Tripura Legislative Assembly : Reminiscences of a Reporter in nostalgia
Sekhar Datta
February 5, 2026
Nostalgia grips anyone’s mind writing in first person singular number on a past based on youthful enthusiasm and experiences while performing professional responsibilities . Such an occasion arose on February 3 when the Tripura Legislative Assembly (TLS) authority headed by the officiating speaker Ram Prasad Paul who had decided to felicitate journalists who reported and continue to report accurately the proceedings of the TLA. The novel idea enthused all such journalists including veterans of the profession still at work, leading to full attendance , as fond memories flooded the minds. The grand programme concluded exceedingly well with high dignitaries including the highest constitutional authority , the governor of Tripura Indrasena Reddy Nallu sharing dais with the media persons as well as representatives of people including minister Animesh Debbarma, leader of the opposition Jiten Chowdhury and MLAs Rampada Jamatya of BJP, Birajit Sinha of Congress and , above all, the deputy speaker Ram Prasad Paul, the mastermind behind the positive initiative.
At a time when the very efficacy of parliament, comprising the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha , is in question over the utterly irresponsible role of the opposition headed by a so-called leader whose rash statements and speeches have been used by Pakistan in its anti-India dossier to the UNO, the functioning of the TLA has remained relatively free from fracas witnessed daily in the parliament. But in retrospect, the Tripura assembly also came to its present form with effect from January 21 1972 when this tiny state had attained full-fledged statehood along with Meghalaya and Manipur as part of the second reorganisation of Northeast bill passed by parliament in October 1971 through a process of political evolution in post-merger Tripura.
The activation of the constitution on and from January 26 1950 saw erstwhile princely Tripura being listed as a Category ‘C’ state to be ruled by a chief commissioner with the assistance of three advisors , Sachindra Lal Singha, Sukhamay Sengupta and Jiten Thakur (Debbarma) with no provision for representative governance. Even for electing the state’s lone representative to Rajya Sabah a thirty member electoral college had to be formed by election. But things had changed for the better from November 1956 when , on the basis of recommendations of the state reorganisation commission , Tripura was upgraded as a union territory with a 32 (2 nominated) member Territorial Council with limited power equivalent more or less to that of a Municipality headed by a chairperson with a vice chairperson. This had been done after enactment of Territorial Council Act by parliament in disregards of the state reorganisation commission’s recommendation for merging Tripura with Assam , in the wake of a statewide popular movement. Even as the elected Territorial Council continued to function under the overall stewardship of administrator , designated as chief commissioner vested with real power, the union government passed the Union Territories Act in May 1963 and from July 1 that year the Territorial Council was abolished and upgraded to 32 member (2/3 nominated by Centre) with a council of ministers headed by a chief minister under the overall control first of a Chief Commissioner and then of a Lt governor. This also continued till January 20 1972 as from the next date-that is January 21 1972-Tripura became a full-fledged state with a sixty member assembly in consequence of the presidential assent given to the second reorganisation of Northeast bill on December 30 1971.
What all had happened in the course of proceedings in the Territorial Council and then in assembly under Union Territory is not within knowledge of still surviving veteran journalists as all of them were school students that time .
But snippets and tidbits of what had happened in the full-fledged state assembly are still fresh in memory. Since the Congress attained a decisive two third majority in the assembly election held in early 1972 , the Congress legislature party headed by Sukhamay Sengupta as chief minister was in full control of the situation vis-à-vis an aggressive opposition comprising 1 CPI and 17 CPI (M) MLAs headed by late communist stalwart and later chief minister Nripen Chakraborty who had a solid command over legislative proceedings and the constitution. Sukhamay Sengupta as chief minister was very strict , tough and a hard taskmaster but he had a healthy respect for parliamentary norms and functioning. At one point of time during assembly session Sukhamay Sengupta had openly taken to task party MLA late Madhusudan Das who had been heckling Nripen Chakraborty during the latter’s speech , saying ‘shut up you ignoramus , try to learn from him’. At that time legendary tribal communist leader Dasharath Deb was in Loksabha as MP but Nripen Chakraborty as leader of the opposition had stalwarts of Marxist politics like late Dinesh Debbarma, Sudhannwa Debbarma, Abhiram Debbarm, Vidya Debbarma and then upcoming Anil Sarkar backing him .
On the Congress side, minister for health Tarit Mohan Dasgupta and minister for education Shailesh Som , MLAs Jadu Prasanna Bhattacharjee , finance minister Debendra Kishore Chowdhury matched the opposition onslaught in terms of knowledge and understanding of legislative functioning as well as executive matters. Even as the acrimonious debates , discussions and a flurry of motions and questioning continued , certain unsavoury things happened such as the snatching of the Mace placed before the speaker as a symbol of his moral authority by a CPI (M) MLA who had run away with it. On another occasion another CPI (M) MLA had torn away the knot on the back side of the ‘Dhoti’ of then speaker Manindra Lal Bhowmik. There was also a major clash between the treasury bench and the opposition bench over a so-called ‘Tape Scam’ that meant the tape recording of the proceedings of the house had been suppressed or taken away and opposition members had to be marshalled out. But overall , Nripen Chakraborty as leader of the opposition had been able to press home his mission of showcasing the principles , programmes and ideological position of his party by effective use of the assembly floor but this could happen only because the treasury bench headed by Sukhamay Sengupta was tolerant of the opposition or dissenting voices.
