An interview with Maharaja Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma

An interesting 360° interview with the Maharaja of Tripura, offered by: Media Design Edu

Maharaja (no more reigning) of the Kingdom of Tripura (yes, the Federal Republic of India also includes former monarchies, why not?), Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarman currently is the Editor of the innovative magazine titled TNT-The Northeast Today, he also happens to be a renowned Indian National Congress politician and entrepreneur. Maharaja Debbarman is still the symbolic head of the Royal Family of Tripura. The young and energetic Pradyot Manikya launched TNT in 2007, a magazine specifically targeted at the residents of the Northeast. Recently, TNT announced that it will cease to exist as a printed magazine and the editorial will solely focus on the digital platform as the website recently become the second most viewed news portal in the region. Debbarman talked about journalism, the political condition in the region in general and Tripura in particular during the sidelines of the first day of the 2016-Guwahati Chapter of The Edutainment Show. Here the interview:

What was your objective while setting up TNT Magazine?

The objectives changed over the years. When I started TNT, the idea was to give positive news about the Northeast. When I was growing up and I was in college, I used to meet a lot of people coming up and telling me that: “Oh, Northeast is a conflict area”. But there are so many positive stories to be told about the Northeast! There is so much talent in the region, unheard stories and entrepreneurship. So, I wanted to concentrate and get the positive aspects of the Northeast and report the real things which are going on as well. There is a word called conflict which has become a very marketable word for the Northeast. But I believe that there are other challenges like environmental problems, lack of employment, large-scale land displacement and the likes. So these are issues that need to be highlighted. For TNT, the original idea was to paint the positive side of the Northeast in addition to highlighting the historical and cultural backgrounds of the region.

TNT Magazine is segmented into sections such as glamour, tourism, culinary etc. If there is any incident related to crime, there is no coverage. Why so?

That is right. If you see the website now, you will find that we have gone completely digital. We cover crime, we cover conflicts, we cover events and we cover press conferences. We have a range of journalists across the whole region. In fact, we have to come up with 55 to 60 stories a day. TNT website is the second most viewed website in the Northeast after The Assam Tribune Online. This is not my claim. This is from Alexa, which is an Amazon subsidiary that ranks websites.

What is your opinion about the state of media education in the Northeast?

As I said in my earlier conversation, media is a very vast subject. If somebody is aspiring to be a journalist, then it is very different from somebody trying to become a photographer or somebody trying to become a filmmaker. So it depends. As a journalist, I would say that when you are teaching media, the teacher should know and train the students on how to file an RTI, how to search the news and how to analyze stories. However, the media today is largely considered as film making or photography or making audio effects. That is very different from journalism. So media needs to be specific and needs to be specifically taught as well. A lot of mass communication students are not trained as journalists. And that is why; you have a problem of lack of proper journalism. We have reporters but we don’t have journalists. A reporter reports, a journalist analyzes it.

What is your opinion about politics in the educational sector?

Politics is there in every sector. In the education sector, we have more business than politics. I personally don’t believe that politics should be in every sphere. Too much of politicization of India is not good. And I believe that over indulgence of student politics has ruined the state of education in India. I myself I am in politics. I believe I would have been the smartest student if I didn’t get into politics (laughs). But jokes apart, I believe that a student should be politically aware of his/her rights, of what he/she can do and what he/she can’t. He/she should be constitutionally aware that he/she has these privileges and rights. However, if the students politicize everything like what is happening in JNU and DU and what happened in Hyderabad, it is something that I am against. Whether it is right-wing or left-wing, I am against it.

Your restaurant Manikya Food Court has distinctly different interiors. What inspired you to have an interior like that?

I believe again, that if someone is coming to Tripura, he/she should have something which deals with Tripura. Yes, it is fine to have Momos and Chow mein, but it is also important to have the Wahan Mosdeng or the Berema or the Batui or the Chakhoi, which are indigenous food items. A lot of times, people have said that they have come to Tripura and they don’t know what the Tripura indigenous food is. So I wanted to bring in that aspect. Again, a state is only known for its vision, its related history and culture. So I wanted to put that cultural aspect. So we have Risha, we have the old photographs of Tripura, so that people also realize that Tripura is not a new phenomenon. It is a very ancient state and has its own culture cuisine, dances and history.

