAA is implemented in the state.
Senior Congress leader and former Minister Sudip Roy Barman echoed these concerns.
While sympathetic towards religiously persecuted minorities in neighboring countries, Roy Batman, also a MLA feared that implementing the CAA could reignite tribal insurgency in Tripura by further marginalizing the tribal community.
He argued that granting citizenship to foreigners based on religion would strain India’s financial resources and encourage fundamentalist forces across the border, making the CAA an ineffective solution.
Both opposition leaders also questioned the silence of BJP alliance partner TIPRA Motha and its founder, Pradyot Kishore Debbarma, who had originally founded the party in opposition to the CAA.
