PM Modi's speeches in Tripura based on falsehood: Ex-Tripura CM Manik Sarkar

Former Tripura Chief Minister and opposition leader Manik Sarkar while reacting strongly to the statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in two election rallies in Tripura, said the PM gave speeches based on "falsehood" and tried to hide the "misrule" of the BJP government in the state.

Sarkar, a CPI(M) politburo member, said that a Prime Minister should not make statements on the basis of falsehood and he should not misguide the people.

He said that when he was the Chief Minister (1998-2018), he approached the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to supply electricity to Bangladesh and after that so many meetings were held in 2013-14 during the Left Front government rule while Modi claimed that electricity supply to the neighbouring country started after the BJP government cam in Tripura in 2018.

Sarkar said that the decades-old insurgency was tamed during the Left Front rule and Tripura was the first state in the country to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) on May 27, 2015.

"Modi once called a meeting of Chief Ministers and asked me how the Left government tamed the insurgency in Tripura. On his request I gave him a detailed report about the Left government's initiative to tame the militancy.

"Over 350 party members, supporters, Left leaders and workers, including a minister were killed by the militants in Tripura. When the entire country knows about the performance of the Left government to curb the militancy, Modi alleges that there was no peace in the Left regime," the former Chief Minister said.

Modi said there was no democracy in Tripura during the Left regime and if it is true how the BJP government came to power when the CPI(M)-led Left government was in power in 2018, Sarkar asked.

"After the BJP government came to power, a jungle raj has been started. There is some discipline in the jungle (forest) but there is no rule of law in Tripura now under the saffron party governance."

Referring to Modi's criticism against the Left-Congress seat adjustment deal, the CPI(M) leader said that the strategy was taken only to defeat the BJP and to restore democracy and rule of law in Tripura.

"A fear of defeat gripped the minds of Modi and that was reflected in his speeches. The BJP gave 299 commitments before the 2018 Assembly polls and he (PM) did not refer to the failure of BJP in fulfilling these pre-poll promises," said Sarkar.

He said that after 2018, all the elections conducted in the state were totally rigged by the miscreants of ruling party and made these into a total farce, he said adding that after the BJP came to power, all the political, democratic and constitutional rights of the opposition parties were suppressed and hundreds of party offices were vandalized or set fire in broad daylight.

The former Chief Minister said that the BJP government made the police a "wooden doll" and whenever any attacks and atrocities took place by the BJP members and their goons, police remained silent.

He also said that whatever PM tried to convince the people of the state, nothing would happen as people of the state were determined to oust the BJP government in the February 16 elections.

He also raised questions over the deployment of security forces from the BJP ruled Gujarat and Assam in the election duties in Tripura instead of the central forces.

Congress leader and former BJP government Minister Sudip Roy Barman also said that the Prime Minister's speeches were full of falsehood and misinformation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday addressed two election rallies in southern Tripura's Udaipur and in Dhalai district headquarters Ambassa.

BJP sources said that the Prime Minister is likely to address another election rally in Agartala on Monday (February 13), a day before the end of the campaign for the February 16 Assembly polls.