“Pushpavant Palace was property of royal family during the (monarchial) period. It has now become government property since Tripura’s merger with the Indian Union and the government can take decision about it,” said Chowdhury. The state government does not plan to demolish the palace as it was retrofitted recently to meet earthquake-resistant standards.

Tripura’s royal scion and TIPRA Motha party founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma strongly opposed the decision and said that the palace was given to the government for a specific purpose and the state should have consulted and considered sentiments attached to the property before making the decision to concert it to a hotel.

“After BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) came to power (in 2018), it was discussed to convert the Pushpavant palace into a public library in the name of Maharaja where history and culture of the Tiprasa would be showcased. Now, I have come to know that a five-star hotel would be built without any consultation or consideration of culture and sentiments of the people and our state. Everything can’t be done for money. Everything can’t be done for profit. I completely oppose the decision and I am telling the government to rethink over the decision, otherwise, we have to hit the streets and oppose it,” Debbarma said.

As part of the protest, the party’s students and women wings, TIPRA Students’ Federation (TSF) and TIPRA Women Federation staged a protest against the decision, highlighting linkage of the Manikya dynasty’s history, culture and heritage with the palace. “We strongly oppose the decision of making hotel at Pushpavant palace as it has link with the Manikya dynasty’s heritage and culture”, said TWF president Manihar Debbarma.

Significance of Pushpavant Palace

The Manikya family, which once ruled the state, is an intrinsic part of the state’s history and says it has deep ties with the local population of the state.

After coming to power in 2018 by toppling the Marxist government that ruled the state for more than two decades, the BJP government had announced that it would develop the property into a museum and research centre dedicated to the great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore.

Built in 1917 by Maharaja Birendra Kishore Manikya Bahadur as a quiet getaway, for the royals in Agartala, the palace was handed over to the Tripura government after the kingdom of Tripura merged with the Indian Union in 1949. The palace even hosted Nobel Laureate Tagore who was a close friend of the Manikya family, in 1919. The palace then served as the Governor’s House until a new Raj Bhawan was launched at the New Capital Complex in 2018.

How political parties reacted over the decision?

Both opposition parties, the CPIM and the Congress have opposed the move to convert the palace into a hotel. “The palace is not only historically significant because of its royal heritage but also because of Rabindranath Tagore who stayed in the palace during his visit to Tripura. We oppose the decision,” veteran CPIM leader Pabitra Kar said.

State Congress party chief Ashish Kumar Saha said, “We are not against the state government’s decision to launch a hotel but (it should) not be done at the cost of heritage of our state. President Draupadi Murmu in 2022 laid the foundation stone of the Pushpavant palace museum and Rs. 40 crore was allocated for the project. The BJP government is focused only on business by destroying the heritage and culture of the state”.

Past attempts to remove royal history

There were initiatives to remove different structures of the royal era during the erstwhile Left Front regime led by Manik Sarkar be it renaming the Astabal ground in Agartala after Swami Vivekananda or naming the Ujjayanta Palace as Tripura state museum.

Built during 1899-1901 by the then king Radhakishore Manikya Bahadur, the Ujjayanta Palace, after the merger of the state with the Indian Union, served as Tripura Assembly until 2011. The palace was later, given seismic retrofitting to prevent any possible damage due to earthquake and in 2013, it was converted to a state museum. However, the then chief minister Manik Sarkar said that they never intended to remove the name of Ujjayanta palace and the museum was named as Tripura State Museum, Ujjayanta palace. Likewise, the Stable ground, or famously known as Astabal ground at Agartala where horses used to be kept during the royal era, was renamed as Swami Vivekananda stadium.

What experts say about significance of Pushpavant palace?

According to historian Pannalal Roy, Tagore visited the erstwhile princely state seven times and the last ruler of the state Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur hosted him at the palace. Veteran author Swapan Bhattacharjee said: “Cordial relations between Tripura kings and Rabindranath Tagore are not unknown or new to people. Apart from being a royal abode, the Pushpavant palace has another significance as our Kabiguru stayed here during his visit to the state”.