What’s behind the sudden hurry to take over Ayodhya Mantapam in Chennai? This is the only ward in Chennai that voted BJP. Ayodhya Mantapam is run by Sri Ram Samaj, which includes the Mithila Mantapam, for conducting weddings and Gnanavapi, for conducting funeral rites.

It is an institution that caters to social needs of the locals – birth, death rituals, pravachanams, bhajana recitals. Taking it over is a means of getting even with the local people. The HRCE is sure to run these institutions to the ground. How did this happen?

The management of the institution had an internal dispute and took it to the Government. When the decision to hand over to HRCE was taken, it was contested on the grounds that it was not a temple, which was easily set aside by the judge.

At stake is the implicit threat – Act against us, and you will lose your institutions. But the key issues here are – Hindus are unable to internally resolve conflicts without involving the State and the State has the capacity to arbitrarily take over and run institutions to ground.

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread @zeneraalstuff)