Amid Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha’s claims of good governance, the Left Front on Tuesday said law and order had deteriorated in the state, alleging that Opposition parties were repeatedly attacked by workers of both the ruling BJP and TIPRA Motha.
In a letter written to Saha, four Left Front leaders including Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury, Manik Dey, Krishna Rakshit and Naresh Jamatia highlighted attacks on Opposition MLAs and party offices, disruption of party programmes, and the looting of houses that they claimed to have occurred in the presence of police between June 17 and July 7.
“Law and order of the state at this moment is not in the hands of the police, rather it lies at the whims of some miscreants patronised by ruling BJP and Tipra Motha. This apathetic attitude of the police giving a free hand to suppress opposition and disrupt their activities also percolated to the general law and order which is also deteriorating to an alarming extent.
“In spite of all these, we, on behalf of the CPI(M), Tripura State Committee, confide in you and expect that you would let the police be non-partisan, to act freely to take legal action against the law-breakers irrespective of any party or religious identity. Please don’t let the Tripura Police tarnish its glorification of ‘President’s Color’ by partisan actions of a section of them in the name of suppressing the opposition and thereby letting deterioration of general law and order of the state,” the leaders wrote.
Detailing 13 incidents, the Left Front leaders stated that CPM Belonia MLA Dipankar Sen was attacked by BJP-backed cadres while travelling on a motorcycle on July 6 and that his personal guard was also injured while trying to rescue him. On the same day, Congress MLA Gopal Roy was attacked by BJP cadres while addressing an indoor meeting at Pratapgarh, on his home turf, they added.
A CPM village meeting in West Tripura district’s Bamutia constituency was disrupted by BJP cadres on the same day, the Left Front leaders further wrote. On July 7, the leaders wrote, the CPM was forced to abandon its campaign programme at Kamalpur in Dhalai district because of an alleged threat from BJP cadres.
The Left Front leaders also listed an alleged assault on CPM cadres by activists of the BJP’s youth wing at Bishalgarh on June 17, the alleged manhandling of Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman at Udaipur on June 21, and an alleged attack by TIPRA Motha supporters and others on a CPM indoor meeting at Takarjala on June 24.