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Monday, Jun 13, 2011
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National

Tripura to fight it out single-handedly

N. Rahul

‘Will not be easy to fight the Congress-led UPA'
‘The extremist elements in Tripura still active'

Manik Sarkar

HYDERABAD: Undeterred by the exit of Left parties' governments in West Bengal and Kerala, the lone Communist Party of India (Marxist) government in the country in Tripura faces the unenviable task of single-handedly fighting it out against the Centre to get its share of funds.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar says that the Left parties' governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura earlier took on the Centre collectively for everything that was due to them. “We had to snatch, or do whatever else, to get our bit from the Centre. But, a different situation has arisen now out of the defeat of our comrades in other States. The fight will, however, continue in running the government with the support of our party,” Mr. Sarkar told reporters of select newspapers after the three- day Polit Bureau and Central committee meetings of the CPI (M) which concluded here on Sunday.

He admitted that it would not be easy to fight the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which will try to accelerate its attempts to implement neo-liberal policies vigorously. He also said he could not immediately visualise the likely results from this solo fight, and preferred to wait and watch.

Mr. Sarkar who has been the Chief Minister of Tripura for the longest period, having assumed office in March 1998, said he was aware of the fact that the Congress will try to disturb developmental activity in the State if the ongoing attacks on CPI (M) supporters in West Bengal are any indication.

He recalled in this context, the killing of 400 party cadres when the Congress was in power in the State during 1988-93, with the support of Tripura National Volunteers, an extremist organisation.

The extremist elements in Tripura are still active. The Congress had directly or indirectly connived with extremist organisations in the past which was the cause of worry for his government.

The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra, an ally of Congress, has links with extremist organisations, Mr. Sarkar said, adding that he had reliable information about extremists having set up camps across the international border in Bangladesh.

Citing an example, Mr. Sarkar said Tripura suffered at the hands of the Centre in implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme due to poor release of funds.

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