Two days after an irate mob brought down a statue of Russian Communist leader Lenin in Belonia town in Tripura, another of his statue was razed to the ground on Tuesday in Assam.

While several senior BJP leaders backed the controversial act, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and different sections of people including political parties continued to condemn the act of the demolishing the statue.

A group of People on Monday demolished the statue of Lenin along with the pedestal. The mob shouted the slogan “Bharat Mata ki Jai' and demolished the statue using a JCB.

The Tuesday’s incident took place in Sabroom town, also in south Tripura. Governor Tathagata Roy said it was a case of vandalism and he district administration has been directed to take action.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was in Shillong to participate the swearing-in ceremony of Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma condemned the act and asked the State DGP to ensure that no one could take law and order in their hands.

While BJP leader Subramanian Swamy justified the mob action and said that Lenin is a foreigner and a kind of terrorist and that there shouldn’t be a statue of this sort of person in our country, senior BJP leader like Sunil Deodhar-who scripted the saffron party’s landslide victory over the Left-condemned this and said that BJP never accepts any intolerance. “BJP never tolerates or believes in any political intolerance. I condemn what happened, it should not have happen,” said Deodhar. “However, our Government is yet to take over. Once it is done, we are going to see to it that nothing such takes place,” he said.

BJP leader Ram Madhav had initially tweeted that “People taking down Lenin’s statue...not in Russia; it is in Tripura. Chalo Paltai”. He, however, deleted his tweet later after the video of Lenin’s statue demolishing went viral on social media and termed it as a propaganda spread by the Communists.

“Communists indulging in false propaganda about violence in Tripura. Not a single CPM leader is injured or in hospital. Contrary several BJP leaders in hospital with injuries,” said Ram Madhav in another tweet while referring to the reports of sporadic violence in Tripura.

Left parties in Tripura, however, condemned the incident and said that the demolition of the statue is just one side of the violence the BJP has resorted to. “There are incidents of 520 individual tortures, 1,544 houses attacked, 208 party offices attacked and another statue of Lenin demolished at Sabroom district,” said a senior CMI (M) leader. “I am told that after the statue fell at Belonia, its head was dismembered from the body. And then, the BJP workers played football with the head,” said CPI (M)’s Belonia sub-division secretary, Tapas Dutta while terming it as a result of ‘Communist phobia’.

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also condemned the incident of demolishing of the Lenin statue and said that the BJP is showing its culture of ‘hooliganism’ by the act. “What are they (BJP) trying to prove? You have won so enjoy, take out procession and celebrate by any means. However, the act of demolishing of a statue of Lenin or anyone else cannot be justified,” he said.