Big protest action against bribery, drugs and crime against women
Haripada Das
THE CPI(M) in Tripura has organised a statewide protest movement on three key demands – dismissal of state minister Sudhangshu Das who admitted to accepting bribe from contractors and government suppliers, immediate identification and arrest of the drug-traffickers who transported two huge consignments of banned Eskuf cough syrup, and prompt action against the perpetrators of several recent dastardly incidents of rape and murder -- between October 24 and 31. As part of the protest action, sit-ins were held in districts.
MINISTER’S
OPEN ADMISSION
On October 12, Das, the minister for animal resource development, in an interview with ‘Rastriya Samachar’, openly admitted that he regularly takes “source money” from contractors and government suppliers and added that “everybody in the cabinet takes such money which is an open secret”. Such open admission by a minister sparked an outrage in the state, raising questions on how a person who openly admitted that he gained monetary benefit from illegal sources violating his oath of office as minister, can continue in office any further. All the Opposition parties including the CPI(M) and the Congress demanded outright dismissal of Das from the Cabinet and his prosecution. The controversy deepened on the fact that, while the four-member family of Das possessed Antoday Anna Yojana (AAY), i.e. BPL, ration card in 2021, his elder brother Himangshu Das was felicitated by the chief minister as the highest taxpayer (GST) in the state in 2024.
A similar incident of amassing huge quantities of wealth has surfaced against Bikash Debbarma, the minister for tribal welfare, who constructed a palace-like house, secured two petrol pump licences in the name of his two family members, and constructed the boundary wall of his old house with government funds. All these properties gained by the minister were quite disproportionate either to his known source of income or to his declaration in the affidavit during the 2023 Assembly elections.
During the seven-year BJP rule, some of the ministers and a good number of BJP leaders and cadres amassed so many properties like costly cars, high-rise houses, business plots, lands, etc. which seem to be puzzling to the common people.
‘Percentage’, ‘source money’, ‘commission’, etc. are common words that are referred to by the people while expressing outrage about every substandard government construction works in the state. This fact has been established by the minister’s admission.
GIMMICK OF WAR
CRY AGAINST DRUGS
Soon after assuming power in 2018, the BJP declared a war cry to make Tripura a drug-free state while accusing the then Left Front government of pushing the youth into drug addiction. Within a few days, their gimmick was exposed and the people observed that most of the local BJP leaders had taken control of cultivation of ganja, a narcotic herb, cultivation and trading of which is banned in the state. Often the police destroy ganja plants and seize some consignments from outgoing trucks and buses in negotiation with the owners. But those are just the tip of the iceberg. Thus, though hundreds of seizures of ganja consignments have taken place, not a single real owner of the consignment was arrested.
Parallel to ganja, a section of traders, after negotiations with BJP leaders, started dealing in narcotic goods in the form of tablets, cough syrup, intravenous injection, etc. and flourished their assets multifold during the last few years. Though only a small number of narcotics consignments are seized, none of the owners could be arrested by the police. At present a large number of the state’s youth are addicted to drugs, posing serious concern that is being reflected in moral degeneration of some of the people involved in various hateful crimes.
Narcotic trade in Tripura has become so easy that the traders don’t hesitate to transport the banned drugs using government transport also. On October 16 and 19, two huge consignments of 90,000 and 17,000 bottles of Eskuf cough syrup, mainly used by the youth as drugs, were seized by the rail police in Jirania rail station near Agartala, and handed over to the police. Reportedly, both the consignments were booked in Delhi for transportation in Jirania. Certainly the names of sender and receiver are mentioned in the booking memo. But surprisingly, the Tripura police seem to be uninterested in plunging into action to arrest the transporters supposed to be BJP followers. This intentional apathy on behalf of the police to identify and arrest the narcotic traders created high public outcry in the state. Till now the chief minister of the state has remained silent on the matter.
RISING ATTACKS
ON WOMEN
In the name of so-called ‘achhe din’, ‘sushasan’ in the ‘Model Tripura’ as the BJP attributes its regime, the party set out a total autocratic and regressive rule in the state where attacks on women have alarmingly escalated with the perpetrators being shielded by the administration.
On September 19, Anjali Sarkar, a housewife was burnt to death because she tried to rescue her husband Pankaj Sarkar from the clutches of the BJP miscreants led by Manna Majumder, a nephew of the local BJP MLA. The miscreants demanded a huge amount of money from the family which was beyond their ability. Following a public outcry, the police arrested some of the miscreants but let them free.
On October 11 at North Padmabil of Dharmanagar, north Tripura, a 14-month-old baby was raped, killed and her body was dumped into mud by a miscreants of neighboring house. On October 16, at Taidu of Amarpur subdivision, Gomati district, a 72-year-old women was raped and murdered. On October 22, a 10-year-old girl was raped by a relative of the village pradhan at Brajanagar, Brahmatilla. When the parent of the girl went to the police station to file a complaint, the police suggested negotiating the case through discussion with the pradhan.
THE PROTEST
PROGRAMME
The first West District mass stay-in protest on these issues was held in Agartala on October 24. The big gathering was presided over by State Committee member Narayan Kar, and addressed by Polit Bureau member and party state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, senior leader Manik Sarkar, Central Committee members Manik Dey, Krishna Rakshit, State Secretariat member and West Tripura district secretary Ratan Das.
In his address, Jitendra Chaudhury said that though the people of the state have been facing multifarious crises under the BJP-IPFT-Tipra Motha rule, we launched this weeklong movement on three specific issues that deserve to be urgently addressed. A minister continues to be in office after he admitted to taking bribes, while the perpetrators in other two issues are being shielded by the administration, preventing the police from taking action. Such apathy of the police virtually encourages the criminals to commit further crimes. Practically the BJP government is destroying the democratic structure of the state. All peace-loving, democratic masses must unite and come forward to protest against this jungle raj irrespective of political difference, he said.
Elaborating on the BJP’s repressive rule since 2018, Manik Sarkar said the BJP has no other principle except dividing the people on Hindutva line. Thus corruption is not a crime to them. Every cell of the government like block office, panchayat office, Autonomous District Council (ADC) zonal and sub-zonal offices are converted into dens of corruption. Each office is competing with others in emptying the government exchequer.
The masses must be drawn to the streets discarding all hesitations and shakiness to protest against this despotic rule. Whatever resistance and bloodshed that we face, we must hold the flag high and stick to the streets to alienate and defeat the enemies of the people, Sarkar said.
Manik Dey said that having failed to provide jobs to lakhs of unemployed youths, the government is deliberately trying to push them into drug addiction to get rid of their wrath out of frustration. It is the robust duty of the Communist to save the young generation from falling to doom, Dey suggested.
