Left in the lurch by minister’s killing, CPM wakes up from stupor

AGARTALA, April 1: The cold-blooded killing of Tripura's Health Minister Bimal Sinha and his younger brother yesterday may at last force the...

AGARTALA, April 1: The cold-blooded killing of Tripura’s Health Minister Bimal Sinha and his younger brother yesterday may at last force the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front to take a harder stand against the underground groups operating in the state. Sinha was the latest, and so far, the most famous, victim of a state of anarchy that has lasted here for over two decades.

The Marxists had faced a dilemma about handling insurgency right from the time the first such group, Tribal Volunteers Force, struck in the late 1970s. Although the TNV and present outfits, All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and National Liberation Front

of Tripura (NLFT), hit the Marxists hardest, the latter had not been very effective at tackling the groups.

The reason was obviously political. All extremist groups here comprise only tribals. The CPI(M) fears that a no-holds-barred offensive against the militants would inevitably lead to large-scale excesses of state terror in which innocent tribals will suffer. That will alienate the tribalsfrom the party and erode its solid base among them.

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That is a political risk the party has repeatedly backed off from taking. In the process, it has incurred the wrath of the majority Bengali population. In 1988, the Bengali backlash threw the CPI(M) out of power, as the Assembly polls were held in the backdrop of large-scale TNV-sponsored violence and the imposition of the Disturbed Areas Act in the whole State.

The CPI(M) accused the TNV of being a Congress instrument to fight the party, particularly its tribal base. The TNV, which surrendered after an accord with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988, has since been a Congress ally in state politics. But the Marxists too have been accused of aiding the ATTF, one of the two underground groups currently in action. Ironically, Bimal Sinha’s name figured time and again in the allegations over the Marxists’ secret liaison with the ATTF. In killing him, the NLFT is believed to have achieved two goals. It has scored a victory over the ATTF, with which itsrivalry has worsened recently. Secondly, it has removed from the scene a Bengali CPI (M) leader who was popular with the tribals.