People's Democracy

Tripura Solidarity Day Observed Nationwide

THE CPI(M) Delhi state committee organised a hall meeting on September 30 to express solidarity with the people of Tripura, who are waging a heroic struggle under the leadership of the Left Front against secessionist attempts of the terrorists. The meeting, held as part of the Party Central Committee call to observe September 30 as a Tripura Solidarity Day, was addressed by Anil Sarkar, a minister in the Left Front government of Tripura and by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Prakash Karat.

The meeting began with a stirring song, in Kok Barak, the language of the tribal people of Tripura, by well known cultural activist from the state, Hemanta Jamatiya. He was once a member of NLFT, a terrorist outfit led by Bejoy Hrangkhawl. From his own experience Jamatiya came to realise the anti-people nature of the NLFT and quit the outfit to join the Left.

Anil Sarkar traced the record of terrorist activities in Tripura since 1978, when the first Left Front government came to power in the state. He referred in detail to the attempts made by tribal terrorist outfits and the Bengali chauvinist group, Amra Bengali, to disrupt the unity of the tribal and non-tribal people. He also exposed the thoroughly opportunist and anti-national role of the Congress in allying with those forces which want to separate Tripura from India. Hundreds of CPI(M) cadres have been killed in facing the nefarious designs of these anti-national forces. He referred to the terror tactics adopted by the extremists to capture the Autonomous District Council and gave facts and figures to show how this had impacted adversely on the lives of the tribal people. He expressed confidence that the CPI(M)-led Left Front would once again emerge victorious in the forthcoming state assembly elections in 2003.

Prakash Karat referred to the difficult security scenario in Tripura and accused the BJP-led central government of playing partisan politics at the cost of national integrity by consistently refusing to provide Tripura with the security forces necessary to effectively patrol the state’s 856 km long border with Bangladesh. The terrorist gangs have their bases in Bangladesh from where they operate their campaign of murder and mayhem. The tribal cadres of the CPI(M), both men and women are targeted by the extremists and as a result about 100 comrades are martyred each year. He dubbed the alliance of the Congress with extremist groups in Tripura as an anti-national act and called for exposure of this heinous role of the Congress through out the country. The CPI(M) has a long history of struggle and sacrifice in Tripura. Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that every fourth inhabitant of the state is a member of the CPI(M) or its mass organisations. He concluded with a call to take the facts regarding Tripura to the people and to build widespread solidarity with the Tripura Party, the Left Front government and the brave people of the state.

WEST BENGAL

Tripura Solidarity Day was observed throughout Bengal at the call of the Left Front on September 30. Meetings, rallies and conventions marked the day when the people of Bengal expressed their solidarity with the people of Tripura, which faces the conspiratorial moves of the separatist elements backed by the vested interests of that small hilly state.

Two central conventions were organised. Both were very well attended. Manik Sarkar, the Tripura chief minister and Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M), addressed the Kolkata convention. Aghor Deb Barman, a minister in the Left Front government of Tripura spoke at the convention held at Siliguri.

Manik Sarkar spoke at length on the contingent nature of the situation that Tripura faces now. The democratic people of Tripura, said Sarkar, faced a critical challenge from the separatists who were being backed by the Tripura unit of the Congress.

The uneven nature of development and the neglect meted out to the northeastern region of the country under successive union governments, said the Tripura chief minister, caused the people there to suffer from acute impoverishment. This led to a feeling of frustration to the extent that in most of the northeastern states, elements of separatism could spring up.

But that was not the whole story. Eager to draw political mileage from the volatile situation, the Congress, both at the centre and in Tripura, went in for a policy of dangerous opportunism when they represented themselves as the party of the Bengalis. They also attempted to emerge as the champion of the cause of the refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan, who had been provided shelter in Tripura by the tribal people indigenous to that part of the country.

During the long periods of time when it remained in office by means fair and foul, the Tripura Congress leadership did almost nothing to go in for economic development of the tracts of land where the tribal people lived. Economic disparity ultimately led to political and social frustration and a small percentage of the tribal youth was driven to take up arms.

Sarkar argued how the Communist Party always had had a strong base among the tribal people and how that was one reason why the Congress would do nothing to improve the lot of the tribal groups in Tripura. Sarkar mentioned how the separatist activities suddenly underwent a sharp rise the moment the first Left Front government assumed office in 1978.

Touching on the role of the CIA and the ISI, Manik Sarkar described how training camps were run from neighbouring Bangladesh, and how the BJP-led union government, following in the foot steps of its Congress predecessors, would not lift a finger to speak to the government in Bangladesh over this crucial issue.

The 86-odd kilometres long border between Tripura and Bangladesh has not been protected with wire fencing. Units of the Indian Army are being continuously withdrawn from Tripura. The call for augmenting the units of the Border Security Force is patently ignored by the BJP-led government up in Delhi.

In the meanwhile, the Tripura unit of the Congress has continued to organise electoral alliances with various separatist groups, including the Tripura National Volunteers (TNV), the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS), the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), and the Indigenous National Party of Tripura (INPT). And, recalled Manik Sarkar, Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi would not respond to CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury’s letter on the growing alliance between the separatist forces and the Congress in Tripura.

With the Assembly elections approaching, there is a spurt in the separatist activities in Tripura. Leaders like Hrangkhawl are allowed to address international fora and to speak in favour of the "rightful" demand for secessionism by the "indigenous people of Tripura."

The democratic-minded people of Tripura said Manik Sarkar, whether tribal or non-tribal, stood firm behind the Left Front and the Left Front government in that province. They never forget for a moment how it had been the Communist leadership, which had worked towards an early establishment of unity between all sections of the working people of Tripura. In conclusion, Sarkar exhorted upon the people of Bengal to stand firmly behind the people of Tripura in this hour of crisis when national and international forces of reaction were out to destabilise not merely Tripura, and not only the resource-rich northeastern India, but also the country as a whole.

Biman Basu, chairman of the Bengal Left Front presided over the meeting where the entire array of the state leadership of the CPI (M) and the Left Front was in present..

KERALA

All the fourteen district committees of CPI(M) observed ‘Tripura Solidarity Day’ with seminars and public meetings at district centers on September 30. Speakers at these meetings offered full back up and solidarity with the left and democratic forces of Tripura in their heroic resistance to the divisive forces working in that state with the active participation and help of outsiders. The earlier polices of the Congress (I) and the present one of BJP in the centre have been quite detrimental to the peaceful, ordinary economic and democratic development of Tripura and the people are therefore suffering much. The meetings urged the central government to review its policy towards Tripura.