Tripura CM speaks out against RSS's forceful conversions

Agartala, Dec 29: Tripura's Left Front government would not tolerate any forceful religious conversions and would take strict action against any such move, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said Monday.

"The government would not tolerate any kind of forceful religious conversions in the state. We would take strict legal and administrative actions against forceful conversions," Sarkar said at a public meeting in Dhali district.

 

He said: "Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Jains are living together for decades in Tripura and there is absolutely no problems. The situation would continue in future too without any difficulties."

Sarkar, a politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said if anyone was trying to upset the communal harmony in the state, the government would deal this with all out efforts. "Religion is an individual affair and right. But the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) chief Mohan Bhagwat said that if anyone wants to live in India, he should live as a Hindu," Sarkar said, adding this was "dangerous".

 

The chief minister said: "I have read Quran, Gita, Bible and Tripitok, nowhere told anything against each other, neither said about forceful conversions. The RSS and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) are trying forceful conversion."

"In the villages of Uttar Pradesh, people are being converted without their knowledge." Sarkar said when the opposition parties in parliament asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give statement about the "forceful" religious conversions in different parts of the country, Modi kept mum and indirectly supported the move.

 

The CPI-M leader asked the people to agitate against both the religious and economic attacks of the BJP-led central government. Ahead of four-day CPI-M's 21st state conference scheduled Feb 25-28t here, Sarkar has been attending divisional committee conferences and addressing the public gathering, especially in tribal dominated areas.

The politically important election to Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) is also scheduled mid next year. Various tribal parties ahead of the TTAADC polls have been raising various sensitive demands, including creation of a separate state curving out of the autonomous district council areas.

 

According to BJP's Tripura unit president Sudhindra Dasgupta, around 13 percent of the tribals, traditionally Hindu believers, have been converted into Christian over past decade. Tribals constitute a third of Tripura's 3.7 million people.(IANS) 

 

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Tripura: Christian man beheaded for not converting to Hinduism

A 35-year-old Christian man was beheaded for refusing to convert to Hinduism. Indian media that covered the affair revealed that the man, Tapas Bin, was killed by his own father-in-law in the village of Teliamura (West Tripura District), in the north-eastern part of the country, where the victim's body was found a few days ago in a stream.

According to police, three years ago Bin married Jentuly, the daughter of 55-year-old Gobinda Jamatiya, the member of a local tribal religion. The Christian man had been a private tutor of Gobinda's daughter, and the couple had a one-year-old son.

Since the marriage, Gobinda had been pressuring Bin to abandon Christianity and join his tribal religion. When Bin persistently refused, Gobinda decided to kill his son-in-law with the help of an ojha (shaman), Krishnapada Jamatiya (no relation), and dispose of the body.

Police arrested the 42-year-old shaman but were unable to find Gobinda, who works at the West Tripura Science and Technology Department, and is thought to be on the run.

Khrishnapada confessed to the crime, providing detailed information about the killing. For example, he said that before the assassination, Gobinda and he had performed a puja, a ritual prayer.

Bin's wife Jentuly told police that her father did not recognise their marriage and had pressured Bin to convert. What is more, "My father might kill me and my son too," she said.

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