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Singhal, Paramhans booed by karsevaks

Sharat Pradhan in Ayodhya

The climbdown by Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal and Mahant Ramchandra Paramhans on the venue for the shila pujan invited the ire of their own rank and file.

Angry scenes were witnessed as the two leaders of the Ayodhya temple movement suddenly decided to change the venue.

Contrary to the compromise formula thrashed out after night-long negotiations to perform both shila pujan and shila daan at an undisputed site outside the precincts of the 67 acres of acquired land, Paramhans and Singhal suddenly changed tack and carried out the ritual at Digambar Akhara, the religious institution run by Paramhans.

No sooner than the VHP chief made the announcement about holding the two rituals at the Digambar Akhara, where Paramhans was earlier scheduled to only perform an arti before moving on to the chosen site for the main ritual at least one kilometre away, a bunch of sadhus and karsevaks began to boo the VHP chief.

A band of nearly 300-odd karsevaks had joined the shila procession shortly after it started from the VHP workshop amid chanting of vedic hymns and cries of Jai Sree Ram.

A visibly shaken Singhal promptly ordered the massive police contingent to clear the place of mediapersons.

But even before the press corps could be physically pushed away, the sadhus had already vent their anger against both Singhal and Paramhans.

Singhal also told the cops to remove the sadhus, and asked the slogan shouting karsevaks to shut up.

"I brought this man for the first time on the Ayodhya soil and today he has the cheek to get me pushed out of this premises," an infuriated Mahant Ram Das of Hanuman Garhi remarked.

Accusing Singhal of 'hijacking' the Ayodhya issue, the Mahant termed the VHP chief as a 'contractor of religion'.

Mahant Hari Das Tyagi from Faizabad flayed both Singhal and Paramhans for what he described as a 'great betrayal' with the sant samaj.

He asked, "If this was the drama that he was going to stage, then what was the need to put the entire population of Ayodhya to so much misery and what was the need to have so many sadhus here?"

A band of nearly 20 sadhus accompanying Tyagi virtually called out in one voice, "This is the view of not just one sadhu but the entire sant samaj; and if VHP and Paramhans continue to play such antics, they will have to pay for it."

While both Singhal and Paramhans preferred to shy away from the media, Faizabad Member of Parliament Vinay Katiyar was busy explaining.

"We decided to change the venue for shila pujan and shila daan simply because of the sudden turnout of so many karsevaks and other local people who insisted on joining the procession. We did not want to take any chances as a large crowd could have become unmanageable," he said.

Katiyar added, "We were committed to keeping our whole affair peaceful and just in case some over zealous activists resorted to any mischief, it would have put the entire temple movement to disgrace and embarrassment."

The Ayodhya Issue: Complete Coverage

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