The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and stop the violence against its workers and supporters in Tripura after the Assembly elections results were declared on Saturday. The CPI(M) blamed the violence on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and said they rely “mainly on unleashing political violence” to pursue their agenda.
The BJP won 35 of the 59 seats in the Assembly elections, in a setback to the CPI(M), which had been in power in Tripura for 25 years. The CPI(M) was reduced to 16 seats there, and is now in power only in Kerala.
Two district administrations – West Tripura and Sepahijala – had on Monday night issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in areas hit by violence. The orders will be in effect in West Tripura district again on Tuesday night.
In a memorandum it submitted to Modi, the CPI(M) claimed that by Monday evening, 514 individuals were injured, 1,539 houses attacked and 196 set on fire during alleged violence against its workers in Tripura. It also said that 134 party offices were attacked and 208 were “captured”.
On Tuesday morning, Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Governor Tathagata Roy and the police and asked them to keep the violence in check till the new government was formed.
On Twitter, the CPI(M) accused the BJP and its alliance partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura of coordinating the attacks on its party workers in a “centralised way”. “BJP-IPFT wants to use their newly acquired power to smash that support base through physical attacks, torching of offices, intimidation and bullying,” the party claimed.
The CPI(M) also said, “You can break our statues but not our spirit.” The statement came a day after suspected BJP workers brought down a statue of communist icon Lenin, or Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, in Belonia town near Agartala.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said Lenin was a “foreigner, and in a way a terrorist”. “They can keep his statue in their party headquarters and worship it,” he told ANI. However, another party leader, Nalin Kohli, said that the party “does not ever practice culture of violence”, and claimed that 11 BJP workers had been killed in Tripura.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the political future of the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was limited to violence. His party had claimed that till Monday, 514 workers and supporters had been “physically attacked”, and 1,539 homes and 134 offices had been vandalised, The Indian Express reported. It also claimed the homes of 196 supporters had been set on fire and 64 offices had been burnt.
A CPI(M) delegation had first met the state police chief on Sunday to complain of violence after the election results. The party claimed there were 200 cases of violence against its workers on Saturday and Sunday alone. The state police received four complaints of violence and arson at CPI(M) offices between Sunday night and Monday and has arrested three people, NDTV reported.
Another Left party, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), will hold protests in Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon against the razing of Lenin’s statue.
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