Statedly pained at history repeating itself in Tripura much the way it did in Bengal seven years ago when Trinamool Congress roared to power over thousands of demolished party offices and Opposition homes, Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-RSS cadres for attacking the vanquished left workers and demolishing communist icon VI lenin’s statue.
She said any such action of pulling down statues of great men would not be tolerated. “Victories and losses are parts of electoral politics but that does not mean that you will attack the opponents and destroy the statues of their icons,” Banerjee told a large gathering in Bankura a predominantly left bastion for decades.
“Even I have ideological differences with the Marxists but that does not mean that I will allow demolition of the statues of Marx and lenin. In fact I will not tolerate the demolition of statues of great men like lenin or Netaji,” she reminded even as top Marxist leaders in Kolkata took out a long procession protesting the alleged ongoing violence in the North-eastern State.
Even as the critics wondered whether it was a ploy by Banerjee to gobble some share of the decaying left vote bank currently drifting towards the right, the Bengal Chief Minister went on saying how “the rejoicement of the BJP will be short-lived as getting a victory in Tripura and getting a victory in Bengal are different as the whole of Tripura’s voter strength is lesser than one Howrah district.”
“Neither Karl Marx nor lenin is my idol. But they are idolised by some other parties. They have historical significance in countries such as Russia. So I cannot disregard them by demolishing their statues just as we cannot tolerate demotion of statues of Netaji or Swamiji,” she said.
The TMC had no ambition of playing a lead role in the 2019 lok Sabha elections, but it would definitely play the catalyst in forming a common anti-BJP front, she said iterating, “Our target is lal Quila, and we will have to bring an end to this arrogant Government at the Centre at any cost.”
She said, “I also have a big ideological difference with the Marxists. We also came to power after ending an oppressive rule of 34 years but we did not retaliate here. Here we witnessed only ‘badal’ (change) and not ‘badla’ (revenge),” even as the Opposition leaders scoffed detailing how “more than 65,000 left workers have fled the State and more than 15,000 false cases have been slapped against our men apart from forcibly taking away our party offices and getting them to join the Trinamool Congress at gunpoint.”
launching a counter attack Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said “against the backdrop of a huge victory over a tyranic force expect some small retaliation. Don’t expect that the transformation will be so ‘vegetarian’ (read inoffensive).”
In Kolkata where CPI(M) was in the midst of a State conference attended amongst others by the top Marxist leadership, party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said “fascist outfits like the RSS and BJP thrive on violence which becomes all the more shamefull when the Governor celebrates the attacks,” adding “you can break our statues but not our spirits.”
Meanwhile, CPI(M) central committee member Gautam Deb urged the BJP national leadership to curb the violence in Tripura in view of the ensuing Board exams. “There have been cases where even the students’ homes have not been spared. We appeal to the ruling party to ensure that the students are able to take their exams,” he said.