CPI(M) demands attacks & violence against the CPI(M) Left & on all opposition parties should stop

Miscreants in Tripura has unleashed a reign of terror and intimidation against all activities of the opposition in Tripura focusing their anger and frustration against the CPI(M) and the Left Front.

It has also attacked media houses who report the truth. It is as though the Constitution of India, the democratic rights guaranteed to the people by the constitution and the norms of functioning in a parliamentary democracy have all been suspended in Tripura under the leadership of the BJP Government. It is deplorable that the Chief Minister himself has made the most provocative statements, threats and outright lies justifying the attacks against the CPI(M). From 2018 when the BJP assumed power, to the present, 21 supporters and members of the CPI(M) including a woman have been killed.

In many of the attacks on September 7 and 8th, by mobs, armed with iron rods and petrol bombs, the police were either bystanders or refused to respond to calls regarding the attacks on homes and party offices.

On September 7 and 8, 44 party offices (42 of the CPI(M), 1 RSP and 1 CPI(ML) have been attacked, burnt, party property destroyed.

In an unprecedented display of criminality, the State office of the CPI(M) in Agartala was attacked, sought to be burnt, mobs entered the premises and vandalized the bust of veteran tribal leader and former Chief Minister Dasrath Deb.

The CRPF guards deployed at the office were mysteriously withdrawn an hour before the mob attack.

67 houses and shops of CPI(M) supporters have been burnt or looted. Scores of supporters have been physically attacked of whom at least ten required immediate hospitalization. Patronage is provided to the attackers while the police are filing false cases and making arrests of CPI(M) supporters.

It is symbolic of the brazen nature of the attacks under state patronage that the leader of the opposition and four-time Chief Minister of Tripura Manik Sarkar was prevented and blockaded by the police from visiting his own constituency on September 6. The modus operandi to prevent the leader of the opposition (LOP) from fulfilling his constitutional duty is to gather a few persons from the ruling party to oppose his programme and provide a pretext to stop it. On September 6 while Manik Sarkar was going to attend mass deputation to the BDO of Kathalia Block largely falling under his constituency the police refused and put up barricades to stop him. He called their bluff and insisted on his right to visit his constituency where hundreds of people were waiting for him.

Earlier on another occasion the police remained bystanders when the care he was travelling along with other MLAs and Party leaders to Shanti Bazar was physically attacked. Ye

The details of the attacks on the CPI(M) sent to the Prime Minister by the CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury have not even been acknowledged.

These are the latest phase of attacks which started on the morrow of the victory of the BJP in the State Assembly elections in 2018. Since March 2018 to June 2021, 662 party offices, 204 offices of Left mass organisations, 3363 houses of CPI(M) members and supporters, 659 shops have either been gutted, ransacked or looted and 1500 livelihood centres such as fish ponds, rubber trees and so on have been destroyed. Barbaric crimes against women are increasing in a shameless manner. False cases are being imposed in a bid to intimidate and silence CPI(M) leaders.

This attack on the opposition and particularly the Left in Tripura and the attack on the independent media is also part of the growing intolerance and all out assault on democracy that is happening all over India. This all out attack on democracy must be condemned by all democratic minded people and political parties.

The CPI(M) demands that the attacks and violence against the CPI(M) Left and all opposition parties should stop; attacks on media should stop and they should be allowed to function freely; the miscreants responsible must be arrested and prosecuted; compensation must be given to those whose homes, shops and other property destroyed; false cases against opposition party leaders and workers should be withdrawn.