[Marxistindia] National protest by Left parties on murder of democracy in West Bengal and Tripura on July 24

[news from the cpi(m)]

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Communist Party of India

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation

Revolutionary Socialist Party

All India Forward Bloc

July 12, 2018

 

Press Release

 

National Protest by Left Parties, New Delhi, 24 July 2018

 

Murder of Democracy in West Bengal and Tripura

 

An open daylight murder of democracy is taking place in the states of  West
Bengal and Tripura. Human rights and political freedom have come under
severe strain.  This is increasingly being seen all across the country as,
for example, in the brutal suppression of dalit protests as well as use of
draconian laws against human rights activists. This, however, has come into
sharp focus in West Bengal and Tripura, strongholds of the Left movement in
the country.  Politics of violence and terror continues to be unleashed by
the ruling BJP-IPFT government in Tripura and the Trinamool Congress
government in West Bengal.  

 

Tripura

 

Ever since the BJP-IPFT government  assumed office in the state, the CPI(M),
the Left Front and democratic mass organisations have been the target of the
violence perpetrated by the BJP/RSS. 

 

Four CPI(M) comrades have been murdered since the assembly elections.  1000
Left activists, including 100 women, have suffered injuries.  Around 750
offices of the CPI(M) and Left parties have either been burnt, attacked, or,
captured.  Close to 200 offices of the Left mass organisations have been
attacked and nearly 150 have been forcibly occupied. 2100 houses of Left
sympathisers have been ransacked and looted. Shops and other activities like
poultry/fishery of Party members have been ransacked and looted and rubber
plantation burnt.  Around 500 comrades had to shift from their homes in the
face of the attacks and are currently accommodated in camps at various party
offices.  

 

Apart from physically targetting Left cadres, even programmes and events
conducted by the Party and the Left have come under attack. Even May Day
celebrations were sought to be disrupted in various parts of the state.
Programmes commemorating Karl Marx bicentenary are being attacked.  The
progressive daily Desher Katha has become a target with transporters
carrying the paper as well as subscribers being threatened. 

 

Pradhans, Chairmen and elected members of various local bodies including the
Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) are being coerced
either to resign or join the BJP. 

 

The complicity of the state administration is revealed by the fact that
Party leaders are being attacked even inside the police station where they
go to lodge complaints. 

 

West Bengal

 

In West Bengal, the TMC regime has been maintaining its reign of terror and
fascistic attacks directed against the Left Front. After the 2016 assembly
elections, the TMC launched widespread attacks against the Left parties,
particularly in areas where the CPI (M) and the other Left parties continues
to retain the mass base. Since June 2016, 31 CPI (M) members and supporters
were killed by the TMC goons. Another move resorted to was to forcibly
capture the Panchayat Samitis and Gram Panchayats and municipal bodies where
the Left Front had a majority. Thousands of people had to leave their homes
due to the threats and attacks. There has been a pre-election rigging of the
2018 Panchayat elections through widespread attacks and violence to prevent
nominations being filed by Left Front and opposition candidates.

 

More than eleven  activists of the Left parties have lost their lives in
course of the Panchayat election related violence. Abduction and arson are
wanton.  The police administration is in complete cahoots with the TMC
goons.

 

The scale of violence makes it very clear that free and fair poll is
impossible with such active involvement of the TMC-led administration. As a
result, The TMC captured 16,814 of the 48,650 Gram Panchayat seats and
3,059 of 9,217 Panchayat Samiti seats uncontested. Moreover, of the 825
Zilla Parishad seats, the Mamata Banerjee-led party was declared the winner
in 203 seats.

 

The techniques adopted by TMC counting agents are  unheard of. During
counting, TMC goons removed ballot papers stamped for Left Front candidates
and replaced the  same quantum of ballot papers with TMC stamp. 

 

The Supreme Court, in a case whose hearing continues, has recently observed
that grassroot level democracy, as enshrined in the Constitution, was not
working in West Bengal.  

 

These developments are part of the larger attacks on the livelihood and
hard-earned rights of the people.  In the struggle against forced
acquisition of land in Bhangor, a number of activists were killed in police
firing and by TMC goons. One of the top leaders is under detention under
UAPA.

 

The Left parties strongly condemn this daylight murder of democracy in West
Bengal and Tripura and call upon all their units all across the country to
organize protest actions condemning this barbarity and mobilizing the people
in defence of democracy, human rights and civil liberties.

 

The Left parties call upon the Indian people to come forward to defeat such
fascistic attacks on our  Constitution, people's democratic rights and civil
liberties. 

 

 

 

[Released from CPI(M) Central Committee office]

 

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