Spotlight
New Delhi, 18 March 2023
Tripura Post-Poll Violence
VICTORY REVELRIES MARRED
By Sagarneel Sinha
Post poll violence in Tripura has
led to shops, houses, rubber plantations being burnt down. Students facing
secondary exams are impacted. In an incident in Udaipur, cows and goats of one
Prasenjit Sarkar are burnt to death. Party offices are vandalised. And people
are being forced to give donations (chanda) for victory celebrations.
This has been the situation of the
state after results of Assembly elections for the north-eastern state of
Tripura were declared on March 2, where the BJP-led coalition returned to power
with 33 seats from 44 of last time. As soon as the results became clear, many
parts of the state started to witness incidents of violence. Even after two
weeks, violence continues in some places.
The CPM, whose seat share dropped
from 16 to 11 this time, has alleged that its supporters are being attacked by BJP
miscreants. Congress too has alleged that its party supporters are attacked by
the saffron party. The grand old party had a seat sharing arrangement with the
CPM-led Left Front this time and because of this, it was able to win three seats.
Last time, it had drawn a blank.
A seven-member team of
parliamentarians of CPM-Congress-CPI visited the state to investigate the violence,
but unfortunately a part of the team was attacked by miscreants in Nehalchandra
Nagar in Bishalgarh. The team thus had to shorten its two-day visit. The house
of CPM MLA Ramu Das was attacked, and his old mother got injured. The post-poll
violence in fact started after the voting, which was largely peaceful, was
completed on February 16. On February 19, a CPM supporter was killed and
police arrested the BJP panchayat pradhan. Post-poll violence intensified after
the results were declared. To be fair, the state had a brutal history of
post-poll violence but it has to be said that this was reduced by the start of
2010s.
The BJP supporters too are claiming
that they are being attacked. In the hills, where royal scion Pradyot
Debbarma’s TIPRA Motha, which won 13 seats, is dominant, there have been
allegations that miscreants belonging to Motha are attacking mainly the
supporters of the saffron party. In some places, there are allegations against
miscreants belonging to CPM-Congress for attacking the supporters of the BJP.
On Monday, a saffron party worker injured in the BJP-CPM clash on March 2
succumbed to his injuries. This also raises questions on CPM, which has been
very vocal about the post-poll violence in the state.
Undoubtedly the BJP, CPM, TIPRA
Motha and Congress cadres are all involved in the violence. Despite top
leaders of these parties have cautioned them not to indulge in any
anti-democratic act and disturb the peace of the state. As can be seen from the
reports of violence, ground workers and supporters don’t often listen to the
appeals made by their leaders and do whatever they like. This is a serious
issue. The leadership of the political parties has to look into this. They have
to put their own house in order first. Why to throw stones at others when your
own house is made of glass?
Maintaining the law and order of the
state comes under the ruling party. Chief Minister Manik Saha has said that the
miscreants will be dealt with irrespective of political colours. However, the
sad part is that violence hasn’t stopped. It is continuing. There is fear among
common people, particularly in areas where there are incidents of violence.
Since the end of militancy in this
north-eastern state by 2007-08, violence has been significantly reduced during
the elections. However, hooliganism and attacks on Opposition has become
a common trait since the BJP came to power in the state in 2018 for the first
time. Local elections starting from rural body to urban body polls were marred
by violence and with tons of allegations of rigging. Even the Lok Sabha polls
of 2019 weren’t free from violence. As a result, the Election Commission had to
re-order polling in 168 booths of West Tripura Lok Sabha seat. And witnessing
the violence in this seat, the Commission had to even reschedule the date of
polling for the East Tripura Lok Sabha seat.
However, the picture changed a
little after the saffron central leadership woke up and finally decided to
change the then Chief Minister Biplab Deb with Manik Saha, who was then the
party state president and member of Rajya Sabha. Although Saha was known as a
Deb loyalist, gradually after assuming the chair, he cultivated his own image.
He didn’t support the violence carried out by the miscreants belonging to his
own party and he had made it clear several times through his statements. The
state held by-elections to four Assembly seats last year and these show a
reduction of violence — a significant change of the scenario that the people of
the state had become familiar with after the change of power in 2018.
That’s also the reason the central
leadership chose Saha again for his clean image with no controversies. But his
clean image is under scanner now as the post-poll violence refuses to stop
despite his clear message of action against perpetrators. Obviously, with the
party returning to power with a thin majority, Saha’s task isn’t easy. There
are forces within the party who are working to tarnish his image — the attack
on the Left-Congress parliamentary delegation seems to only indicate that.
After all, if the law and order isn’t good, the Chief Minister, who holds the
Home portfolio, has to take responsibility. No wonder that Saha wasn’t happy
with the attack on the parliamentary team and ordered police to take action
against the accused persons.
People have the right to vote for
their favourite party. This is the democratic right enshrined in the
Constitution of the country. But here the people are punished for exercising
their right. This is shameful. What is the significance of celebrating 26th
January in schools and colleges of the state when the rights clearly enshrined
in the Constitution are openly violated through the fire of political violence?
This is also an attack on humanity where people are subjected to fear just for
voting a candidate or a party they like.
It is time for the Saha-led
government to ensure that this anti-democratic post-poll violence is
stopped. This type of violence tarnishes the image of Tripura, which is
known for high voter turnouts, as elections are viewed as a festival. This time
too, the turnout touched 90%.
Unfortunately, the post-poll
violence in Tripura isn’t even a topic of discussion in the mainstream
discourse of the country — and this a
reason of concern for health of democracy. The section which was very
vocal during the post-poll violence in West Bengal after the 2021 state polls
is silent on the post-poll violence in Tripura. Why there are no prime time
debates on post-poll violence in Tripura? Or is the attack on democracy in
Tripura not a problem of the country?---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
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