President Kovind to inaugurate renovated Ramnakali temple in Dhaka tomorrow

New Delhi: In a message meant for the peoples of both India and Bangladesh, President Ramnath Kovind will be inaugurating newly renovated Moghul-era ‘Ramna Kali temple’, demolished by the Pakistani army during the Bangladesh liberation war, in the heart of capital Dhaka on Saturday. The Indian President is on a state visit to neighboring Bangladesh to attend 50th year of ‘Vijay Diwas’ as guest of honour.

Apart from his official engagements with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, President Kovind’s itinerary has been carefully planned to give a message to both the minority community of Bangladesh and across border to the majority community of India.

The Ramna Kali temple located in Dhaka near earlier Racecourse maidan, now named as Suhrawardy Udyan(Gound), was demolished by the Pakistani army during the Bangladesh liberation war. At that time Pakistani army had slaughterd hundreds of hindus inside the temple before razing it down.

The Pakistani army launched ‘Operation Searchlight’ to suppress the Bengali nationalists movement in the then East Pakistan.Most of the targets of operation searchlight were Hindu men, intellectuals, students and academics.On 27th march 1971, the Pakistani army eneterd the Ramna Kali temple complex and within hour killed more than 100 people .

In a late evening briefing at Dhaka, Foreign Secretary Harsh Bardhan Shringla said,” it is not just symbolic, but it is also a very emotional moment for both our countries.”

It is to be noted that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka in March this year to celebrate 50th year of Bangladesh Independence, he also visited Matua temple at Orakandi on March 27, the second day of his visit which happened to be first phase of polling for Assembly elections in in West Bengal.Orakandi is the birthplace of Matua Guru Harichand Thakur and the cradle of Matua Mahasangha that largely comprises ‘namasudras’ (scheduled caste) and their decendents who are spreaded in the North 24 parganas of Westbengal.

Recently during Durga puja, large scale arson and violenc took place in several parts of Banglacdesh, especially in Hindu dominated localities. Many temples were vandalised. In this context, President Kovind’s visit to a new temple will try to give a message to the Hasina Government. Many hindu outfits including Viswa hindu parishad were protesting in the Indian streets and even they marched towards Bangladesh missions in Kolkata and Newdelhi.

Foreign Secretary Mr Shringla clearly indicated in the briefing that “discussions with Bangladesh leaders did include issues that are important to both countries, and it included questions that are topical for both countries also. ” He also added ,” I think we are on the same page on most of these issues. We do appreciate that certain issues are internal matter for Bangladesh.But they are important for both countries. The handling of these issues has been in many ways very satisfactory. And we do beleive that whatever actions are being taken are those in then best interest of Bangladersh and in the best interest of both our countries. “

The reconstruction of Ramnakali temple had begun after the visit of the then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to Dhaka. The Indian Government had announced financial support for the project.

—INDIA NEWS STREAM