Faceoff at Jaipur fort over tribal deities, saffron flag

AN 18TH-CENTURY fort in Jaipur is now on the centre of a dispute between the tribal Meena group and Hindu outfits with tensions escalating during the last two months and police bracing for a potential confrontation triggered by requires hoisting a saffron flag on the website this week.
Leaders of the Meena group have accused native Hindu outfits of allegedly attempting to tamper with tribal tradition and applicable tribal symbols at Amagarh fort. The Hindu outfits, in the meantime, have hit out on the Meenas for allegedly taking down a saffron flag from the fort final week and issued calls on social media for followers to achieve the fort on August 1 to hoist one other flag.
The fort was earlier additionally on the centre of complaints of idols being vandalised. ACP Adarsh Nagar Neel Kamal stated that following an FIR registered in June on this situation, police detained a gaggle of juveniles from the Muslim group.
“The Amagarh fort was made by Meena rulers several hundred years ago. Inside the fort, there are several deities worshipped by the Meena community such as Amba Devi, Bhairu ji and Shiv Parivar. Recently, some of these idols were stolen and vandalised. Later, we came to know that some people installed a tall saffron flag over the fort,” stated unbiased MLA from Gangapur City, Ramkesh Meena, who can also be the state president of the Rajasthan Adivasi Meena Seva Sangh.
The Meenas are labeled as a Scheduled Tribe in Rajasthan. The MLA, who helps the Congress authorities, claimed that the names of among the deities have been allegedly modified and that “the name of Amba Mata was changed to Ambika Bhawani”.
The MLA additionally insisted that there was “no Hindu-Muslim angle” to the idols being vandalised. He blamed “extreme elements” from Hindu outfits for the idols being vandalised “because they wanted an excuse to enter the fort and try to give communal colour to the incident”.

The newest escalation was triggered by a video that went viral on social media final week, the place a gaggle of individuals is seen attempting to take down a saffron flag from the fort — the flag is seen getting torn.
“The religious beliefs of the Hindu community have been hurt by the way the saffron flag was torn down. When the idols were vandalised, there were no persons from the Meena community present there,” stated Bharat Sharma, patron, Dharohar Bachao Samiti, Jaipur.
Following the incident involving the flag on July 21, the Meena group and Hindu outfits registered counter FIRs. Both the FIRs have been registered below IPC part 295 (Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the faith of any class) and sections of the IT Act.
“This is an effort by Hindu outfits to appropriate tribal culture by changing the names of our deities. They want to eradicate tribal symbols and culture,” stated Girraj Meena, the complainant within the FIR lodged by the Meena group.

Dharohar Bachao Samiti’s Sharma, who is without doubt one of the complainants within the FIR registered by Hindu outfits, stated the saffron flag was “insulted”. Sharma alleged that the flag was introduced down by members of the Meena group within the presence of MLA Ramkesh Meena.
The police, in the meantime, have stated that no gathering will likely be allowed on the website.