The BJP on Saturday took out protest rallies across Tripura condemning the recent vandalism at Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral home in Bangladesh.
Apart from the state capital, Agartala, protest rallies were organised at Kailasahar in Unakoti district, Raghna international border area in North Tripura district, Sonamura in Sepahijala district, and Belonia in South Tripura district.
Protesters were seen trying to breach barricades at some places; however, there was no report of any kind of clash anywhere.
“We all know that the ancestral residence of Rabindranath Tagore at Sirajganj district in Bangladesh was vandalised on June 11. We strongly protested against it and condemned it… We never say that Rabindranath Tagore was a Hindu poet; he was Biswakabi. We assembled at Raghna to protest against the vandalism,” said Bagbasa BJP MLA Jadab Lal Nath.
A senior police officer in Unakoti said adequate security was deployed at the rally in the district to maintain law and order.
At the protest rally in Sonamura, former Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik criticised Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government.
Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Tinku Roy, who joined the protest rally in Belonia, said, “This kind of incident (vandalism) will not be tolerated by the Government of India and the Tripura government. As part of the statewide protests, we hit the streets in Belonia.”
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Meanwhile, Tipra Motha party founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma wrote on his Facebook page, “We condemn the vandalising of Kabi guru Rabindranath Tagore home in Bangladesh. He not only wrote our national anthem but also that of present-day Bangladesh. How ungrateful can some people be to first vandalise Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statue and now Rabindranath Tagore’s home! Not to forget that they also burnt down Maharaja Birchandra Library in Comilla. When will we realise that these people are one of the most ungrateful people around?”
A Tipra Motha delegation led by Forest Minister Animesh Debbarma Saturday submitted a memorandum to the Tripura Governor. In the memorandum, the BJP alliance partner urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to directly oversee the process of detection and deportation of illegal migrants who entered the state after March 24, 1971.
The party also demanded the setting up of a special central task force for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants.
