Murder of democracy in Tripura Delegation of Kisan Leaders and Members of Parliament will visit Tripura on 3, 4, 5 August
On the initiative of All India Kisan Sabh, a delegation comprising of All India leaders of peasant movement, social organizations and Members of Parliament are visiting Tripura which is undergoing unprecedented violence by BJP-RSS especially after assembly poll.
The delegation includes Ashok Dhawale President AIKS, Medha Patkar, Convener of NAPM, Rajaram Singh, General Secreatray of AIKMS, Raju Shetty MP, President of Shetkari Sanghatana, K K Ragesh MP and Joint Secretary AIKS and Parliament Members from Tripura, Jitendra Choudhary, Sankar Prasad Datta, Jharna Das Baidya, and former MP Narayan Kar.
The delegation will reach Agartala on 3rd August evening and will meet the state leaders of the Left Front. On 4th August the delegation will visit various places including rural areas were large scale violence and arson took place and innocent people got killed by RSS BJP combine. They will meet the victims of violence. On 5th August the delegation will meet the media persons and interact with public and will return by afternoon.
Since the election results in March 2018, the State of Tripura witnessed a wave of anti-left violence organized by the BJP-RSS- IPFT Combine through armed gangs of criminals. , symbolized by the destruction of Lenin’s statue and those of Bhagat Singh, Karl Marx, Che Guevara. And even memorials of martyrs and freedom fighters were defaced or destroyed.
Four political activists, two of whom were young tribal leaders, were brutally killed by the BJP-IPFT elements, but no arrests have been made so far. The law and order system is completely failed. Over a thousand activists have been attacked, around 100 suffered serious injuries. A number of women were sexually harassed.
To destroy livelihoods of activists of peasant movement and Trade Unions more than 500 shops, rubber plantations have been burnt and even, fisheries/poultry/goatery/piggery farms were looted. MNREGA workers are being denied work on grounds of being Left supporters. 80 Mid-Day-Meal workers and more than 100 pump operators have been arbitrarily sacked. More than 600 workers in Indo-German project have been retrenched. Large number of shop-keepers and transport owners known to be left front supporters are being prevented from carrying out business and plying their vehicles.
More than 500 left political activists have had to leave their homes. More than 2100 homes of political activists have been attacked, some burnt. Over a thousand activists including a hundred women suffered serious injuries. RSS-BJP goons have attacked, burnt, broken into or captured more than 750 offices of political parties in opposition, and also those of Trade Unions, Kisan Sabha and mass organizations. Police have remained mute spectators. More than 2100 elected representatives at the panchayat level were compelled to resign till date. At the same time corruption is rampant with local hoodlums, extorting huge quantum of money from left sympathizers as a condition to allow them to stay in the area. Left Front workers and supporters are being implicated in false cases lodged by the BJP miscreants.
The sale of the progressive daily called ‘Daily Desher Katha’ is being blocked by attacks on distributers. Even former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was stopped by gangs of goondas when he was on a visit to meet tribal families who are suffering due to the collapse of the food security system and also who are being denied social security which was guaranteed under the left front Government cutting down the budget for welfare schemes.
This is the shameful record of the BJP-RSS rule in Tripura. The encouraging feature is that more and more people are coming out on the streets to protest more so since the BJP Government is reversing the pro-people polices of the left front Government causing immense distress to the people.
These attacks on the Left political movement and mass organizations including Kisan Sabha are occurring at a time when the Left is taking an uncompromising position in resistance to the all out attack of the Modi Government on the livelihood of the people, the kisans, workers, small traders, and other sections of the working people through building up their united movements. Again it is the Left which is fighting back the BJP- RSS assault on the Constitution, its secular, democratic and federal values and its guarantee of the right to freedom of expression.
The struggle against the Murder of Democracy in Tripura is a struggle for the rights of the people, for alternative policies, for the defense of democratic and secular values, for the defense of civil liberties.
Hannan Mollah
General Secretary
