People's Democracy

TRIPURA

People Get Set To Form Sixth LF Govt

Subrata Chakraborty

SIGNALING the indomitable strength of the people of Tripura to send the Congress-INPT combine to its political cemetery at the 10th Assembly elections in Tripura, the statewide Left Front meeting and rallies resemble a massive merger of people from all walks of life into a single sea of red. On the contrary the crookedly deceptive, disinformative and delirious campaign of the Congress party and its ally the armed extremists' political wing INPT, is getting increasingly exposed to the people of Tripura going to the polls on February 23, 2008.

All the Left Front leaders of the state as well as several others from West Bengal addressed numerous massive public meetings and rallies statewide, including two addressed by the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Polit Bureau member and chief minister Manik Sarkar, Central Committee member and West Bengal minister Surjakanta Mishra and CPI leader and west Bengal minister Srikumar Mukherjee. On the other hand, the deliriously deceptive and disinformative speeches of the Congress-INPT combine at meetings with miserably meager audience, including those addressed by union Information minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi as a Goebelsian role model evoked the ire and chagrin of the people.

Addressing two Left Front rallies, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that the 10th Assembly elections in Tripura are vital in the backdrop of the ongoing countrywide struggle of the red flag for formation of a viable left-secular alternative ahead of the parliamentary polls due next year. He gave a fervent call to the people of Tripura to sweep this weekend elections in favour of the Left Front so as to reinforce the groundwork of the country's third alternative, alongside the Left Front governments of West Bengal and Kerala as also the ongoing peasants movement in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and the trade Union movement in Tamilnadu.

Addressing four Left Front rallies, Manik Sarkar said that the Congress-INPT combine ever since its origination from the Congress conspiracy within the interiors of the erstwhile king's palace in Agartala for formation of its tribal fighting cock, now rechristened as INPT, designed to divide the people and devour the resources of the state, has been vehemently opposing any policies and programmes of the Left Front for upliftment of the backward tribals and comprehensive development of the state. The sole political agenda of the Congress party to undermine the Left Front has, therefore been to be the political patron of separatist militants and make the most of them for political mileage, being nonchalant about the state's backwardness as a result. He gave a fervent call to the people of Tripura to consolidate the newly gained process of pace and progress in the state at the cost of tremendous martyrdom by electing sixth Left Front government with highest margins.

Addressing three Left Front rallies, Surjakanta Mishra said that while the union minister Santosh Mohan Deb smells a victory for the Congress-INPT combine in Tripura, the people are in fact, smelling the stench and seeing the stain of the barbaric bloodbath carried out time and again by this nefarious nexus in the state. Pointing out that the anti-people actions of the Congress party like the recent hike in petroleum prices have been looting the pockets of all people irrespective of political affiliations, he gave a fervent call to the people who are still supporting this rotten party not to vote for it to top off the branch of peace and progress, stability and self reliance that the state is seated on, thanks to the Left Front government.

Meanwhile, vehemently protesting the statement issued in local daily Syandan, the unofficial organ of the Congress party in Tripura, in the name of ATTF outlawed extremist organisation in Tripura as a pre-posterous piece of concoction, CPI(M) state secretariat member, Gautam Das said at a press conference that the Congress-INPT candidates in two constituencies are making use of a notorious hardcore ATTF extremist who had indiscriminately shod dead 13 innocent poor people in a market place at Singicherra under Khowai Sub-Division, West Tripura, few years ago. The slanderous statement that the CPI(M) has recently sought the assistance of the ATTF is designed to smokescreen the Congress party joining forces with the armed and outlawed extremists of Tripura, he maintained. He also pointed out that the cancellation of prime minister's scheduled election meeting at Ambassa, Dhalai district is an ample proof of who are the collaborators of extremists in Tripura. Incidentally, the prime minister has desired to cancel his Ambassa meeting and address the Udaipur, South Tripura meeting, because there is report in both the union Home ministry and prime minister's secretariat that the INPT whose president is Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl, is the political mask of the outlawed extremists, and Ambassa is under the constituency where Bijoy Hrangkhawl is a candidate. Gautam Das also informed the press that a case is still pending with the police against Bijoy Hrangkhawl instituted by the state government for his seditious and secessionist speech in favour of the armed and outlawed extremists delivered in Geneva prior to 2003 Assembly elections in Tripura.

Regarding the goebelsian propaganda campaign of the Union minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi in Tripura, Gautam Das said that this is a futile bid to deceive the people who have been discarding the Congress party at every election for the last seven years in the state due to its policy of division and deprivation, of devouring and devastating. He also informed the press that the Congress party has already brought in some extremists at certain areas of the state for carrying out poll violence, and also specifically pointed out recently raised allegation that some armed outsiders have entered at Dharmanagar, North Tripura, accompanied by a few ministers of Manipur. The police will be informed of this for appropriate investigation, he added.

In another development, Gautam Das gave a reminder to the chief election commissioner that despite already drawing the attention of the EC, about the frequent phone calls in favour of the Congress-INPT combine, going on in the state through the BSNL since February 14, CPI(M) is still in the dark as to whether this is permissible under the commission's code of conduct guidelines.

Meanwhile, pricking the bubbles of the fake pro-tribalism of the INPT and also unmasking the entire Congress-INPT alliance itself, the INPT issued its separate poll manifesto without any clear or specific programme for the development, self-reliance and enlightenment of the tribals. The manifesto makes it clear once again that the heinous alliance is just a crooked trick to hoodwink the people, and plunder the state dry. Incidentally, an organisation named Tripura Election Watch issued the result of a recent survey showing that the seven scam-tainted Congress candidates at the 10th Assembly elections in Tripura possess together movable and immovable properties worth a total of Rs 33 crores. According to the affidavits submitted with the nominations of the candidates, six are charge-sheeted including Congress-TUJS coalition chief minister candidate Sudhir Ranjan Majumder and INPT candidate Rabindra Debbarma with four independent candidates, the survey reveals. It has also been revealed that Congress candidates Birjit Sinha and Billal Mia have concealed in their affidavits the facts of their being charge-sheeted.