CITU Tripura Rally Calls for Resolute Resistance
Haripada Das
On the occasion of the 16th Tripura State Conference of CITU, held on November 10-11, 2025, a massive impressive rally was held on November 10. Defying the red eyes of the ruling BJP goons and frustrating the dirty designs of the government to make the rally a big flop, the working masses of the state heralded an unyielding battle against neo-fascism. The rally emboldened the peace-loving democratic masses to take a vow to firmly resist all hurdles against the rights and interests of the working class and the democratic rights of the people. The rally was a congregation of the unity and fraternity of tribals and non-tribals belonging to various religious sects.
The government denied permission to the CITU to hold the rally at Vivekananda Ground, the only venue in Agartala city to hold any big rally. Though there are several places to arrange the Expo Fair (a fair to market goods of corporate companies) including the International Fair Ground, the government opted to use a part of Vivekananda Ground for this fair and used this as an excuse to deny permission to the CITU. This is why the organisers decided to hold the rally at the prominent Orient Chowmuhani of Agartala city.
Using its administrative authority, the BJP tried to halt trains on November 10 morning. But the attempt failed. On the night before the rally, BJP miscreants tried to threaten known CITU activists that they should not move anywhere the next day. BMS leaders announced that on November 10 no Agartala bound vehicles would move from any of the the sub-divisions till noon. But they did not restrict any vehicle from leaving Agartala. In some places, the BMS staged road blockades till noon to prevent the movement of people bound for the rally.
Anticipating such malicious designs of the ruling BJP, many participants reached Agartala on the previous night. In some sub-divisions, the motor workers in unison vehemently opposed the dictates of the BMS and kept their vehicles moving to Agartala with rally participants. At Agartala railway station, the BMS compelled all vehicle drivers, including those of three-wheelers, to take their vehicles off the road till noon so that participants coming by train would not be able to get a vehicle to reach the venue of the rally. The participants therefore had to make it to the rally on foot. The long procession was warmly welcomed by the people standing on both sides of the road. Many of them expressed solidarity with the revolutionary zeal to frustrate the dirty attempt of the BMS.
With CITU State President Manik Dey presiding, the rally was addressed by CITU General Secretary Comrade Tapan Sen, CITU West Bengal State Committee President Comrade Anadi Sahu, senior CPI(M) leader Comrade Manik Sarkar, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Leader of the Opposition Comrade Jitendra Choudhury, CITU State General Secretary Comrade Sankar Prasad Datta, and Comrade Jaya Barman, leader of the State Working Women’s Association.
Saluting the revolutionary zeal of the working people of Tripura to frustrate all machinations of the ruling BJP and successfully hold the rally, Comrade Tapan Sen said that this spirit must continue. Comparing the rally with the July 9 nationwide strike of the working people, he said that nothing transforms automatically. Every change requires outside a strike. And it is the working people both in the factories and in the agricultural fields who must take the responsibility to lead the strike. Elaborating upon the misrule and falsehoods of the BJP which serves the interest of corporates and imperialism, Tapan Sen pointed out that they are trying to divide the people on religious and racial lines in the name of ‘Hindutva’, but they are also being exposed. The working people of Tripura must first rescue the state from the hell imposed by the BJP and then contribute to the nationwide struggle to dislodge the BJP at the centre. To achieve this goal, he emphasised, CITU must rise up organisationally in a befitting manner.
Manik Sarkar defined the BJP as the most vicious and destructive political elements that the country has ever seen since independence. The BJP-ruled states are also pursuing the same harmful policies as that of the centre. It would be quite wrong to aspire for the right to livelihood and enjoy unhindered democratic rights under any BJP regime. The working people have no alternative but to carry on sustained struggle to achieve their demands from the unwilling hands of the rulers.
Referring to the welfare measures for the toiling working masses of the previous Left Front governments of West Bengal and Tripura and the recent achievement of the Left and Democratic Front government in Kerala of fully eradicating severe poverty, Manik Sarkar said that this alternative is a matter of concern for the ruling BJP. We must enrich the working class ideologically and organisationally to draw them into the battlefield, Manik Sarkar said.
Admiring the zeal of the working people, Jitendra Chaudhury said they have proved that the working masses will never be bowed down. The ruling parties became scared on hearing about the programme of this rally. Hence they denied permission to hold the rally at Vivekananda Ground on a lame excuse. Now, after seeing the rally, they would be frantic. The ruling BJP has valid reason to be scared. The BJP sits in power with hoax promises and using crores of black money. They have established institutional corruption in every cell of the government. BJP leaders from top to bottom are competing with each other in corrupt practices and amassing huge properties. They thought their black regime would continue forever. But now they tremble to find that more and more people have started protesting against non-performance and mal-performance of the government. The bike regiments raised by them to suppress the opposition have thinned out. The shiny slogans like ‘Greater Tipraland’, ‘One last fight’, ‘No Compromise’, and now ‘One North East’ etc. proclaimed by Tipra Motha no longer glitter now.
To stick to power, the BJP, on one hand, has been provoking a religious hate campaign and the Tipra Motha, on the other, is resorting to ethnic incitement in the name of SIR to identify intruders from Bangladesh in the state. The working people of the state must set an example of a new history of mass movement and united struggle for democracy, he appealed. They must foil the divisive and parochial designs and regain trade union rights, the rights of peasants, the middle class and the common citizens.
Conveying fraternal greetungs on behalf of CITU West Bengal State Committee, Anadi Sahu said, the battle for emancipation of the working people countrywide would be energised by the fighting people of Tripura. The attack on democracy and the repression of the opposition that has been let loose by the double engine government in Tripura is no different to what has been perpetrated in West Bengal by the TMC single engine, of course with the covert complicity of the BJP in Delhi and its overt hostility in the state. As long as the BJP stays in power, the crisis of core issues like food, health, habitation, education, employment, etc, would not be solved. Kerala has shown the real alternative before the nation, he asserted.
Explaining the approach of narrow political vendetta adopted by the ruling BJP, particularly in preventing all Agartala-bound vehicles from plying that day, Manik Dey, president of the rally, reminded the present Transport Minister about the time when he had met Manik Dey, the then Transport Minister, to urge him to get vehicles owners to hire out their vehicles to carry people to a Congress rally in Agartala. Manik Dey had directed all the in-charges of motor stands of the state to see that the Congress leaders faced no trouble in getting vehicles on hire. Thereafter, the Congress leaders hired as many as vehicles they required without any trouble. This was the political courtesy of the left leaders, which was quite opposite to that of the BJP, he said.
Sankar Prasad Datta informed that while the CITU enrolled 67000 members in the state in 2018, it had risen to 1.4 lakh this year. This organisational boost indicates the wrath of the working people against the ruling parties. The conference would explore how the working masses could be more and more drawn into the movement on the street, he said.
Jaya Barman explained the plight of working women in the state, their humiliating service conditions and their concerns about the increasing attacks they face.
