People's Democracy

Tripura Observes Bengal Solidarity Day

Subrata Chakraborty

AT the call of Tripura Left Front Committee, the people of Tripura observed the West Bengal Solidarity Day, June 6, on massive scale, when the entire state --- from Dharmanagar in the the northernmost part to Subroom at the south end --- was rocked with a roaring rage against the semi-fascist terror now being let loose in West Bengal, targeting the Leftists there. Thousands of men and women, tribals and non-tribals --- seasoned in struggles --- joined the solidarity marches and meetings in several areas statewide, pledged their total support to and solidarity with the people of West Bengal who are struggling to defend democracy, and voiced their vigorous faith that the internal and international conspiracy to destroy the Left, democratic and communist movements by means of barbaric terror and massacre, would fail.

On June 6, protest rallies were organised in several areas statewide --- on the occasion of the West Bengal Solidarity Day. The chief speaker at Udaipur, headquarters of the South Tripura district, was CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar; while it was the party state secretariat member Gautam Das in the state capital Agartala. At Gandachhara in Dhalai district, CPI(M) Central Committee  member Aghore Debbarma addressed the rally at Gandacherra in Dhalai district. Other prominent speakers were the CPI(M)’s state secretariat member Niranjan Debbarma at Ambassa, the headquarters of Dhalai district, state secretariat  member Narayan Rupini at Kanchanpur (North Tripura) and state secretariat  member Narayan Kar at Amarpur in South Tripura.

The vigorous and vociferous protest march at Agartala emanated from the office of the CPI(M)’s Sadar divisional committee, highly impressing the bystanders along the wide thoroughfares of the town. Men and women from nine local committee areas of the party in the town and its suburbs joined the procession in the extremely hot afternoon on the day. The march culminated in a people-packed rally at downtown Shakuntala Road presided, over by the Sadar divisional committee secretary Samar Adhya. Besides Gautam Das, leaders of the Left Front  partners including CPI state secretary Prasanta Kapali also addressed the rally.

Addressing the rally, Gautam Das vehemently condemned the heinous and all-out conspiracy of the internal and international corporate capital, led by US imperialism. Ceaselessly since the 2009 parliamentary polls in particular, these forces have been providing arms and black money to the extremists and reactionary forces here, like the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress. They have also been using a large part of the media to run a relentless campaign of maligning and misinformation and thereby mislead the public against the Left Front. Das lashed out at the Election Commission, too, which worked at the beck and call of the centre, despite numerous specific complaints against the Trinamul Congress and the Congress party to vitiate assembly polls in West Bengal in April and May this year, in various ways including the blatant use of black money with a view to defeating the Left Front. As part of this long term diabolic design, the widespread post-poll violence against the Leftist leaders, activists and supporters is now on, he maintained. Such attacks aimed at usurping the illegal land wrested by the Left Front government from landlords and other big landholders, he added. He urged upon the democratic minded and peace loving people of Tripura to stand by the people of West Bengal who are under a severe semi-fascist attack now. He recalled that the people of West Bengal had solidly stood by the people of Tripura when the latter were a similar attack during the 1988-93 jungle regime of a Congress-led coalition government. At the same time, Das alerted the people of Tripura against the anti-people and anti-democratic political forces who are active here too to recapture in the year 2013 the power they had lost in 1993. In West Bengal, he affirmed, the Left forces would turn around once again and defeat the fascist forces by winning the people over.

At Udaipur, the militant marchers, in their thousands, defied the scorching sunrays and took to the streets with an indomitable desire to stand by their West Bengal compatriots now under attack. These marchers were filled with intense hatred against the killer gangs that are fully backed by a chunk of politicians. The Left Front’s protest rally in the heart of the town started at the stroke of 2. It was presided over by CPI(M) state committee member Keshab Majumder while the party’s state secretary Bijan Dhar and other Left leaders addressed the rally.

Bijan Dhar pointed out how a conspiracy was hatched as early as in 1995 to dislodge the Left Front government of West Bengal. This has recently came to light with the revelations of the Purulia arms-drop kingpin Kim Davy who said even the government of India was involved in the conspiracy. It is the same forces who had joined hands to dislodge the Left Front government in Tripura in 1988 when, in league with the centre, they provided arms and money to the TNV extremists to unleash massacres in several parts of the state. Not only that, these forces resorted to rigging the counting process when such heinous tactics proved futile to win the polls, Dhar maintained. The five years that followed the rigging would ever remain alive in the memory of the people of Tripura, he added.

Pointing out how the Congress party is now seeking to recapture power by triggering tensions in Tripura in the earlier style, as was evident during the recent Tripura bandh called by it on a flimsy ground, Bijan Dhar voiced his firm faith that the invincible fortress of the Left in Tripura, manned and protected by militant people who are seasoned in the fire of struggles, would never fall to the devastative plots of the Congress party.   

On the occasion of the West Bengal Solidarity Day, at least 124 rallies, small and big, were held in almost every local area. A total of about two lakh people joined these rallies.

Each of these protest rallies adopted a resolution condemning the reign of semi-fascist terror let loose by the ruling alliance against the supporters of opposition parties. The resolution deeply condemned the murder of the Left cadres in West Bengal and sent its message of condolence to the families of the martyrs, the injured and the uprooted. The resolution also called upon the countrymen to stand in support of the people of West Bengal and urged the ruling alliance to stop violence.

Immediately after the rallies were over, resolutions signed by those who chaired them were faxed to Biman Basu, convenor of the West Bengal Left Front Committee.