People 'oppressed' by Left may have brought down Lenin's statue: Giriraj

Union minister Giriraj Singh today said people who were "oppressed" during the 25-year Left rule in Tripura might have brought down a statue of communist icon Lenin in the state.
"The Bharatiya Janata Party or its ideology does not propagate violence but the Left does," the BJP leader asserted, a day after a five-feet fibreglass statue of the former Soviet leader was pulled down by suspected BJP workers in South Tripura's Belonia town, about 110 kilometres from Agartala.
"So many people were oppressed by the Left. Some of them must have this feeling of revenge," Singh said.
Only time will tell who were responsible for razing the statue in the north-eastern state, where the BJP is set to form the government along with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), he said.

The minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises added that many people had been killed under Left rule in places like Kerala.
Mocking the BJP's rivals over their angry reaction to the statue's demolition, Singh said, "I never heard them say anything over the demolition of thousands of temples in the past, including those in Kashi (Varanasi), Mathura and Ayodhya."
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today spoke to Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy and Director-General of Police A K Shukla, amid reports of sporadic violence in the state, asking them to ensure peace till a new government is installed.

The Left has accused the BJP of unleashing violence in the state, after the latter ousted the 25-year rule of the communist party in the state.