IS the BJP in Tripura now afraid of even blood donation camps organised by the Left? Nothing else explains the barbaric attack of the ruling party hoodlums on the blood donation camp organised by the Students’ Federation of India and the Democratic Youth Federation of India on Sunday, May 31 in Agartala itself. The tacit support of the government and the chief minister to this barbaric attack is manifested in the conspicuous silence of Biplab Kumar Deb who takes to Twitter regularly.  However as this copy goes to the press not a single word of condemnation from him, his office or the ruling party is on record.  This goes beyond any doubt that the government and the party in power are getting annoyed and desperate because of the increased activities of the Left and the popular response it is receiving.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tripura, like all other states, is suffering from acute deficiency of blood. SFI and DYFI activists of Agartala, had organised a blood donation camp on Sunday to help with this issue. Former chief minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar, former minister Pabitra Kar, former MLA Ratan Das, secretary of Tripura state committee of SFI Sandipan Deb were present in the programme. The programme was organised in a difficult situation as BJP tried to create problems for this initiative; even then 38 People had donated blood. After a while the camp was attacked by BJP led goons chanting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai'  who stopped people from entering the camp and harassed women.  Sandipan Deb, another SFI comrade Somraj Banerjee tried to stop the BJP goons but they were beaten up by the attackers. CPI(M) Agartala subdivision committee secretary  Subhasish Ganguly too was injured as he tried to save the student leaders. Injured among others were former CEC member of DYFI Mitali Bhattacharya, and former DYFI state vice president Gautom Chakrabarty. The matter didn’t stop there. The BJP lodged a false case of outrage of modesty against the student and youth leaders using one of its supporters. 

SFI CEC condemned this brutality and asked for the arrest of the hooligans. SFI participated in a nationwide protest against this brutal attack on June 1, to mark this event.

CPI(M) state secretariat in a statement condemned the incident in no uncertain terms. It expressed shock that the ruling party had taken resort to filing this fake case to divert attention from its barbaric act. Expressions of condemnation poured in from CITU Tripura state committee, AISF state committee and AISA state unit. Though the government or the official spokespersons of BJP were tight lipped, BJP MLA and former health minister Sudip Ray Barman who was dropped from the cabinet few months ago because of his growing uneasy relations with the CM, took to Twitter to condemn the incident.  Almost all the local dailies and news portals carried the news of attack with a tone of condemnation. Protest of students in all the subdivisions maintaining physical distance protocols was also impressive.