The Left parties and Congress have slammed the BJP leadership after Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s comments to extend the base of the saffron party in Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The opposition parties said that the ruling BJP’s plan to make inroads in Nepal and Sri Lanka are against India’s foreign policies and these cannot be done as the two countries are sovereign nations.
“When Home Minister was the BJP’s National President he during a meeting with us in Agartala had said that we have extended our base across India. Now we have to go to Sri Lanka and Nepal,” chief minister Deb said in a party meeting on Saturday.
He said that the BJP would form government in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the party would remain in power in Tripura for 30 years as the CPI-M would be finished in the next assembly elections in 2023.
Taking a dig at the chief minister’s announcement, CPI-M leader Jitendra Chowdhury said that Deb’s speech is a combination of arrogance and ignorance.
Chowdhury, a former Tripura Minister, said that Deb’s speech in a public forum portrayed the approach and method of governance that was prevailing in Tripura after the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) alliance came to power three years ago.
“The BJP-led governments both at the Center and the states have forcefully muted all kinds of civil liberties, freedom of speech and all pillars of democracy while total lawlessness has been prevailing in Tripura.
“It has been revealed further from Deb’s speech that the top brass in BJP is engaged in the internal affairs of our neighbouring countries, which is contrary to our long-cherished foreign policy since independence,” the former Lok Sabha MP said.
He alleged that it is extremely unfortunate that this same BJP and their governments have brought sedition charges against the innocent citizens to silence the dissent voices, and octogenarian Varavara Rao, Gautam Navlakha and teenager Disha Ravi like people are not spared.
Tripura Congress vice-president Tapas Dey said that Deb’s comments with reference to Sri Lanka and Nepal are against the foreign policies of India.
“It was a long-established policy of India not to interfere into any internal issues and affairs of any sovereign nations,” he said.