The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has admitted that the two Lenin statues, which were damaged after the party lost the elections in the state, were built with public money from the municipality.
Chairperson of the Belonia municipality, Subhra Mitra, told THE WEEK that the statue of Lenin which BJP workers pulled down at Belonia has been kept inside the municipality office at the instruction of local district magistrate.
Mitra said that another Lenin statue, built in Sabroom town along with the one in Belonia, has also been damaged.
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“Both of them were pulled down. However, the second one has not been damaged like the one in Belonia. Even I could not visit the place. I will probably visit tomorrow,” said Mitra.
Mitra said that the statues at Belonia and Sabroom were constructed by local bodies from their municipality fund. The one built in Belonia cost Rs 4.5 lakh with the cost for both the statues being around Rs 7 lakh.
“It was built from the local area beautification fund of the municipality. The one in Belonia cost about 4.5 lakh and was constructed in 2015. The statue was built with fiber glass,” she added.
Asked whether the decision to built the statue was taken by party of the municipality itself or the state government, Mitra did not give a direct answer.
“I cannot remember at whose suggestion that was built. But it was a consensus,” she said.
A BJP leader, however, alleged that the municipality has no right to spend public money to build the statue.
“How could they do that with public money? It’s highly immoral and offensive which only communists could do. They should have spent from their party funds,” said Sudip Roy Barman, BJP leader of Tripura.