No Public holiday on May Day

From 2019, May Day will no longer be a public holiday in Tripura. The BJP- IPFT coalition government has removed the international Workers' Solidarity Day from its list of public holidays. An order to this effect has been issued on November 3. Instead, May Day has been included in the list of restricted holidays. In Tripura, May Day was made a public holiday since 1978 when the first Left Front government assumed office. This anti-worker move faced widespread protest from various quarters. CPI(M) Tripura state secretariat in a statement termed the move as an undemocratic assault on the hard earned rights of the toiling masses by the pro-corporate RSS-BJP. CITU Tripura state committee too has separately condemned the move and demanded that the government must immediately withdraw this decision. The teachers and employees organisations too protested the move.  On the face of widespread opposition, the government on November 5 in a partial modification clarified that the factories shall have holiday on May Day. But in government offices and banks, it will be one of restricted holidays.  CITU has decided to protest this move and register its opposition at ILO.

Attack on CPI(M) Dhalai District Committee office

In the BJP-IPFT regime, the right to conduct meeting inside the office of CPI(M), too is prohibited.  On November 4, the CPI(M) Dhalai district committee office was attacked by a group of BJP hoodlums while a GB meeting comprising the leadership from four subdivisions of the district was on. MP and CPI(M) Central Committee member Jitendra Choudhury was present in the meeting. The BJP hoodlums had a plan to physically assault Jitendra Choudhury and other CPI(M) leaders. Police was informed but even in front of them, the hoodlums continued threats and said no meeting will be allowed.  They threatened to murder CPI(M) Kamalpur subdivision committee secretary Anjan Das. They even put pressure on the SDM, Ambassa to forcibly close down the office. Jitendra Choudhury rang up the CM Biplab Deb and wanted to know if this will continue.  After his conversation with the CM, the goons dispersed but threatened that no political party will be allowed to hold any programme without the prior permission from the BJP or there will be law and order problem in the future. CPI(M) West Tripura district committee took out a protest rally on November 5 in Agartala.