Decode Politics: 20 days to go for state board exams, why is Tripura staring at protests

THE controversy over the script to use for answering question papers by those who have taken Kokborok as the second optional language in the Tripura state board rages on. The confusion is yet to be cleared even as the exams for Class 10 and 12 to be held by the Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) are now less than a month away, to be held on March 1 and 2, respectively.

On Friday, Leader of the Opposition Animesh Debbarma of the TIPRA Motha party urged Chief Minister Manik Saha that students be given the option of both Bengali and Roman scripts – as has been the practice. Later in the day, tribal student body Tipra Indigenous Students Federation (TISF), the student wing of the opposition TIPRA Motha party, announced indefinite statewide road and railway blockade from February 12 against the TBSE move to disallow Roman script for writing the board exams in Kokborok.

TIPRA Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore Manikya earlier demanded that TBSE president Dhananjoy Gonchowdhury be removed if students were not given both the options.

What is the controversy?

Kokborok, the lingua franca of most of Tripura’s 19 recognised tribes, does not have a script. However, it has been taught in state schools, colleges and universities since 1979, when it was recognised as an official state language, and exams on Kokborok language as a subject have been conducted since 1983.

Candidates earlier used to write their Kokborok exams in both Bengali and Roman scripts. The controversy arose after some exam centres last year insisted that students not use the Roman script. Many candidates, especially those who had studied Kokborok in the Roman script, turned in blank sheets and sought reexamination.

This became a political issue as it was seen as a