TRIPURA

CPI(M) Calls For Further Consolidation Of Party Strength

Haripada Das

THE CPI(M) Tripura state committee has called upon all its Party units to consolidate the Party’s splendid victory in the recently held village committee elections. The state committee directed all its newly elected village committee members to strictly adhere to the principles of democratic functioning, remain accountable to the common masses and ensure active involvement of as many people as possible in the day-to-day work in the villages. At the same time, the Party laid stress on winning over the people who are still in the opposite camp, by adopting and implementing multifarious development programmes in the villages and thus translating the people’s aspirations into reality. The state committee emphasised the need to carry out a sustained ideological campaign against the extremists and thus further embolden the forces of peace in the state.

Following its meeting held on March 18-19, the state committee of the CPI(M) released a statement on March 20.

The state committee reviewed the results of the recently held village committee elections under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, which aroused much enthusiasm among the people at the grassroots level. This was reflected in about 84 per cent turnout of electorate on the polling day whereas it was 69 per cent in the last year’s ADC poll. Though polling continued till night at many places because of the slow progress of voting, none turned back without exercising franchise. This shows the high political consciousness of the village voters, the statement concluded.

The review revealed that both Congress and INPT have suffered a sharp erosion and got alienated to a large extent. Similarly, the extremist outfits patronised by the INPT have also suffered erosion, thanks to the multi-pronged long-term anti-extremist steps – administrative, ideological and developmental – undertaken by the state government as well as the Party. Due to this fact, the extremists could not get any chance to interfere with the poll affairs this time. The failure to activate the extremists only added to the alienation of an already frustrated opposition. In the midst of election campaign, about 1600 families known to be Congress and INPT supporters joined the CPI(M), the statement asserted. 

The Party and the mass organisations led by it have been waging a relentless political-ideological struggle against the extremists and hundreds of Party leaders and workers, both tribals and non-tribals, have courted martyrdom at the hands of ATTF and NLFT extremists. It has been a real experience of the common tribal masses that no worthwhile development could be possible in the remote tribal areas, due to the onslaughts perpetrated by extremists in the last two decades, in spite of sincere endeavours by the Left Front government. This hard realisation shaped the mindset of most of the tribal population in favour of the CPI(M), the statement said. The state committee also admitted that since 1980 it was only in these village committee elections that the Party could launch an intensive house-to-house campaign in the tribal areas without facing any extremist threat.

The state committee also identified some faults and failures, including some deviations that have gripped a section of Party workers during this electoral battle. Though small in number, a section of the Party workers were suffering from the ambition of being elected to a government body. The state committee has decided to carry out a sustained ideological struggle to weed out such wrong trends.

In the recent polls, the CPI(M) secured majority in 504 out of a total of 527 villages, i.e. a huge 95 per cent. Out of a total of 4165 seats, the Party won in 3717, i.e. 89.24 per cent. Terming it an impressive victory of the Party, the state committee said the most conspicuous aspect of this mandate is that most of the village committees fall in the assembly segments currently represented by Congress and INPT legislators. It means such sections have been broadly won over by the Party.

At the beginning of its meeting, the state committee remembered the unfortunate people who fell victim to the depredations by anti-national secessionist extremist outfits during the period since its last meeting. The state committee also decided to launch a massive campaign through out the state against the hike in prices of essential commodities, medicines etc and to demand an expansion of the PDS and implementation of the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in all districts of the country.

The state committee also decided to observe the 75th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on 23rd March this year with due solemnity. March 28 would be observed as the Kumari-Rupashree-Madhuti day to remember the martyrdom of three heroines who laid down their lives while protesting the King’s tyranny in the forties, the statement said.

The statement unequivocally condemned the opposition for creating an unprecedented pandemonium in the Tripura legislative assembly and flouting all norms and conventions in a violent manner. This prevented the finance minister from delivering his budget speech as opposition members snatched the budget papers from his hands and tore them off. They also used unprintable language for the Left Front ministers and the chief minister. The CPI(M) state committee surmised that the opposition lost all sanity after it has got utterly frustrated because of one ridiculous defeat after another in the elections. The state committee called upon the people of the state to rise in protest against the insane conduct of opposition members in the assembly.