Ram temple in place of memorial

A fresh controversy has arisen in Tripura, this time over t he proposed construction of a Ram temple at a spot where a memorial had been planned for a tribal woman at Matai village in South Tripura district. On October 14, the Vishwa Sanatan Sena, an organisation consisting of important leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allegedly demolished a foundation stone laid for the construction of a memorial for Mohini Tripura, who was killed in police firing on March 17, 1967, while agitating for forest rights. She became a symbol of tribal resistance and the movement for forest rights. In 2017, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her martyrdom, the then Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), laid the foundation stone for the memorial.

Tapas Datta, the CPI(M)’s subdivisional secretary, told Frontline: “We believe that the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition Of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is a legacy of Mohini Tripura’s courage and sacrifice. We wanted to honour that sacrifice. We laid the foundation stone and set up a ‘memory preservation committee’, but there was some delay in preparing the papers for the land and the work on the memorial. We thought of finishing the process after the Assembly elections [held in March].” According to sources in the CPI(M), BJP workers destroyed the memorial on October 5. Nine days later, the Sanatan Sena laid the foundation stone for a Ram temple there. The CPI(M) lodged a complaint with the district magistrate and with the police in Belonia town. “The entire area surrounding the land where we laid the foundation stone has been developed in honour of Mohini Tripura. The BJP chose that spot to build a Ram temple in order to wipe out the memory of the martyr,” said Datta.

Not everybody in the BJP is comfortable with the issue, as winning tribal support was crucial for its electoral victory in the State. A section of the party has been trying to establish that the Sanatan Sena has nothing to do with the BJP. But, some of its influential members, including its State vice president Subal Bhowmik, run the organisation. “The issue is a sensitive one within the party, and there is no official stand on the temple row, especially since the Sanatan Sena is led by certain senior BJP leaders,” a State BJP leader said.

Bhowmik, however, maintained that there was no controversy at all. “I laid the foundation stone for the Ram mandir. This is a private property and its rightful owner was present at the time. He even handed over the documents pertaining to the land to us. The land had been forcibly taken on the pretext of building a memorial under the leadership of Badal Choudhury, the local MLA who was Finance Minister in the previous CPI(M) government. The CPI(M) is trying to turn this into a national issue. But we will not be stalled from building a Ram mandir here,” he said.

The CPI(M) insists that the plot had been given to it by its owner, Haradhan Baidya. Badal Choudhury, CPI(M) central committee member, said: “Although he had given us his consent for the memorial, we had not got the paper work done. In the meanwhile, Baidya died. The BJP is using its might to destroy everything. But we will continue to resist.”

Leaders of the CPI(M) said they were summoned for a hearing on their complaint at the subdivisional magistrate’s office in Belonia, but goons allegedly belonging to the BJP and the Sanatan Sena prevented them from attending the hearing. “They took our papers away. The administration did not try to protect us,” Datta said.