As the red bastion gave way to the saffron brigade in the tiny north-eastern state of Tripura, the Hindutwa agenda has also come into force in full gear.
A recent example is the conversion of as many as 98 Christians from 22 tribal families who were reconverted to their original religious faith Hinduism through a yajna.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), known as the driving force of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched its contagious ‘ghar wapsi’ campaign across Tripura.
The incident has taken place at Kailashahar in northern Tripura’s Unakoti district on Sunday.
Local Hindu Jagaran Mancha leader Manimoy along with Gayatri Kunja, a local Hindu outfit, organized the conversion ceremony to help the people of Kablipura Ranchitilla to return to their original religion ‘Sanatan dharma’ after they wished for it.
Manimoy alleged, “Taking advantage of their illiteracy and poverty, the tea tribe people were converted from Sanatan religion to Christianity.”
The yajna was conducted by Chandrakanta Singha, president of Gayatri Kunja.
The reconverted people are workers of the Sunamukhi Tea Estate at Jalai and they belong to the Orao and Munda tribes.
One of the ‘reconverted’ person said, “We were converted to Christianity from the Sanatan religion when many of our youths had gone mad. Earlier, we were not aware much about our religion and so became Christian, but now we have realised that Sanatan dharma is better.”
He also added, “We are very simple people but the Christians used us which we could not understand. Through the yajna, now we have returned back to our original Sanatan dharma as per our wish.”
Notably Tripura was ruled by the Left Front for almost quarter century. The Leftists being atheists did not bother about the conversion to Christianity under the aegis of the missionaries.
Moreover, the Lelft rulers were more than happy that the tribal population through these Christian missionaries were getting several facilities including easy access to health and education.
But now with the change in scenario, the saffron drive of ‘ghar wapsi’, a move to reconvert people into Hinduism has taken Tripura also into its fold.