Agartala, June 25:
Amid mounting political tensions in Tripura following senior Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman’s controversial remark alleging that “BJP leaders urinate on tribals”, All India Adivasi Congress chairman Dr Vikrant Bhuria has come out in strong support of the Congress veteran, presenting video evidence to defend his claim.
Addressing the press at Congress Bhavan in Agartala on Wednesday, Dr Bhuria — an MLA from Madhya Pradesh — played a news clip from his home state, reportedly from an incident that occurred about one and a half years ago, when BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the Chief Minister. The footage, he claimed, showed a BJP leader urinating on a tribal man.
Bhuria further alleged that the then Madhya Pradesh government tried to hush up the incident by forcibly taking the tribal victim to Bhopal, offering monetary compensation and a house to the victim’s wife. However, according to him, the woman rejected the deal and demanded her husband’s safe return instead.
Reacting sharply to the protest by BJP’s tribal wing Janajati Morcha, who vandalised the gates of the old MLA hostel at Radhanagar in Agartala where Roy Barman resides and demanding his resignation, Bhuria said, “What Sudip Roy Barman has done is exposed the real face of BJP. The party is trying to silence him under pressure, but this move has backfired. Now, people will know the truth about how a BJP leader treated a tribal person — and what kind of party this truly is.”
The video-backed defence by the Adivasi Congress leader has further intensified the political slugfest in Tripura, where tensions remain high following the BJP wing’s aggressive protests against the Congress MLA.
