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Karsevaks start trooping out of Ayodhya

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Responding to the administration's oblique warnings and appeals as many as 800 karsevaks from Orissa are getting ready to leave Ayodhya on Saturday.

"The administration is arranging for special buses to carry them up to Varanasi from where they would be able to board their train, as all train services to Ayodhya have been suspended since Friday night," local Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesman Sharad Sharma told rediff.com.

Sharma said, "I fail to understand why the government has created so much panic when bulk of the karsewaks were in any case not scheduled to stay here for more than two or three days."

He also admitted, "The number of karsewaks has come down to just about 6,000."

"How will people come when trains have been stopped and roads to Ayodhya sealed from all sides?" he asked.

The government's tough posture against the VHP appears to have eventually borne some fruit.

In a subtle change of stand, VHP bigwigs are now laying greater stress on the purna-ahuti yagya instead of temple construction.

"No one has the right to stop us from carrying our yagya, which is scheduled for 100 days," Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhans, a frontline leader of the Ram Temple movement, said.

He said, "The yagya that began on February 18 will conclude on May 30 and we do not want any obstacles to be created in our path."

Paramhans asked, "Why are unnecessary restrictions being imposed when, in any case, karsevaks were not going to camp here for more than two or three days?"

He said, "It was very clear right from the very beginning that devotees who are arriving from distant places would return to their homes after two days. During their stay they would have participated in the yagya and offered prayers at the makeshift Ram Temple."

This apparent change in Paramhans' attitude followed a visit by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Raj Nath Singh on Thursday, who specially came down to Ayodhya have an hour long closed-door session with the Mahant.

Singh was understood to have made the Mahant realise the need to tone down the VHP rhetoric in the Ram Temple.

The chief minister was stated to have also conveyed a veiled warning, which came with the official machinery's declaration to start flushing out karsevaks from Ayodhya.

The shifting of focus on the yagya seems to be a convenient way out for the VHP leaders. "Temple cannot be built in a day; our objective was only to carry the carved stone columns from the workshop to an undisputed land. That's all," Paramhans said.

He, however, declined to accept that there was any climbdown on his part. "I don't know why a BJP government in UP as well as at the centre was trying to create conditions like Mulayam Singh Yadav did in 1990," he said.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary Naresh Dayal claimed that no fresh batch of karsevaks had been able to reach Ayodhya since Friday night, when the orders for sealing all entry points were enforced strictly.

"We have divided Ayodhya into 30 sectors, each under a deputy superintendent of police and a magistrate, and large contingents of the Central Reserve Police Force are also in place," Dayal said.

The Ayodhya Issue: Complete Coverage

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