The BJP is trying to wipe out multi-party democracy in Tripura, a group of pro-Left leaders said after visiting the state.

A fact-finding team comprising farmer and political leaders observed: “An undeclared Emergency-like situation prevails in Tripura ever since the BJP-IPFT alliance won the Assembly polls on March 3. Law and order has collapsed.”

The seven-member team said in their report released to the media on Sunday evening: “Murder, dacoity, looting, arson and atrocities on women, minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and the poor from all communities are rampant.”

The teams included Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist Medha Patkar, All India Kisan Sabha President and CPI-M leader Ashok Dhawale, All India Kisan Mahasabha General Secretary and CPI (ML) (Liberation) leader Rajaram Singh, CPI-M Rajya Sabha member K.K. Ragesh and three Tripura MPs – Jitendra Chowdhury, Sankar Prasad Datta and Jharna Das Baidya.

Medha Patkar said: “No action was taken by the administration and the police in spite of hundreds of FIRs having been filed by the victims of the hundreds of political violence. An atmosphere of fear and terror prevails in large parts of the state.

“The entire opposition in the state is being sought to be wiped out, with the Left being the main target, but other opposition parties like the Congress have also not been spared.”

She said that a 73-year-old library, set up by Tripura’s first tribal based organisation Tripura Upajati Gana Mukti Parishad at Durgachowdhury Para in western Tripura, was destroyed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Farmer leader Dhawale said: “One third of the elected leaders of local bodies – Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samities and Urban municipal bodies – were forced to resign under dire consequences.”

The fact-finding team said that after the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) took power on March 3, ruling party goons poisoned over 40 fishing ponds, looted as many poultry farms and destroyed or burnt down 54 rubber gardens owned by Left party supporters.

According to the report, during the five-month rule of BJP-IPFT government, 112 incidents of rape, molestations and attacks on women occurred by the ruling party hoodlums.

“Four CPI-M members and leaders have been murdered.” Another 1,047 Left activists, including 113 women, have suffered injuries after attacks by BJP, IPFT and RSS workers.

“Around 633 offices of the CPI-M and Left parties have been burnt, attacked or captured. Close to 200 offices of the Left mass organisations have been attacked and nearly 150 have been forcibly occupied. Over 2200 houses belonging to Left party leaders and supporters were burnt down, demolished or ransacked.”

The ruling BJP rubbished the allegations.

BJP spokesman Mrinal Kanti Deb said that when Medha Patkar spoke against the then Left Front government in Bengal, the Left leaders vehemently criticised her. Now they were using the NBA leader to secure political mileage.

“Left parties are conspiring against the BJP government,” Deb told IANS.A

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a potshot at the Narendra Modi-led government over the unemployment issue after one of his cabinet ministers conceded that there is a job crunch.

“Excellent question (Nitin) Gadkariji. Every Indian is asking the same question. Where are the jobs,” Gandhi tweeted attaching a news report in which the Union Road Transport and Shipping Minister questioned the rationality behind a job reservation stir when there were not enough jobs in the first place.

Gandhi’s remarks came a day after Gadkari on Sunday told reporters in Maharashtra that reservation would not guarantee employment as jobs were shrinking.

“Let us assume the reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Because in banks, the jobs have shrunk because of IT. The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?” Gadkari asked.

He also said that the problem with the quote is that “backwardness is becoming a political interest”.

Gadkari said that one school of thought is that “a poor is poor, he has no caste, creed or language. Whatever may be the religion…, in all communities there is one section which has no clothes to wear, no food to eat”.

Whereas the other school of thought is “we must also consider the poorest of the poor section in every community”.

This is a “socio-economic thinking” and it must not be politicised, he added.

In a tweet late on Sunday, Gadkari also clarified that the government is not planning to change the criteria for reservation from “castes to economic conditions”.

Kerala CPI-M MP M.B. Rajesh on Monday raised the attempted attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Saturday and alleged that Delhi Police failed to provide adequate security to the Marxist leader.

“Delhi Police did not take the incident seriously when a man armed with a knife came in front of the room of the Kerala Chief Minister while he was inside,” Rajesh told the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.

He said that it were the security guards who overpowered the man with the knife.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist member’s remarks came two days after a 46-year-old man, identified as Vimal Raj, tried to enter the Kerala House here wielding a knife.

In a quid-pro-quo, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday agreed to transfer 210 acres of defense land in Bengaluru to the city’s civic body for 10 infrastructure projects, stuck due to space constraints, an official said.

“The Karnataka government has, in turn, agreed to transfer its lands of equal value (Rs 322 crore) and size to the defense ministry in lieu of defense lands in 31 locations,” a joint declaration hereby Sitharaman and Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said.

