THE BJP-IPFT-Tipra Motha alliance government, led by Manik Saha, celebrated its second anniversary in office with great fanfare on March 9. The occasion was marked by a statewide rally held in Agartala, attended by the party’s National President, JP Nadda. The event, celebrated with fanfare, left the public awaiting updates on pre-election promises, as speakers remained silent on their commitments, raising questions about their fulfillment.

Let’s see the current status of some of these promises.

• Promise of 50,000 Jobs/Year: In response to an Assembly query, the government acknowledged that only around 13,000 recruitments have been made over the seven years of the BJP regime, leaving approximately 60,000 posts vacant across various government departments. This severe shortage has crippled the functioning of government offices, which are struggling to maintain even basic operations. Schools and colleges are particularly affected, facing an acute shortage of teachers that has severely disrupted the learning process. Despite the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) being conducted two years ago and a merit list being prepared, the recruitment process remains stalled. Frustrated job aspirants have frequently resorted to staging protests, including gheraos of the Education Directorate, demanding action on pending appointments.
• Promise of 200 MGNREGA Days at Rs 340/Day: Under the Left Front government, workers received over 90 man-days annually, but the current BJP government provides only 30-35 days per year. Workers face months-long wage delays, prompting frequent protests and gheraos at Block offices for timely payments. Allegations of MGNREGA fund siphoning through fake worker registrations, often involving BJP associates, are widespread. Instead of updating the registry transparently, the government has delisted many legitimate workers, allegedly due to political bias. The current wage of Rs 242/day, Rs 100 less than the promised Rs 340, worsens workers' financial struggles.
• 7th Pay Commission Promise: While the BJP government increased the basic pay from 1.32 per cent (as granted by the Left Front government) to 1.57 per cent, it has failed to implement other critical benefits recommended by the 7th Pay Commission. These include superannuation benefits such as leave salary, gratuity, and commutation, which remain unaddressed. Additionally, a significant 23 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) for state government employees is still pending, preventing parity with central government staff and leaving employees financially disadvantaged.
• Regularisation Promise: The BJP government had pledged to regularise contractual workers with a "single pen-stroke" during its first cabinet meeting. However, not a single worker has been regularised to date. Instead, the government revoked a circular introduced by the previous Left Front government, which guaranteed automatic regularisation and financial benefits for contractual workers completing ten years of service. This move has left thousands of workers in continued uncertainty, depriving them of job security and rightful benefits.
• Retrenched Teachers: To secure the votes of retrenched teachers, the BJP government promised their reinstatement, even suggesting the possibility of a constitutional amendment to override the court order. However, none of these teachers have been reinstated. When they took to the streets to demand their jobs back, their protests were met with brutal suppression by the police. Tragically, around 200 of these teachers have since died due to poverty, malnutrition, lack of medical care, and sheer frustration. It is important to note that the court’s decision to annul their recruitment was based solely on policy grounds, specifically the consideration of 'poverty,' and not due to any allegations of financial misconduct. The high number of deceased teachers underscores the legitimacy and humanitarian rationale behind the Left Front government’s recruitment policy.
• TTAADC Empowerment: The 125th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which seeks to grant greater administrative authority and financial autonomy to Tribal District Councils across the country, reducing their dependence on state governments, has been pending in Parliament since it was introduced in 2019. The people of Tripura have been actively demanding the passage of this bill through sustained movements. However, the BJP government has shown little interest in advancing its approval. Notably, the Tipra Motha, an alliance partner of the BJP government that positions itself as a champion of tribal rights and currently holds office in the TTAADC, has also failed to advocate for the bill’s passage, raising questions about its commitment to tribal empowerment.
• AIIMS-like Hospital Promise: The BJP government’s promise of establishing a state-of-the-art super specialty hospital akin to AIIMS has left the people of the state feeling deceived and disillusioned. To date, there is no clarity on whether any concrete steps have been taken to fulfill this commitment. Meanwhile, the general healthcare system, including services at the GB Pant Hospital and Medical College, has deteriorated alarmingly due to severe shortages of doctors, nurses, paramedics, and support staff. Additionally, the discontinuation of free medicine dispensary services has forced poor patients to purchase medicines at higher costs from the market, further burdening those already struggling to access healthcare.

Apart from the prioritised promises, the BJP has largely failed to implement the numerous pledges outlined in its ‘Vision Document’. Through these promises, the party skillfully attracted large sections of youth, rural workers, government employees, and tribal communities. However, it did not take long for the people to realize they had been misled.

The BJP’s seven-year rule has been marked by extreme crises, including widespread food and job insecurity, rising prices, and unemployment. Simultaneously, the party has aggressively propagated Hindutva, deepening divisions along religious and ethnic lines.

The BJP government’s much-publicised "war against drugs" and its promise to make Tripura a drug-free state have now become a subject of ridicule. In reality, ganja cultivation, drug trafficking, and the trade of narcotic substances have surged dramatically. Many rural BJP leaders are allegedly the masterminds behind cross-border smuggling, ganja cultivation, and the narcotics trade, with the police seemingly powerless to act against them.

