Tipra Motha chief slams Tripura police for high-handedness

Agartala:  TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Debbarman on Thursday condemned the Tripura police’s high-handedness on women protesting against a BJP leader and exhorted his party supporters to fend off such attacks.

Debbarman was speaking to party workers during his visit to Taidu in Gomati district, where several local women sustained injuries due to tear gas shelling and lathi-charge by police on Tuesday. The incident later sparked a political row between BJP and TIPRA, with both parties blaming the other for the incident.

“MP Rebati Tripura has dishonoured the Tiprasa women by ordering police lathi-charge on the protesters. This is a shameful act of police high-handedness. Miscreants sheltered by BJP are roaming free; police never initiate any punitive measure against them because of their allegiance to the ruling party. But, when it comes to other parties, the police become hyperactive,” said Debbarman.

Urging the party workers to get ready for the ultimate fight, Debbarman said, “These tactics are not new. The BJP will continue to suppress us by dividing us. They want to create a split within the tribal society by pitting one community against another. The day minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia spoke in support of Thansa (unity), he was dropped from the state cabinet. When CPI-M leader Jitendra Chowdhury will speak in our support, he will also lose his post. Our call for unity is against the political interest of larger parties.”         

He also clarified that his demand for “unity” is not against any community. “Don’t make mistakes. Bengalis are not against us; Allured by post, power and money people of our community are betraying us. We have to be united to reach our ultimate goal of Greater Tipraland,” he added.

Pradyot was accompanied by senior party leaders and minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia’s wife, Geeta Debbarma, who recently switched over from IPFT to join TIPRA Motha.    

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