Tense situation in Tripura not just about lynchings and rumours, it is about the political dynamics of the BJP and CPM

On June 26, an 11-year-old boy, Purna Biswas was found murdered in Mohanpur sub-division of Tripura. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker of the area, Ratan Lal Nath, who is also the state’s law minister, visited the family and said that an “international kidney smuggling racket” might be behind the death.

The following day, nine persons – all of them in separate incidents – were beaten up in various parts of the state on suspicion of being childlifters. On that day and the following day, a vendor, a musical instrument teacher, a vagabond and a mentally challenged woman were beaten to death and at least 20 people including railway officials were assaulted by mobs in different incidents in western and southern Tripura.

Over 20 persons have been arrested in connection with these incidents, the post mortem report mentioned that no organ had been removed and the law minister Nath has even admitted to his “mistake”.

But the tension refused to die down in Tripura. Former chief minister Manik Sarkar, who is leader of Opposition in the state and a politburo member of the CPI(M), has said: “Irresponsible, baseless and foolish comments after killing of a minor boy in Mohanpur (in western Tripura) fuelled to such a situation, resulting in the lynching of a few people and injuring many in Tripura.”

While he hasn’t named the ruling BJP or the ministers, he said that police and civil administration ought to be more vigilant and the rumour mongers should be booked.

Meanwhile, the state’s Congress president Birajit Sinha has lodged a complaint with Kailashahar police station in which he alleged there were efforts to malign him on social media. One Anupam Paul had written on Facebook that Sarkar and Sinha were responsible for “planned murders” in the state.

Not just about lynching and rumours

The current situation may be tense over rumours, but the ruling BJP and the Opposition CPI(M) in Tripura have been on a collision course for the past few months, since the ruling CPM lost in the Assembly elections in March this year, that ended 25 years of uninterrupted Left rule in the state.

BJP along with ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura won 43 seats while the CPM won 16 seats (the BJP’s independent count was 35).

In March itself, a payloader was used to topple the statue of Vladimir Lenin in south Tripura’s Belonia. BJP spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty had gone on record saying that “people of the area wanted to erect statues of national heroes like Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Mother Teresa instead of Lenin since long. Whatever happened in Belonia is the outcome of public fury.”

On Sunday, Gautam Das, CPM’s central committee member said that since the BJP came to power in the state, four party members – three of them senior leaders – had been killed in Tripura. Another 520 party members had been injured in various incidents, he said. “Bulldozers are being used to mow down 120 of our party offices,” Das said. “There is no rule of law here,” he said.

The BJP too has hit back. As soon as the CPM attacked the BJP for the mob lynching, state chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and the law minister blamed the CPM for it. Ratan Lal Nath has said that the CPI-M cadres and members were indulging in rumour mongering leading to mob violence to put the state government in trouble.

Chief Minister Deb further blamed the CPM for allegedly spreading rumour aimed at destabilizing the state government. He said the state police had been given a free hand to take action against rumour mongers.

Being in power, what reason had the BJP to spread rumours? CPI(M)’s Gautam Das said that in reality the BJP was gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and capturing both Lok Sabha seats from Tripura was their target now. BJP president Amit Shah had met BJP leaders from Northeast in Imphal recently and their main objective now was to immobilise the CPM and gain complete authority and power in the Northeast in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, Das said.