In the past month alone, several corruption scandals have been exposed by local media, with ruling BJP leaders directly or indirectly implicated in each case. These revelations have further eroded public trust in the government’s integrity and commitment to good governance.

It appears that the troubling legacy of RG Kar Medical College has found its way into Dr BR Ambedkar Medical College and Hospital in Tripura. On March 3, 2025, three first-year MBBS students alleged that a faculty member closely associated with the ruling BJP demanded a large sum of money in exchange for guaranteed high marks in their semester examinations. The students were threatened with poor performance if they refused to comply. The faculty member reportedly boasted of having influence extending up to the university level. While the government has handed over the case to the Crime Branch, no arrests have been made so far.

On March 6, 2025, a Traffic Inspector was arrested for misappropriating Rs. 1.27 crore collected as fines from violators of the Motor Vehicles Act on the roads of Bishramganj in Sepahijala district.

Earlier, on February 7, 2025, another financial scam was uncovered through an audit report, revealing that approximately Rs 30 lakh had been diverted into personal accounts by a group of five staff members from the Sepahijala Superintendent of Police (SP) office. The fraud involved siphoning off funds meant for salaries, travel allowances (TA), and dearness allowances (DA) in the name of a fake police constable, a scheme that had been ongoing since 2018. All five accused were subsequently arrested.

On November 5, 2023, the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sonamura Police Station in Sepahijala District allegedly conducted a nighttime raid at the residence of Arshad Rahaman. During the raid, the OC forcibly seized Rs. 16 lakh that Rahaman had received from selling a plot of land earlier that day. Despite Rahaman’s attempts to file a complaint at the police station, he was denied justice. He escalated the matter to the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Sepahijala district and the Director General of Police (DGP) of the state, but his grievances were ignored.

Frustrated, Rahaman approached the court, which directed the police to register an FIR against the OC. Although the FIR was eventually filed under court orders, the government, instead of suspending the accused officer, rewarded him with a transfer to a prominent police station in Agartala town.

In a separate incident on December 23, 2023, a Sub-Inspector (SI) of Kanchanpur Police Station in North Tripura District was accused of being directly involved in the looting of a truckload of betel nuts. These incidents highlight a disturbing pattern of misconduct and impunity within the police force, raising serious concerns about accountability and governance in the state.

These recent incidents highlight a severe moral breakdown within the Tripura police force, which once held a prestigious reputation for ending the state’s three-decade-long insurgency and was honored with the ‘President’s Colour’ in 2012. The ruling BJP bears sole and primary responsibility for this decline, as it has systematically used the police for partisan purposes, serving its own interests while suppressing opposition voices. This has been done at the cost of sensibility, morality, ethics, and democratic norms.

In many police stations, a troubling nexus has emerged between police officers, including SDPOs and OCs, and cross-border smugglers, human traffickers, ganja mafias, and syndicate mafias – many of whom are local BJP leaders. This collusion has eroded public trust in law enforcement.

The BJP-backed mafias have formed syndicates across the state, extorting money from contractors at every stage. Contractors are forced to pay ransom just to submit bids and then surrender 10-15 per cent of the total project cost to the syndicates. Some contractors face demands from multiple syndicates, further squeezing their profits. This syndicate raj forces contractors to compromise on the quality and durability of their work to meet these illegal demands. Violent clashes between rival syndicates over share money have become common. These syndicates also act as brokers in land deals, property sales, construction material purchases, and even local dispute settlements, all for a price. Additionally, elected representatives routinely siphon off benefits meant for government scheme beneficiaries.

On March 8, 2025, Jitendra Chaudhury, leader of the opposition and CPI(M) state secretary, addressed a press conference, highlighting these rampant corrupt practices. He stated that the education system in Tripura has practically collapsed, jeopardizing the future of an entire generation. The health sector, despite tall claims, has seen no qualitative improvement, and not a single new hospital has been established in the past seven years. Agriculture is in disarray, with most irrigation projects initiated by the previous Left Front government lying defunct due to lack of maintenance, and no new irrigation projects have been undertaken. While the government boasts about the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission,’ rural women continue to stage protests, blocking roads with empty water pots, demanding access to drinking water. The condition of national highways has deteriorated to such an extent that they risk becoming disastrous during the upcoming monsoon.

Chaudhury criticized the BJP-IPFT-Tipra Motha alliance government’s claim of establishing ‘Sushashan’ (good governance), stating that every level of the administration has become a den of corruption, actively abetted by BJP leaders.

In summary, Chaudhury described the two-year rule of the BJP-IPFT-Tipra Motha alliance under Chief Minister Manik Saha as a ‘Mahakumbh’ of corruption, misgovernance, and broken promises. The government’s failure to deliver on its commitments has left the state in a state of deep crisis, with corruption and mismanagement permeating every aspect of governance.