Despite assurance from the Governor and Chief Minister, total lawlessness, anarchy and misgovernance have been prevailing in Tripura since the BJP came into power in March 2018 and kept the police as a “wooden doll”, former chief minister and CPI-M leader, Manik Sarkar said on Sunday.

Sarkar, a politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said that during the past two years (since June 2019) at least 10 people were killed in nine incidents of lynching and several people escaped from the mob attacks while five people died in police custody.

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“BJP government’s indifferent attitude and the puppet role of police led to the happening and rising of the attacks and atrocities on the opposition party workers, supporters, and party offices,” the Left leader told the media.

He said that chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb during the Assembly session in the third week of March had assured to stop political violence against the Opposition parties.

“But since the CM’s statement in the house, over 200 incidents of physical attacks on the opposition party men, mostly on the CPI-M workers and supporters occurred. Besides, 152 attacks on shops and houses belonging to the Opposition parties took place and attacks on 17 party offices registered during this period,” said Sarkar, who is now the Opposition Leader of the State Assembly.

Referring that Tripura once was the number one state in the country in voluntary blood donation, the former Chief Minister said that BJP workers even attacked the Opposition party workers while they are organising blood donation camps.

Sarkar, who was the Chief Minister for 20 years until the BJP came to power three years and three months ago, said that the BJP workers even attacked the People’s Relief Volunteers (PRV) while they were carrying out various programmes against the prevention of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PRV, a Left backed organisation, has been providing relief and healthcare services affected by the pandemic across the state.

“We have approached governor Ramesh Bais and chief minister on a number of occasions to stop the attacks and atrocities against opposition leaders and workers, but these are going on unabated in the state.

Total anarchy is prevailing in the BJP ruled state due to misgovernance. When a delegation of Left parties met the governor on May 12, he assured that there would no more political violence but after that 70 attacks of various nature occurred in different parts of the state,” the septuagenarian Marxist leader said.

Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the state of emergency in the country in 1975, but the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government without formally declaring the emergency unleashed and conducting more than that happened during the 21-month period from 1975 to 1977, the CPI-M politburo member said.