Journalism of Courage
THE CLEAR majority to the BJP in Tripura demolished the Opposition Left-Congress’s hopes of wresting power from it by forging an unlikely partnership. As the two parties hold meetings to see what went wrong, from the Congress side, one of the key figures in any such review would be senior leader, former minister and one of the party’s only three MLAs elected this time, Sudip Roy Barman. Excerpts from an interview:
* The Congress increased its tally from 0 last time to 3. But the party failed in its larger goals.
BARMAN: We expected the Left and Congress parties to form a government aaram se (easily). It didn’t happen. There must have been some or the other issue. We shall analyse and try to find out where we went wrong and what happened.
* Do you feel the voters were turned off by the Left-Congress partnership?
BARMAN: People were happy with our partnership. Or else it would not have been such a close fight. We may have had some lacunae on our side. We shall examine what these were.
* Do you think the transfer of votes happened between the Left and Congress?
BARMAN: I believe votes got transferred. There might have been some organisational failure or weakness somewhere, it could be anything. I don’t want to make any comments at this point of time.
* What could be these organisational failures that you speak about?
BARMAN: All these will be worked out once we hold a meeting of our party rank and file. The state Congress president is out of the capital city. We shall call a meeting soon and review what happened.
* What is the preliminary understanding of the results so far?
BARMAN: We shall study the results and review them. We won’t make any comments now.
* The Left Front has claimed that the division of votes (between the Left-Congress and TIPRA Motha) was responsible for the BJP’s victory in many seats. Do you agree?
BARMAN: We are keeping our fingers crossed. I shall not make any comments at this point of time without taking stock, analysing booth-wise results.
* One of the apprehensions regarding the polls was violence vitiating the atmosphere. Are you satisfied on that count?
BARMAN: We are satisfied about how the polls were conducted. But about the counting, well….
* What happened during the counting process?
BARMAN: In many places during counting hours, I’m told, counting agents of one constituency entered counting halls of other constituencies… especially in Bishalgarh, Dharmanagar Assembly seats. How was this possible? These are the preliminary reports that we have received. We shall talk to candidates, election agents in detail and review the process soon.
* At least 50 incidents of violence have occurred since counting, 22 people detained, several injured. People of all parties are getting attacked. Why do you feel these are happening?
BARMAN: Now that these are happening, what was the point of these so-called peace meetings (by the Election Commission)? For whom did the administration do those peace meetings? Law-breakers are taking law into their own hands, the police are not doing anything. There is complete lawlessness, arson, looting. People are being assaulted. All these are tantamount to the fact that this is the new version of the BJP’s Bijoy Utsav (victory celebrations).
* Chief Minister Manik Saha has blamed Opposition party supporters for these incidents, and said the perpetrators are bolstered by the language and postures of Opposition leaders.
BARMAN: A Chief Minister is CM of all parties and all the people of the state. His politician-like statements at this crucial hour speak volumes about what his intentions are. He should appeal for peace and tranquillity and should ask the police to be neutral and book all those who break the law. Instead, he is trying to politicise the incidents.