The maiden advent of the left front in state power in January 1978-the assembly polls had actually come off on December 31 1977-impacted the proceedings in the house as the splintered Congress had drawn a blank but the regional TUJS, formed only in June 1967, had won four seats . There was no major protest or ruckus from the reduced opposition bench except the TUJS’s increasingly strident demand for ADC . The left front treasury bench headed by Nripen Chakraborty and Dasharath Deb tackled all exigencies well. But the advent of left front had also ushered in an era of political murder and beginning of insurgency by the TNV and finally the ethnic riots of May 1979 and June 1980 . The tension in public life was reflected in the assembly also and the TUJS legislature party comprising Harinath Debbarma, Drau Kumar Reang , Nagendra Jamatya and Rati Mohan Jamatya who had been arrested for alleged involvement in riots came out soon to protest and participate in assembly proceedings.
There was no major untoward incident within the assembly for long five years but the situation changed drastically from January 1983 after the unexpected return of left front to power . The opposition Congress including two rebel candidates had won altogether 21 seats while the TUJS had improved its position by securing six seats . The beginning was ominous with the daylight murder of young Congress MLA Parimal Saha in Bishalgarh on April 7 1983 and a long series of political murders including the daylight killing of a NSUI leader of Udaipur Netaji Subhas College Panna Lal Biswas on August 15 1987 . In all these murders the ruling CPI (M) party activists had been main accused and police , as always, acted as facilitators . Besides , the renewed insurgency of TNV led by Bijay Kumar Hrangkhawal from his base in Chittagong hill-tracts of Bangladesh since October 1982 figured prominently in the assembly proceedings manifested in protests by the opposition. There were major ruckus on two or three occasions including the one on lottery scam but the situation remained under control all the time except on one occasion when the late Congress MLA Narayan Das of Nalchhar constituency had lifted and thrown his chair at the treasury bench to vent his anger in 1984. There was no injury but this unsavoury incident led to chaining of the chairs of MLAs in the house.
There was a major political churn in the state following the upgradation of the ADC , initially constituted in 1982 through elections, to 6th schedule by a constitutional amendment and the outbreak of major insurgent attacks on security forces and Bengali civilians by TNV killer squads. The growing resentment among the people over insurgent offensive and political murders culminated in the defeat of the left front by a narrow margin in elections held on February 2 1988 after disturbed areas act had been put in place on the night of January 28 . A Congress-TUJS coalition government headed by chief minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumder was sworn in on February 5. From the very beginning the government seemed to be walking a tight-rope and the quality of debates and discussions seemed to have dipped compared with what it was earlier. There were major ugly scenes in the assembly because of protests from the opposition on several occasions and on at least two occasions the opposition had to be marshalled out. Legendary Dasharath Deb who had been elected as leader of the opposition acquitted himself well with his dignified demeanour. As expected the left front returned to power in elections held in April 1993 after a brief bout of president’s rule with a thumping majority of 49-11 in the sixty member house. The house functioned well amidst occasional and legitimate protests from the Congress-TUJS opposition but Dasharath Deb, at least on one occasion displayed his high level of vision and magnanimity as a tall leader.
The young CPI (M) MLA Khagendra Jamatya , representing the Krishnapur assembly constituency under Teliamura , had demanded the formation of a commission of inquiry to go into allegations of major corruption indulged in by ministers and leaders of the Congress-TUJS coalition during assembly session in April 1993 . “The opposition have already been punished by the people in the form of reverses in the election ; if they have committed any corruption the respective departments headed by their ministers earlier may go for legal action ; if we waste our time in witch-hunting how can we work for the people on our programmes “ said great Dasharath Deb. From the year 1993 the era of long two and half decade old political dominance of left front in the state had commenced. After the return of left front in assembly elections held on February 16 1998 it was the turn of Manik Sarkar to take over the reins of power as chief minister following ailing Dasharath Deb’s exit.
During Manik Sarkar’s long twenty year stint as chief minister between 1998-2018 the assembly proceedings remained fairly peaceful with occasional unseemly protests by the opposition Congress-TUJS-turned INPT marring the proceedings . On a few occasions the opposition , specially the Congress bench, covered themselves black by throwing paper pieces at the governor himself to disrupt his speech but there was no major clash. Manik Sarkar always maintained his cool except on one occasion when he mumbled angry words at the opposition while being subjected to obscene and absolutely unfounded allegations in the year 2000 . The then Congress MLA Dipak Roy had commented ‘our success is that we have been able to break through your cool standing’. During this long period seven-time MLA from Mohanpur Ratan Lal Nath , incumbent minister for agriculture and power , excelled in his performance as leader of the opposition for a decade, citing authentic and well-researched issues in the house . Another seven time MLA Sudip Roybarman also acquitted himself well despite occasional outbursts underlined by loss of temper but what seemed quite comforting is that the entry of incumbent minister of forest Animesh Debbarma who had made his entry in the assembly as MLA in 2003 had ushered in an era of refreshing sophistication. His speeches and intervention in proceedings in chaste language and ideal conduct in the house carried the hallmark of cultured and suave political bearing.
Finally the accumulated anti-incumbency built over the twenty five uninterrupted years of rule against the left front coupled with the advent of BJP in central power and in Assam and Manipur made people repose their trust in BJP and its tall pre-poll promises . The electorate had been repeatedly frustrated by Congress’s failure to bring about any positive change in the power equations because of its undeclared alliance with the CPI (M) at the national level . This led to a tectonic revolution in state’s electoral politics leading to installation of first BJP government in the state in 2018. The party continues in power but the quality and standard of discourses in the assembly has not improved . The number of working days in the house has gone down further and opposition functioning in the assembly , first under the leadership of Manik Sarkar and now Jiten Chowdhury, is yet to gain in required level of momentum and the ruling BJP has not distinguished it self either for tolerance and adherence to democratic norms . One can only hope for better change in the future, sooner rather than later.
(Tripurainfo)
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