Lenin statue pulled down in Tripura
agartala — The post-poll violence in Tripura continued for the fourth day on Tuesday even as the administration, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) urged everyone to maintain peace.
According to a leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), the 11.5-feet fibre statue of Vladimir Lenin was brought down with a bulldozer by the BJP activists on Monday evening.
“The BJP supporters, chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, knocked down the statue of Lenin near a government college in Belonia,” CPM leader Haripada Das told the media on Tuesday. He said the statue was set up a year ago in Belonia, South Tripura’s district headquarters, around 90km from Agartala.
“We are getting huge number of reports from different districts on Tuesday about BJP and IPFT workers attacking CPM members and supporters and demolishing their various assets,” Das added.
Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy on Tuesday, in a tweet said: “What one democratically elected government can do another democratically elected government can undo. And vice versa.” Roy is believed to have referred to instances of statues of leaders iconic to other parties demolished or defiled in the past in the state.
Coming down heavily on the BJP for the demolition of a statue of Lenin, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would protest against such atrocities.
“Just because somebody has formed a government, it is not his job to raze statues of great men. Being in government does not mean it is somebody’s job to murder some others or attack opponents,” Banerjee told a public meeting in Patrasayar in Bankura district.
Sounding a warning to the BJP, which has taken power in Tripura, Mamata said she would not accept
Just because somebody has formed a government, it is not his job to raze statues of great men...We also came to power after 34 years. Please remember, our slogan was ‘we want change, not revenge’ Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal CM
such activities despite having “a ideological fight” with the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
“If you feel just because you have come to power, you will demolish the statue of Marx, Lenin, Gandhiji, Netaji, Swami Vivekananda, we won’t accept that. I have fought with the CPM. We also came to power after 34 years. Please remember, our slogan was ‘we want change, not revenge’. “So despite the CPM carrying out so much atrocities on us, we did not pay them back in the same coin. This is not our nature. Whatever is happening there (Tripura) is not democracy.”
Meanwhile, a media report said Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday spoke to the Governor and Tripura Police chief Akhil Kumar Shukla, requesting them to take steps to control the violence in the northeastern state, ahead of the swearing-in-ceremony of the new BJP government.
CPM Tripura secretary Bijan Dhar on Monday night alleged around 514 CPM supporters were injured in attacks by rival BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) party workers in more than 200 places across Tripura since Saturday, after the declaration of the poll results. “Arsoning, attacks and loot were carried out in around 1,539 houses. Many rubber gardens and small vehicles, hundreds of small shops, were forcibly occupied, ransacked or burned at around 500 places,” Dhar told the media. —