The Tipra Indigenous Students Federation (TISF) – the student body of the Tipra Motha – on Sunday said it will go ahead with the indefinite statewide strike starting Monday. The tribal student organisation has vowed to stop students from taking the state board exams over the Kokborok script controversy. The controversy arose after Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) President Dr Dhananjay Ganchoudhury said students taking the Kokborok exam will be permitted to use the Bengali script alone. Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has urged the protesters to desist from blocking roads and railway lines and promised to sort out the issue. However, the TISF claimed it was not contacted by the administration and, therefore, would go ahead with its planned protest. Speaking to reporters in Agartala, TISF President Sajra Debbarma said, “They are in the state government and they will do their work. We will do our work. If they have something to tell us… we shall discuss with our committee and see if we can give an alternate direction to the movement. But, till now, no one came to talk to us and so, we shall proceed as decided.” The student leader said picketing will be held in eight districts of the state and only emergency vehicles will be permitted to ply. “We shall allow fire vehicles, marriage vehicles, ambulances, milk vans, and water vans. But we want to stress the fact that those who have exams, would not be allowed,” Sajra Debbarma said. Asked about the plight of the examinees, Sajra Debbarma replied, “What about the students who have Kokborok? If the examinations go on as scheduled, the same thing will happen to them. There are many English-medium schools under the TBSE, where many students can’t read Bengali or write the script. They would lose a year as well.” Meanwhile, other tribal bodies like the Twipra Students Federation (TSF) announced “full support” for the TISF strike. “We fully support their (TISF) strike and blockade,” a TSF leader said, adding that representatives of the tribal student body met TBSE executives thrice over the Kokborok examination script issue. “They have changed their stand thrice. We held an agitation on February 5 demanding the Roman script for the Kokborok paper. The TBSE president assured us that both Roman and Bengali scripts would be allowed. We were very happy. However, he said the very next day that the Bengali script alone would be allowed for the exam. We served a second memorandum on February 9 and said we would wait till February 10 but there was no notification. We have decided to fully support the indefinite strike from tomorrow,” the TSF leader said. Meanwhile, Tribal Students Union (TSU) and Tribal Youths Federation, (TYF), and opposition CPI(M)’s tribal student and youth bodies also said they agree with the demand to allow both Roman and Bengali scripts for the Kokborok examination. “Instead of speaking of recruitments, proper education, and socio-economic development of people, they are now creating division over the script issue. Where are jobs? Large numbers of people are moving from villages to cities in search of jobs. Is this the real picture of sushashan (good governance) as claimed by the BJP?” TYF state general secretary Kumud Debbarma said. “The TBSE president is speaking on different lines at different times. This causes a lot of confusion and anxiety among candidates who would appear for the exams this year. We want the exams to continue in the way they have in the last two decades. There was no problem regarding the Kokborok exams in the past till 2022-23, when a concerted conspiracy was hatched to suppress the potential of Kokborok and fulfill narrow political gains… The stand to disallow the Roman script is unfortunate and undesired. We request the board president to change his stance,” he added. Kokborok is the lingua franca of the majority of Tripura’s 19 tribal communities.
