Agartala, Jan 29: The ruling BJP in Tripura has claimed that the stir by teachers in the state is "politically motivated" like the farmers' agitation in Delhi.
BJP chief spokespersons Subrata Chakraborty and Nabendu Bhattacharjje in a joint press conference said that the protesting farmers in Delhi carried CPI-M's red flag while the agitating teachers in Tripura raised political slogans against the BJP-led government at the behest of the Left parties.
At least 87 teachers and 17 police personnel were injured on Wednesday in a pitched battle with the security forces dismantling the tents in which thousands of Tripura government school teachers, who had lost their jobs following court rulings, have been holding a sit-in protest for the past 52 days demanding restoration of their jobs.
Chakraborty said that during Wednesday's incident, the agitating teachers tried to snatch the rifles of the security personnel and attacked them. Blaming former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar for the teachers' plight, he said that the teachers have lost their jobs following the High Court of Tripura and Supreme Court verdicts as the previous Left Front government had done "irrigularities" in providing them jobs and the present BJP government has nothing to do with it.
Dalia Das, joint convener of the Joint Movement Committee (JMC), on Thursday said that 10 seriously wounded teachers, including four women, were still undergoing treatment in hospitals.
Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist, Congress and other political parties condemned the Wednesday's incident and said that "indiscriminate police action and lathicharge were barbaric". - IANS
