Kokoborok exam paper row: CPIM, Cong’s sharp attack on BJP govt

MLA and CPIM State Secretary Jitendra Choudhury decried the government's decision and said that it is a fallout of the narrow political interests of the BJP.

The decision of the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) to discontinue the option for students to write their Kokborok language papers in Roman script has irked the opposition in the state.

A day after the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) reversed it’s decision after allowing for the same, the CPIM and Congress has come out all guns blazing against the Manik Saha government.

MLA and CPIM State Secretary Jitendra Choudhury decried the government’s decision and said that it is a fallout of the narrow political interests of the BJP.

Speaking to Northeast Live, the CPIM leader said, “It is very unfortunate and due to the very deliberate attempt of the state government, they are trying to create a division, a chaos on this issue. Writing the answer paper for a Kokborok subject (in English or Bengali) has been going on for decades, the students have been writing in Roman or Bengali. There has been no impediment or problem. Because in Tripura for the evaluation of answer scripts, both in Roman or Bengali, there are adequate number of teachers and it has been going on smoothly.

After BJP and IPFT assumed office (in 2018) the same practice was followed. It is not only in the TBSE, it is there in Tripura Central Unive, Bir Bikram Maharaja University, in both the universities also, still the same practice is followed.”

Alleging that the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) is purposefully run by the Manik Saha government, Choudhury said, “Actually the TBSE president is not the man behind this. The office of the TBSE has been purposely utilized actually the man behind this is the state government itself. THe BJP and RSS they do not want that. Their policy is that in India only one language, one script-Hindi or Devanagari will be promoted and not any other language.

Both the BJP and RSS, they should refrain from their narrow political interests, undemocratic, unilateral and anti-people policy.”

On the other hand, Tripura Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha said, “the government should have decided prior as to what language would be considered for writing Kokborok language papers. The previous Tribal Welfare Minister Rampada Jamatia had sought for use of Devanagari script but we were against that. We had always been batting for Roman script. The government has to choose. It has not been finalized till now, it is likely that students will not clear the exams since they have been writing in Roman.

The government has to speak to everyone and make a decision. It is high that the matter is resolved now.”

Read also: Kokborok language row: TISF calls for indefinite rail, road blockade from Feb 12

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