TRIPURA chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar was invited by Hampi Kannada University - the top-ranking university of Karnataka to deliver a lecture on “Political Economy of Tripura” on January 16. Addressing the faculty and students of the university, Manik Sarkar described the condition of Tripura before Left Front came to power and highlighted its achievements of second highest literacy rate, lowest difference in male-female literacy and zero farmer suicides. He spoke about measures taken to sustain and develop agriculture, such as - land reforms, extending irrigation without any charge, facilitating bank finance and help with purchase of farm produce. Sarkar also described steps taken to develop industries such as – Food/Agri processing, gas exploration, rubber products, bamboo products etc.

Later in the day he inaugurated a convention on ‘Left Alternative’ at Gangavathy (Koppal district). About ten thousand people attended the convention. He highlighted the failures of Modi government in delivering almost on all major promises made in the 2014 elections – price control, return of black money from Swiss Bank, fair price (1.5 times the cost of production) as per Swaminathan commission report, generation of two crore new jobs per year. He asserted that there is no difference between the policies of the Congress and the BJP. They are two sides of the same coin. As they cannot address the problems of people, they resort to divide people on the basis of religion-caste, as has happened in Gangavathy recently. Hence Left is the only alternative, he stressed and proceeded to outline the alternative. He appealed people not to fall prey to the forces that seek to divide them. G V Sreeramreddy and Nityanandaswamy also addressed the gathering and spoke in detail about Left alternative as exemplified by Tripura.