Time to come out of homes, resist fascist forces, Manik Sarkar tells DYFI activists in Tripura

Agartala, May 4 (PTI): Calling upon left-leaning activists and supporters to come out of homes and resist “fascist forces”, opposition CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar on Wednesday said it was time to expose the “misdoings” of the BJP government, which made “false promises” to get votes.

Addressing a programme of the DYFI — the youth organ of the CPI (M) — Sarkar claimed that opposition voices were being throttled using dark laws under the current dispensation in Tripura.

“It is time to come out of homes and demonstrate your might on the streets for the cause of people,” he told the attendees of the programme.

“How long would you sit and watch as votes get looted from polling booths, which are just some 500 m away from the CM’s residence or the DGP office? How long would you allow attacks on blood donation camps? You (DYFI members) have to move forward with an offensive strategy to defeat the fascist forces,” the leader of the opposition in the state asserted.

Tripura is set to go to polls early next year.

Mocking the BJP’s vision document that was unveiled before the 2018 Assembly elections, the former chief minister said, “It is now a Bhishon (scary) document for them as not one of 292 promises made were fulfilled in the last 50 months of its rule.”

He stated that minorities were being oppressed in various places of the state and the country, with organisations such as the VHP “trying to inject communal hatred among people”.

“Opposition voices, ones that speak against the jungle raj, were being throttled using dark laws. It is time to unmask the current dispensation, which garnered votes and captured power making false promises,” Sarkar contended.

In an indirect dig at Tipra Motha, a regional outfit led by the scion of erstwhile royal family, Pradyot Kishore Manikya, he said the organisation, instead of raising demands for a separate state, should first look into problems faced by people living in autonomous council-administered areas.

Tipra Motha, formed in 2019, seeks to create ‘Greater Tipraland’ for the state’s indigenous people.

The party recently won the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections.

“Those who seem incapable of running TTAADC smoothly are demanding a separate Greater Tipraland! Who will give them Greater Tipraland? Sarkar quipped.