Agarala: Days after the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) overpowered the CPI(M) in Tripura, its supporters who were chanting "Bharat Mata ki Jai" bulldozed statue of Communist icon Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, in the heart of Belonia town in Tripura’s extreme south.
At 2.30 pm Monday, 48 hours after the assembly election results were announced, celebrating BJP workers and supporters brought the Lenin statue down with the help of a JCB amid cries of “Bharat Mata ki jai’’, The Indian Express reported.
The CPI(M) has described the incident as an example of “Communism phobia”. The BJP however claimed that the statue was brought down by people “oppressed” by the Left.
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.
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) March 5, 2018
More here: https://t.co/Q7a4EsiuSh pic.twitter.com/335YDvXTb7
“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.
“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?’’ BJP south district secretary Raju Nath has been quoted by The Indian Express.
Local CPI(M) leader Datta said the statue was the only one of Lenin among “some 15-20 across Belonia town installed over the past two decades to beautify the city”. “The others include statues of Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Vidyasagar and Kabi Nazrul,” he said.
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