Sitaram Yechury along with other senior CPM leaders at the protest march in Kolkata on Tuesday. (Photo: Subham Dutta)
SLAMMING THE BJP and RSS for pulling down Lenin’s statue and alleged attacks on Left Front workers in Tripura, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said that his party was ready to fight the BJP and RSS and widespread protests will be held across the country against such “fascist attacks”.
The statement comes a day after BJP workers and supporters brought down a statue of Lenin at Belonia, about 90 km from Agartala, amid cries of “Bharat Mata ki jai”. The party has also alleged several attacks on its workers following BJP’s landslide victory in Tripura polls, which put an end to the 25-year-long Left rule.
READ | Tripura BJP workers, supporters bulldoze Lenin statue amid cries of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’
Addressing mediapersons in Kolkata, Yechury said, “We have severely condemned the manner in which our party offices, comrades and mass organisations were attacked and their houses burnt in the last 24 hours in Tripura. These attacks have been unleashed by the RSS and BJP along with the IPTF (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura), which won the elections. In Belonia, they have brought down a statue of Lenin.”
Claiming that such a situation poses a graver danger for the whole country, Yechury told mediapersons that the CPM will hold protests all over the country.
Later in the day, the CPM top brass took out a rally in protest against the pulling down of the statue. Yechury, along with Politburo members Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Biman Bose and CPM state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra marched from Kolkata’s Promode Dasgupta Bhavan to Lenin’s statue in Esplande.
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“The protests will make the point that they may destroy the statue but comrades and red flags will rise up in protest… They are challenging us and we will take this on,” Yechury said.
He also described Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy’s tweet on the matter as “unfortunate’’. “This shows how constitutional posts are being undermined,’’ he said. Reacting to the pulling down of the statue, Roy had tweeted, “What one democratically elected government can do another democratically elected government can undo. And vice versa.’’
A JCB being used in Belonia to bring down a Lenin statue
Yechury alleged that since election results were announced in Tripura, 514 CPM workers have been assaulted, 1,539 houses of party workers attacked and 196 houses set on fire by BJP workers. He also claimed that 134 CPM offices have been attacked and looted, 64 offices set ablaze and at least 90 offices of mass organisations occupied allegedly by BJP and IPFT supporters.
Accusing the RSS of orchestrating the violence in Tripura, Yechury said: “This is RSS’s actual character. It has never expanded its mass base… without resorting to political violence. This organisation has fomented communal polarisation, spread communal hatred, caused riots…”
As a mark of protest against the demolition of Lenin’s statue in Tripura on Monday, protesters belonging to Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) burned the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on Tuesday. (Express Photo by Subham Dutta)
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, meanwhile, said the pulling down of Lenin’s statue was an outburst of people’s anger against the Left government. “Firstly, one cannot destroy an ideology by pulling down a statue. This cannot be a character of a democracy. However, statues of Lenin and Stalin were razed to the ground in Russia 70 years after the birth of communism there. Yesterday’s incident in Tripura was triggered by the 25-year-long misrule of the Left government.”
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