By Prakash Adhikari
Angered by misrepresentation of historical facts about Yuksom, the first capital of Sikkim with a rich heritage and history and known to be a popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, by a vlogger, residents have filed FIR against Soumil Agarwal, who runs ‘Soumilvlogs’, and its host Bhaskar Narayan, for hurting local sentiments by allegedly spreading false information about the place on social media.
A 54-second video vlog by ‘Soumilvlogs’ has wrongly portrayed Yuksom and facts related to it. While Yuksom boasts of being a key Buddhist pilgrimage site, the video blog depicts the place as an important destination for Hinduism and Lord Shiva. Part of a Buddhist religious pilgrimage circuit, Yuksom has a number of famous Buddhist monasteries and historical monuments. The Chogyal (temporal and religious king) of Sikkim established the first monastery at Yuksom in Sikkim known as the Dubdi Monastery in 1701.
Yuksam-Dubdi gram panchayat taking strong exception to the vlog, convened a meeting with local social organisations, NGOs and monks’ body wherein they decided to file the FIR.
Meanwhile, police have swung into action and probe into the matter is underway.
Sources said that the police demanded an apology from the vlogger and his team, and asked them to create a new vlog with factually correct information about the place.
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