Left Parties to Hold National Protest on July 24 Highlighting the Rise in Political Violence in Tripura and Bengal

With the rising attacks against the Left front in Tripura and West Bengal, the Left parties have decided to hold a united 'dharna' outside the Parliament in Delhi on July 24 to protest against the murder of democracy in these states.

"Democracy and the people's rights have been totally destroyed in West Bengal and Tripura. Total lawlessness prevails in these states. To draw national attention to the issue, all Left parties will hold a sit-in outside Parliament on July 24," Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M), told the media in Agartala.

Also Read: The BJP Must Remember That Lenin, And Not the RSS, was More Supportive of India’s Anti-Colonial Struggle

The Left parties including CPI(M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation (CPI(ML)), Revolutionary Socialist Party, and All India Forward Bloc will come together to defend democracy and normal life of the masses.

Tripura

Ever since the BJP-IPFT alliance came to power, attacks over the Left and its supporters have become common in the state. So far, four CPI(M) members have been murdered and nearly a thousand left activists, including 100 women, got injured in different attacks that were launched various times by the ruling coalition government.

"In March, After the BJP led alliance government came to power in Tripura, four CPI(M) members and leaders have been murdered,” said Yechury, while addressing the media.

“Around 750 offices of the CPI(M) and Left parties have either been burnt, attacked, or, captured. Close to 200 offices of the Left mass organisations have been attacked and nearly 150 have been forcibly occupied. 2100 houses of Left sympathizers have been ransacked and looted” the party stated in a press release. In certain places, the party members and sympathisers have been forced to leave their places due to threats from the power holders. “As a result of the attacks, around 500 comrades had to shift from their homes and are currently accommodated in camps at various party offices”, the press release further stated.

Also Read: IPFT Leaders and Party Workers Booked For Murder

The violence prevailing in Tripura is being sponsored by the BJP-regime in the centre. There have been instances where the BJP-IPFT leaders have shielded the culprits. Even in the run-up to the elections, the state witnessed ardent attacks from the BJP-IPFT side.

Describing the current situation of the state, Tripura MP, Jitendra Choudhary told Newsclick, “Tripura is in a sad state of affairs ever since the Modi government came in power in 2014. The state never witnessed such gruesome incidents and now these lynchings, murders, and thefts are commonplace,”

Recently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked three IPFT leaders, including an MLA, Dhirendra Debbarma, along with at least 300-500 party workers for the murder of television journalist, Santanu Bhowmik— another victim of the BJP-IPFT alliance’s pre-poll violence. They were charged with criminal conspiracy, murder, rioting, possession of deadly weapons, and unlawful assembly.

Soon after its electoral victory, the ruling regime resorted to attacking the cultural heritage of the state. Hours after the electoral victory, the supporters of the BJP-IPFT brought down the statue of Vladimir Lenin in a South Tripura town. Thereafter, they destroyed more statues of Lenin and demolished the party’s trade union offices along with the settlement of common people.

“Even May Day celebrations were sought to be disrupted in various parts of the state. Programmes commemorating Karl Marx bicentenary are being attacked. The progressive daily Desher Katha has become a target and the transporters carrying the paper as well as the subscribers of the daily are being threatened,” the press release added.

The Left parties also pointed out that pradhans, Chairmen and elected members of various local bodies including the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) were being coerced to either resign or join hands with BJP.

“The complicity of the state administration is revealed by the fact that Party leaders are being attacked even inside the police stations where they go to lodge complaints.”

Also Read: Panchayat Poll Violence Continues in West Bengal, Claims Yet Another Life

"On the pretext of child-abductions, four people were lynched. BJP’s own minister is involved in spreading rumours that caused frenzy across Tripura. State's law and order under BJP have gone down. The state of affairs in Tripura and West Bengal is worse than the 1975 Emergency," Yechury added.

West Bengal

West Bengal is no better than Tripura. The Trinamool Congress which is in power for consecutively second time had launched widespread attacks against the opposition parties, particularly against the Left parties, soon after its electoral victory in the 2016 assembly elections. It was only at the time of the recent Panchayat elections that witnessed total anarchy from the side of the ruling party, did the reports about the TMC violence surfaced in the so-called mainstream media.

During the pre-election time, thousands of people had to leave their homes due to the threats and attacks. Even the opposition candidates, mainly the Left, were forcefully barred from filing nominations for the election. More than eleven Left activists had lost their lives in course of the Panchayat election violence. The ruling TMC regime had used its machinery in all possible ways to destroy the democratic ways of election.

As a result, The TMC captured 16,814 of the 48,650 Gram Panchayat seats and 3,059 of the 9,217 Panchayat Samiti seats were left uncontested. Moreover, of the 825 Zila Parishad seats, the Mamata Banerjee-led party was declared winner in 203 seats.

Even the Supreme Court has observed that grass-root level democracy, as enshrined in the Constitution, is not working in West Bengal.

“The scale of violence makes it very clear that free and fair poll is impossible with such active involvement of the TMC-led administration. The techniques adopted by TMC counting agents are unheard of. During counting, TMC goons removed ballot papers stamped for Left Front candidates and replaced the same quantum of ballot papers with TMC stamp,” the left parties said in a press release.

However, almost 183 activists of the Left front have been killed in Bengal from May 2011 to July 2016. Nine of them were killed in poll and post-poll violence during the 2016 election and three were murdered as they dared to work as polling agents for the Left parties”, CPIM stated in a detailed report titled ‘Democracy under siege in West Bengal’.

Also Read: West Bengal Election Anarchy Is the Latest Example of Democracy Going Down the Drain

Since June 2016, 31 CPI (M) members and supporters have been killed by the TMC goons.

“These developments are part of the larger attacks on the livelihood and hard-earned rights of the people. In the struggle against forced acquisition of land in Bhangor, several activists were killed in police firing and also by the TMC goons. One of the top leaders is under detention under UAPA,” added the press release.

As Yechury said earlier, the Left’s “main slogan is to 'save the country, defeat BJP'. But in West Bengal it will be 'save Bengal, defeat Trinamool Congress' and in Tamil Nadu it will be to 'save Tamil Nadu, defeat AIADMK.”

(Yechury’s quotes are from IANS copy)