People's Democracy

Congress Leader Inducts PLA Terrorists For Campaign

THE spectacular snowballing of support for the Left Front camp, as revealed in its massive and militant rallies statewide, seems to be unnerving the Congress-INPT combine and its terrorist backers. This is evident from the way the extremist menace is also on the rise in Tripura.

This perfectly accords with the barbaric blueprint prepared by Birjit Sinha and Bijoy Hrangkhawl, presidents of the state Congress party and the INPT respectively, designed to falsify the February 26 assembly polls in favour of the unprincipled Congress-INPT combine. Such desperate design to rob the peace-loving and progressive-minded people of their democratic rights, with the help of extremist guns, is of course furthered by the fact that the centre is not yet as pro-active in safeguarding the democratic rights of the people of Tripura as it was in the recent Jammu & Kashmir elections. The center has so far adopted a negligent attitude in regard to Tripura, despite the state government’s and the Left Front’s persistent demands for adequate security arrangement to effectively combat the extremists. The latter are sponsored by the same ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, that has been behind the terrorist violence in Jammu & Kashmir.

Yet, from morning till night everyday, the hills and plains of Tripura are seen to be reverberating with slogans, raised at numerous election rallies being organized by the CPI(M) and other Left Front parties. These rallies are getting a huge response from the people of all age-groups from 18 to 80, from men and women, from tribals and non-tribals, a large part of whom have to brave formidable extremist threats against participating in such rallies. Armed NLFT extremists, especially in the constituencies where top INPT leaders are candidates, have been issuing door to door threats to voters to ditch the CPI(M) and join the INPT on the pain of being burnt or buried alive. Since the announcement of the poll schedule on January 11 till February 9, a total of 26 CPI(M) activists and supporters had been killed and several others severely injured in barbaric attacks by the INPT’s underground wing, an outlawed extremist outfit called the NLFT.

Further, over the same period of time, the extremists have ousted several others from their hearth and home through torture and threats, and also kidnapped some others and held hostage in the neighbouring Bangladesh territory.

But all this has failed to deter the people from participating in the CPI(M) and Left Front election rallies. The Left Front election meetings have been surging with huge waves of the state’s population, rocking and resonating with spirited slogans, flowing with red flags and festoons, reflecting the resolute resolve of the people to resist at any cost the ongoing conspiracy of the Congress-INPT combine to hijack the polls.

The Left Front rallies are being addressed by leaders like CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and chief minister Manik Sarkar, his cabinet colleagues, the party’s Central Committee members like Baidyanath Majumder, Bijon Dhar and Aghore Debbarma, its state secretariat members including CPI(M) MPs Khagen Das and Bajuban Riyan, by Gautam Das who is editor of the party state committee’s organ, by West Bengal ministers like Suryakant Mishra and Kanti Biswas, and Ganatantrik Nari Samity’s West Bengal state secretary Rekha Goswami. Several other leaders of the West Bengal Left Front and CPI(M), including Polit Bureau member and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, are due to address the election rallies in Tripura in the next few days. These speakers have been inspiring the people to fearlessly exercise their franchise and pronounce a patriotic poll verdict so as to set an illustrious example in the country.

Meanwhile, not content with direct help from the armed NLFT extremists in the Congress-INPT combine’s campaign of terror, state Congress president Birjit Sinha acted as a go-between in bringing four PLA extremists from Manipur to Tripura in a conspiracy of massacring the innocent people here, terrorising the voters and capturing the election booths. Sinha is a candidate in the Kailashahar constituency of North Tripura district.

Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested on February 8 three PLA extremists --- Thaithai Maithai (19), Ramesh Sinha (20) and Ranjan Sinha (19) --- from a house in Deoracherra where they had been sheltered. This village that falls under Kailashahar police station, lies close to the Indo-Bangladesh border. Another extremist made good his escape when the police raided the house. Local CPI(M) candidate Tapan Chakraborty, who is also a member of the CPI(M) state secretariat, lodged a written complaint to the returning officer, with copies to the Election Commission and to the state’s election authorities, regarding the active collaboration of Birjit Sinha in this conspiracy to falsify the polls at Kailashahar with the help of gun-wielding PLA extremists from Manipur.

In another significant incident, Rajeswar Debbarma, the INPT’s candidate from Takarjala constituency in West Tripura, cleverly handed over two 9 mm pistols and 59 rounds of bullets to NLFT extremists on February 9 afternoon. For this purpose, he stage-managed a show in which NLFT extremists snatched weapons from his official personal guards as well as those of Ramani Debbarma, an executive member of the INPT-controlled Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. The clever show took place during an election meeting at Ratanpur School ground of Takarjala. Despite the state election authorities’ directives to inform the police 48 hours in advance of an election meeting, the police was informed just 6 hours ahead, making impossible any police protection. Incidentally, Rajeswar Debbarma is one of the accused in the criminal case of treason in which some INPT leaders sent 64 college students of Agartala to the NLFT camp in Bangladesh territory for arms training. According to sources, NLFT extremists and their INPT accomplices are at present running short of ammunition. (INN)