Agartala: Just 48 hours after the 25 year long Left rule ended in Tripura, a statue of Lenin, that stood in the heart of Belonia town in Tripura, was brought down by celebrating BJP supporters amid chants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai.’
The statue has been there for the past five years.
The CPM (M) has called it ‘communist phobia’, while the BJP has said that the statue was bulldozed by the people ‘oppressed’ by the Left.
A JCB was used to bring down the statue. The cops have informed that the driver of the JCB identified as Ashish Pal has been arrested. The SP of South Tripura Ipper Monchak told the Indian Express that the statue remains where where it was.
The CPI claimed that the BJP supporters severed the head of the statue and played ‘football’ with it.
“Eyewitnesses told me that after the statue fell, its head was dismembered from the body. And then, the BJP workers played football with Lenin’s head,’’ claimed Tapas Datta, CPI(M)’s Belonia sub-division secretary.
The statue was installed after the party began its 21st year of rule in 2013.
In South Tripura’s Belonia, a statue of Lenin razed amid chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. This, less than 48 hours after the BJP stormed to power ending a 25-year-long Left rule.
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— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) March 5, 2018
The BJP, whom the left is blaming for the incident maintained that the statue was brought down as it was of a ‘foreigner’ and people had a lot of resentment against it.
“For years, there has been resentment against this statue of Lenin. It was built by the municipality and funded by the taxpayers’ money. Why should the taxpayer have to finance a statue of Lenin? Even if it was a statue of our former CPI(M) chief minister Nripen Chakraborty, nobody would have touched it — he was one of us and belonged to the country. But what does this foreigner Lenin have to do with our people?’’ said Nath.
