Agartala, Jul 07, 2022, TRIPURATIMES Desk

Agartala, July 07: The Tripura royal scion and the TIPRA Motha Chief Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman opposed making sculptures from public expenses and claimed on Thursday that the Tripura Maharajas had no culture of making their own sculptures, rather the Maharajas had owned a culture of using public tax on building schools, roads and other basic amenities for the welfare of the people of this state.

Pradyot was addressing a gathering of both tribals and non-tribals here at Agartala Old Agartala on the commencement of the traditional Kharchi Puja festival.

He said, “Despite having so many Maharajas in Tripura, not a single Maharaja had built sculptures of their own, because this was not the culture of the Maharajas. We should rather use public tax in building schools, in scholarships for the students and in construction of roads.”

“If you really respect the Maharajas, then we should uplift the next generations and get them acknowledged with proper education and proper history and they will be more expensive than any other statues and sculptures. If the sculptures are to be made, then we should make sure that these are made out of our own money and not from government funds,” Pradyot said while commenting on the memorandum placed by the Kshatriya Samaj.

Commenting on the Kshatriya Samaj’s demand of removal of the statues of Khudiram Bose and Surya Sen from Ujjayanta Palace, Pradyot on Thursday opposed it and said, “By disrespecting others you will never gain respect.”

“I believe that rather than removing the statues of Khudiram Bose and Surya Sen, the statues or sculptures of Maharajas may be erected in Ujjayanta Palace,” Pradyot said, adding that a very bad culture is hovering across the country, where temples are demolished to build Mashjids and vice-versa.

He said, “If anybody had built these two statues of Khudiram and Surya Sen, then it is just to send a message against Tiprasas and those who had renamed the Astabol ground as Swami Vivekananda ground, then it was their choice to send their message.”

Pradyot however appealed to erect new statues rather than demolishing old statues from anywhere in the state or in the country.