The infrastructure projects requiring defense land include road widening works,
flyovers, elevated corridors and the second phase of the Metro Rail network across the city.

“The city’s explosive growth over the last two decades has out-paced the development of commensurate infrastructure, resulting in choc-o-bloc vehicular traffic, congestion, pollution and woeful civic amenities,” the statement said.

Though Sitharaman belongs to neighboring Tamil Nadu, she is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka.

“The city’s fast growth has led to the urgent need to upgrade its basic infrastructure, including roads, flyovers, bridges, underpasses and elevated roads to avert traffic jams and ease congestion,” admitted the declaration.

Sitharaman also directed the defence officials to hand over the lands to the city civic body at the earliest so that construction and development of the projects are not delayed.

“We will wait for the state government to transfer its land to us but not delay the projects for want of our (defence) lands,” noted Sitharaman.

The defence ministry agreed to swap its land in public interest as they were required for 10 infrastructure projects.

Defence land for 8 of the 10 infra projects will be permanently transferred to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and permission will be given to use the remaining land for 2 road-over-bridge (ROB) projects on license basis.

A joint task force with officials from the defence ministry and the state government will be set up to resolve issues related to the land swap and use.

Sitharaman also advised the Chief Minister to get a cabinet resolution passed to ensure the defence requirements in lieu of parting with its land in the interest of public infrastructure works was compensated adequately in a time frame.

The state government has agreed to this.

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Friday said the proposed bandh on August 9 should be called off as the government has decided to restore the SC/ST Act to its original form. LJP termed its earlier demand for removal of NGT Chairman A.K. Goel “a non-issue”.

The LJP had earlier said the party-affiliated Dalit Sena would participate in the “Bharat bandh”, called by several Dalit organizations for August 9 to press for restoration of the SC/ST Act.

“The government has brought the bill to restore the SC/ST Act. So, we do not find any reason for a bandh on August 9,” LJP Parliamentary Board Chairman and MP Chirag Paswan told reporters here.

Chirag Paswan, who is son of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, also said that now his party would not pursue the demand of Justice Goel’s removal as its concern was the order passed by him as Supreme Court judge, which had “weakened” the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

“We do not have anything personal against him (Goel). We were against the order passed by him. Now that the government has made the order ineffective, the matter is over,” he said.

The Jamui MP said there were angry and negative sentiments among the SCs and STs after the Supreme Court on March 20 put a safeguard against the arrest of those committing an offense under the SCs/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“With the amendment bill, the government has fulfilled all promises it had made,” he said.

Chirag Paswan also thanked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government for giving constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).

Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda on Friday visited Kauvery Hospital here and enquired about DMK President M. Karunanidhi’s health.

Dewe Gowda met Karunanidhi’s son and DMK leader M.K. Stalin and his sister Kanimozhi.

Karunanidhi, who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five times, was admitted to the hospital on July 28 after his blood pressure dipped.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday appointed former Union Minister S. Jaipal Reddy as the spokesperson of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), informed AICC chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Reddy served as Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Urban Development, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences at various stages during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that his government gave a clean chit to fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi and enabled him to obtain Antiguan citizenship.

“In today’s big news: India gave Mehul “Bhai” Choksi, Mr 56s ‘suit-boot’ BFF, a clean chit in Nov 2017, enabling him to obtain Antiguan citizenship. This “Bhai” looted PNB of 13,000 Cr., before scooting from India,” said Gandhi on Twitter.

“Here’s a little video of Mr 56 with Mehul “Bhai” (quiet smiley),” he added attaching a video where Modi is seen praising Choksi.

The extradition request for fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, who has secured an Atiguan passport and is living there, will soon be sent to the Caribbean country, the CBI said on Friday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the Rs 13,500-crore bank fraud allegedly committed by the jeweler and his nephew Nirav Modi. It said its letter to get Choksi deported has been forwarded to the External Affairs Ministry.

The CBI sent on Monday the letter to the Union Home Ministry which in turn forwarded it to the External Affairs Ministry, an official said.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) met on Saturday to discuss the political situation in the country and decided to target the Narendra Modi government on the issues of corruption and its “failure” to provide jobs to the youth.

The meeting was presided over by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Sources said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and Rafale deal were among the issues that featured prominently at the meeting.

Gandhi later indicated that the party will launch a campaign against the Modi government ahead of the assembly polls later this year and the Lok Sabha polls next year.

“The CWC met today (Saturday). As a team, we discussed the political situation in the country and the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth. Thank you to all those who attended today’s meeting,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

It was a second meeting of the CWC since Gandhi became party chief in December last year.