New Delhi: The chief minister’s bungalow in Arunachal Pradesh has been converted into a guesthouse. Not because it’s old or small for the CM’s needs. Many in the state government felt that the bungalow was 'possessed by evil spirits'. It may sound random but priests across religions were invited by the state to “purify” the building last weekend.
It’s a palatial house on a hilltop in Itanagar built at a cost of Rs 60 crore in 2009 during the tenure of former CM the late Dorjee Khandu. Since then, the state has seen seven different chief ministers.
Out of them, two — Dorjee Khandu and Jarbom Gamlin — died. While Khandu died in a chopper crash, Jarbom died of prolonged illness.
The next CM, Congress’s Nabam Tuki, had won with a thumping majority even as his party was losing elections across the country. According to officials, Tuki had consulted a Vaastu specialist to ‘rectify’ what he believed was the ‘structural error’ in the bungalow.
However, Tuki was dislodged and Kalikho Pul became the new CM. Protesting this, Tuki approached the Supreme Court which ruled in his favour.
Photo of the fan from which the former CM of Arunachal Pradesh was found hanging. (Photo credits: PTI)
But things became incomprehensible when on August 9, 2016, days after the Supreme Court order, Pul’s body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in the bungalow. Two months later, a staff of the bungalow was also found hanging from the ceiling fan of an adjoining room.
Though reinstated by the SC, Tuki was soon replaced by the current CM Pema Khandu. Khandu, however, never moved to the bungalow.
That’s when the administration decided to convert it into a guesthouse but not before a detailed ‘purification ceremony’.
The guesthouse was declared open last weekend after several priests, monks, and church members offered prayers and ‘blessed’ each room of the building.
When asked, Minister for Urban Development and Town Planning, Nabam Rebia, who was present at the ceremony, said, “I do not believe in superstition and have always discouraged superstitious practices in my personal life as well”.
It remains to be seen if the guesthouse finds takers, at least after the ‘purification’.
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