CPI(M) trying to malign us ahead of polls: Tribal body
The CPI(M) is jittery because it has started losing ground in the hilly areas for not being able to bring development to indigenous communities. MEWAR KUMAR JAMATIA,
General secretary, IPFT
AGARTALA: The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), facing heat for its alleged involvement in the murder of television journalist Shantanu Bhowmik on Wednesday, has charged the ruling CPI(M) with conspiracy to discredit the tribal party ahead of assembly polls early next year.
The IPFT’S reaction to clashes between IPFT and CPI(M)’S tribal front Ganamukti Parishad (GMP) in Mandwai area that led to 28-year-old Bhowmik’s death has come in the wake of revelations that the slain journalist was a member of the leftist Students’ Federation of India and had links to the Communist party.
The IPFT, which broke away from a Congress-aligned tribal political party, has been gravitating towards the BJP soon after reviving a decades-old demand for statehood for 19 indigenous tribes of Tripura earlier this year.
Mandwai, in Jirania subdivision of Tripura West district, is 28km from state capital Agartala. The IPFT-GMP clashes had started in Khowai district on Tuesday and spilled over to adjoining Tripura West, specifically Mandwai, on Wednesday.
The IPFT claimed CPI(M) has been itching for violence since 5,000 indigenous families left GMP to join IPFT after a highway blockade to press for Twipraland state in July this year.
“The CPI(M) is jittery because it has started losing ground in the hilly areas for not being able to bring development to indigenous communities. The journalist’s death was unfortunate and we demand impartial probe, preferably by CBI, to find out the truth. The CPI(M) has hatched a conspiracy to spoil the image of IPFT by involving us in the murder,” Mewar Kumar Jamatia, IPFT general secretary, said. According to IPFT, Communist activists had destroyed their flags and festoons in Mandwai a day after Tuesday’s clash with GMP in certain parts of Khowai district.
The IPFT blocked an arterial road in protest for two hours.
“CPI(M) cadre attacked the IPFT youth as they were about to end the blockade. Many of our members were injured in the clash, two of them sustaining bullet injuries. But the media did not cover that,” Jamatia said.