BJP forms five-member committee to probe Tripura violence

Vinod Sonkar, a Member of Parliament and BJP’s Tripura in charge, said the party has set up the committee that comprises members of its minority cell

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set up a five-member committee to probe into the incidents of violence in Tripura, where a mosque and shops were set on fire in the Panisagar sub-division on Tuesday.

A car damaged in Tripura’s North district after violence broke out followed by a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) rally, in Dharmanagar on Wednesday. (ANI photo)

According to the state police, the violence broke out after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, took out a rally against the vandalization of Hindu temples in Bangladesh. Police said some VHP members were allegedly involved in the arson.

The BJP has denied the involvement of its members in the violence.

Vinod Sonkar, a Member of Parliament and BJP’s Tripura in charge, said the party has set up the committee that comprises members of its minority cell.

“The committee has been asked to visit the (violence-hit) areas and submit its report in the next two or three days. Since our political opponents accuse us of being biased, we asked the members of the minority cell to probe the incident.”

Sonkar, who will be in Tripura over the weekend, blamed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for orchestrating the violence. He added the TMC, which is trying to make inroads into the state, is trying to polarise the state along religious lines ahead of the assembly polls that are due there in 2023.

“The TMC has no base in Tripura; no party workers are willing to join them so they are trying to create an atmosphere of religious tension and polarisation in the state.”

Sonkar denied speculation that some BJP leaders will be joining the TMC in the state. “There is no friction in the party unit. Even those who had some issues with the party or the government have not quit the party.”

Sonkar also linked the TMC to the demand for a separate state for indigenous people in Tripura even as BJP’s ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura has also supported the idea.

“They (TMC) are rattled by the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has solved long-pending problems of the tribal communities in Tripura. They have no support from the tribes or the Bengali Hindus. So, they are stoking all kinds of controversies.”

HT has reached out to the TMC for comments and the copy will be updated as soon as it responds

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