Which is more important for a restaurant? The interior design or the taste of food served?

See, for me the taste is more important. For some, the appearance is more important. It varies for individuals. I personally believe that in food, taste is the most important thing. Yes, it should be neatly presented as well because people are paying for it. But the taste should be authentic. So, a lot of times people tend to go for appearances without emphasising on taste.

There are sharp racial and linguistic divisions in Tripura. There are Bengalis on one side and the Tripuris on the other. What do you think about that?

The Tripuris call themselves Tripuris and the Bengalis call themselves Bengalis. I think the Bengalis of Tripura should call themselves Tripuris because they constitute a part of Tripura. The same way, there are Sikhs and there are non-Sikhs in Punjab. But they are all Punjabis. I think that the concept of state needs to be there.

What is your opinion about the proposed Twipraland?

See, it is a demand that has come out after years of neglect of the tribal areas. It is not an unconstitutional demand. So first of all, political parties, which are opposed to Twipraland, have to clearly say that this is a demand that they are politically opposing. However, they can’t call it anti-national. The moment Manik Sarkar calls it anti-national actually says that anyone who demands a separate state is anti-India. The demands for Jharkhand and Telangana were not anti-Indian movements. Rather than fighting against the demand of Twipraland, it would make more sense if people in the Congress, Communist Parties or BJP understand as to why this demand rose and subsequently try to solve it. If people are satisfied, nobody would want to get out of the state. And it is a political demand which has to be politically dealt with. However, an emotional reaction to an emotional demand will create ethnic trouble.

Do you have any idea about how to deal with this situation?

It is politically motivated. There is a feeling among the tribal people and it is a genuine feeling that they haven’t been given their due under all the governments since independence. This needs to be addressed. If you bring in the TTADC and the territorial council, like Bodoland, or if you give direct powers to the governors, what is the harm? But if you deny that and then say that you will not give them a separate state, then there will be problems like what is happening in Darjeeling. You denied them their rights till it became a problem. And when you accepted it, you still didn’t solve the problem. So the problem is, you should give people more autonomy in the tribal autonomous district so that this demand doesn’t come up. Also, not all the problems could be solved politically. There are problems of health and there are problems of education. When we say that we are a 94-percent-literate state, I can clearly say, that is the biggest nonsense I have ever seen. Just because you can scribble something on a piece of paper doesn’t make you literate. Literacy has to be addressed and health has to be addressed as well. And these are largely prevalent in the Tribal areas. There is political mileage being extracted by all the parties. The government and the opposition should work together to solve the issues rather than counter an IPFT demand for a separate state.

In 2014, when the Ujjayanta Palace was renamed as Tripura State Museum, there was a mass rally with a candlelight protest that was led by you. Now, as there is no monarchy in the country, do you still believe that the tags or names of monarchies should continue?

See, there is no question of monarchy when it comes to Ujjayanta Palace. Ujjayanta Palace is a historical name. There is no monarchy in India, but we don’t go and change the names of Victoria Memorial or Taj Mahal right? There are certain places which have historical importance. I am just saying that let Taj Mahal be Taj Mahal, Victoria Memorial remain Victoria Memorial and let Ujjayanta palace remain Ujjayanta palace. You want to name something after Karl Marx or Lenin, then make a new building and name it after Lenin. I am not opposed to that. Name it after Che Guevara for that matter. But don’t change the names of existing buildings. You don’t want to change the name of Guruvayur Temple to Ekta Temple. You see, there are certain things you don’t change. And Ujjayanta Palace was anyway named by Rabindranath Tagore. So it has nothing to do with Royalty. It has got to do with the name of a building which the whole state associates itself with. So I don’t say call Tripura University as Kirit Bikram University or Radha Kishore Manikya University. Let it be Tripura Central University. Don’t name it after Nripen Chakraborty or don’t name it after Bir Bikram. Let it remain Tripura. We have a Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport here in Guwahati. It has something to do with Assam. Nobody questions the ethnicity. But if we suddenly have Ahilyabai Dabholkar Airport at the same place, it will look awkward. I just believe that the state should give its own people the credit.