Express News Service
GUWAHATI: Over two dozen offices of the CPI-M were either dismantled or torched while two media houses vandalised allegedly by the workers of the ruling BJP in Tripura.
The statewide attacks were carried out from Wednesday morning till the wee hours of Thursday. A number of vehicles, mostly two-wheelers, were also set ablaze. Four people were arrested in connection with the incidents.
The CPI-M condemned the attacks and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention. “We draw your attention to the outrageous violence let loose on the CPI-M and the Left Front in Tripura yesterday. In a pre-planned fashion, scores of offices of the CPI-M, including the state headquarters, were attacked by mobs of BJP men,” Yechuri wrote in a letter to Modi.
He said the most brazen attack was on the state committee office in Agartala in which the assailants ransacked its ground and first floors, burnt two office cars, and broke the bust of Dasarath Deb, a “revered leader of the people of Tripura”.
Yechuri also wrote that the houses of many party leaders and activists were attacked, ransacked, or set on fire. He highlighted the attack on “Daily Desharkatha”, a media house supported by CPI-M.
He said the police, who were present at many of these venues, remained silent bystanders. In the case of the state committee office, he said some CRPF jawans were present in front of it but they were withdrawn an hour before the attack began.
“The impunity with which the attackers operated shows the connivance of state government. These attacks took place because the ruling party has tried and failed to suppress the activities of the main Opposition in the state,” the CPI-M general secretary further wrote.
He said it was evident from the attacks that the state government had grossly failed in discharging its constitutional responsibility of maintaining law and order.
Tripura Left Front convener Bijan Dhar said the CPI-M’s state office, one district committee office, and 23 local committee offices were dismantled or torched. He said four injured party workers were admitted to a hospital.
“According to reports we received, the houses of at least 50 people were damaged or torched. They used even a bulldozer while attacking our office. Everything happened under the nose of the police,” Dhar said.
He said the party’s state leaders would meet the Governor and apprise him of everything. He alleged that such attacks had been going on since the BJP captured power in 2018.
“The government has failed on all fronts. It failed to combat the pandemic and check rampant corruption. There are no democratic rights, law and order, and developmental activities. So, people who voted for the BJP have started rejecting it by spontaneously hitting the streets,” Dhar said.
He said the BJP was angry to see the Left parties in people’s movement and trying to silence them by launching the attacks.
“By resorting to violence, they want us and the people of Tripura to accept their undemocratic and fascist activities. But we are not ready to accept those,” Dhar added.
