'Need pan-India SIR': Tipra Motha's Pradyot warns indigenous people under threat from migrants

 

Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma, founder of the Tipra Motha Party, has called for a “Bihar-style SIR” (Special Intensive Revision) in Tripura, citing growing illegal migration and demographic threats to indigenous communities in the Northeast.

Speaking on the ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash, Pradyot highlighted that in Bihar SIR, it was discovered that illegal immigrants had come from Bangladesh and Myanmar. "People from Bangladesh have entered Bihar through the eastern corridor," he said. 

Pradyot said Tripura faces unchecked cross-border migration from Bangladesh and Myanmar, including Rohingya refugees entering via the Chittagong hill tracks. 

"For every 10–20 people caught at checkpoints, hundreds cross undetected," he said, pointing to porous borders and the absence of enforcement mechanisms like those in Nagaland and Mizoram.

The Tipra Motha chief further said that in Nagaland, last week, 200 trucks of illegal migrants were entering Dimapur. The Nagaland Police had to stop them. "Tell me why at 2:00 at night 200 trucks filled with illegal immigrants are entering Dimmapur? Because they are being evicted out of Assam." 

"So Nagaland has created a mechanism to stop them from entering. Meghalaya has done it. Mizoram has done it. In Tripura, no such steps have been taken yet. So I believe that if you throw out an illegal migrant from Assam or they enter Tripura, they are there for 10-15 days, they'll get the Aadhaar card, or they will become a voter in Tripura or go to Haryana and get a job or go to Maharashtra or come to Delhi."

He warned that migrants quickly acquire Aadhaar cards, land ownership, and even public positions, gradually making indigenous populations minorities in their own states. "The Northeast is the frontier of India. Protecting its people is not just about culture—it is existential. Survival and national security are voters,” he said.

"So we have to be serious about it and we went to the election commission and we said - SIR should happen in the entire country," he said. 

Pradyot also criticised historical political neglect in Tripura and other tribal regions. Unlike Bodoland or Mizoram, Tripura was never given adequate political safeguards, leaving indigenous communities vulnerable to demographic changes and loss of political representation. 

He cited Assam's Himanta Biswa Sharma’s recent warning that within 15 years, the state could have a non-indigenous, non-Assamese-speaking chief minister.

As the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council runs under his Tipra Motha Party, which allies with the BJP at the state level, Pradyot positioned himself as a key voice for Northeast indigenous communities. "People have grown accustomed to ignoring tribal voices. We have to speak up," he said.