Tripura, the third smallest and most backward and poor state of India is not as much in the news as it deserves. Last week, however, when Chief Minister Manik Sarkar announced that the Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFPSA) was being repealed in his state because peace had been restored, it did make headlines.
Like much of the North East, Tripura too was plagued with ethnic violence and insurgency and first the Disturbed Areas Act and then AFSPA were imposed to enforce peace in the 1980s, when the Congress ruled the state and at the Centre. This period witnessed many atrocities and killings. In 1980, at Mandai, armed tribals attacked a settlement of poor Bengalis. Every single home and hut was burnt to the ground and the homeless and hapless people were ferociously attacked. More than 350 bodies were found stacked by the side of the narrow road.
This massacre became the justification for the brutality of the security forces, whose combing operations and atrocities increased in frequency. In 1988, the jawans of the 27 Assam Rifles conducted operations in several tribal areas and brought a large group of women from here, including one who was 80 years old, to Ujan Maidan where they were gang-raped repeatedly for three days.
The CPI(M) launched a big campaign against this terrible atrocity and was instrumental in a joint Parliamentary delegation visiting the area and interviewing the victims. Its recommendations, however, did not yield results. It was only when the All India Democratic Women's Association approached the Supreme Court that, much later, the perpetrators were found guilty and the victims awarded a meager compensation.
Draconian measures, however, did not bring peace to Tripura and atrocities and insurgency continued unabated. The security forces and the immunity that they enjoyed were used regularly not only against insurgents and innocent tribals but also against Left supporters and their families who were also the principal targets of militant violence.
In 1993, the Left Front won the elections and a CPI(M)-led government was formed. Despite the fact that the party had lost many cadres and leaders to militancy, the Government eschewed a policy of vengeance and terror and, instead, concentrated on the arduous task of building unity between tribals and non-tribals and isolating the insurgents.
Tribal supporters of the CPI(M), who inhabit every hamlet and village of the state, were encouraged to establish contacts with family members of those who had become insurgents and militants.
Tribal women especially played an incredible role in this process over the last few decades. They befriended and assisted mothers, sisters and wives of these young men. They were able to win their confidence and trust and, whenever their efforts resulted in their surrender of, the government followed through on its promises of rehabilitation. Naturally this encouraged more surrenders.
Simultaneously, the Tripura Government consistently increased the number of police stations in the state and ensured that the local police led counter-insurgency operations. This went a long way in dealing with insurgency and in ensuring that innocent civilians were not caught in the cross-fire in the way that has become only too familiar in other states facing militancy, etc.
The government also made tremendous strides in improving the living conditions of all sections of society including those living in inaccessible hilly and forested areas. It had to surmount tremendous difficulties. Tripura is a very poor, small and backward state. It is the third-smallest in the country and is bordered on three sides by Bangladesh. 30% of its population is tribal and it is only now that the major spoken tribal language, Kokborok, has an alphabet which tribal children are being taught.
The state has only recently been connected to the rest of the country by one very inadequate and obsolete railway line that runs for a very short distance inside Tripura. Only one highway connects it with India. There is no industry to speak of. Despite all these handicaps, however, the Left Front government has tremendous achievements to its credit.
In 2014, Tripura achieved one hundred percent literacy, overtaking even Kerala. Even the elderly tribal people who inhabited small, remote villages and habitations were made literate. The Government not only utilized to the full all literacy schemes and programmes but trained and motivated thousands of volunteers to fan out into the most inaccessible parts of the State to ensure that not a single person remained illiterate.
Since 2009, the State has also been the best performing State in the country as far as implementation of the NREGA is concerned.
This year, despite the fact that the Central Government has slashed allocations, the state has broken its own record by providing 90 days of work on average to all job card holders. This in itself is incredible but the state has gone even further by designing and implementing the Tripura Urban Employment Programme - something that is unique in the country - under which members of urban families below the poverty line can get 50 days of work in a year at minimum wages.
The programme is funded entirely by the state government and therefore has a limited scope, but for the urban poor, who see it as something that is bringing them back from the brink of starvation, it is a boon.
The government has also ensured that every village has drinking water and every home has a toilet.
The combination of mass campaigns for unity and peace combined with the sincere commitment of the government to doing all it can to both protect and improve peoples' lives have slowly but surely minimized the problem of insurgency to the extent that the Chief Minister can now announce that AFSPA is no longer in force in Tripura.
The rest of India must listen to what small and far-off Tripura is saying: unity cannot be established at gunpoint; insurgency cannot be fought with the license to kill and rape with impunity.
(Subhashini Ali is former MP, former Member of the National Commission for Women and Vice President of the All India Democratic Women's Association.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.