In Ayodhya, hope and fear as Ram temple talk gets louder

AYODHYA: A short distance from the disputed Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site, Shankar Lal, a tailor, stitches a dress for Ram Lalla in a tent. He is happy he may not have to wait long for the temple to come up.


The Supreme Court has postponed judgment on the Ram temple issue for now, but both BJP leaders and Sangh seniors have been frequently talking about it in the recent past, ratcheting the narrative around it. Just on November 2, the RSS said that Hindus were “feeling insulted” that an issue so important to the community was considered unimportant by the country’s top court. At a press conference in Mumbai, RSS sarkaryavah Bhaiyyaji Joshi said his organisation “would not hesitate” to launch an agitation for the Ram mandir at Ayodhyta.

With assembly polls to five states around the corner and

Lok Sabha

elections next year, the deeply divisive issue has gained much momentum and urgency at ‘ground zero’. On the streets of the city, around the epicenter, there is excitement and hope in some quarters, but fear and foreboding in equal measure in some.

“My father used to stitch clothes for Ram Lalla from 1985. After he died in 1994, I have been doing it,” Lal told TOI on Thursday. “How much longer will Lord Ram live in a tent? The ordinance by Parliament that a few leaders in the BJP are talking about is a good thing. There has to be closure.”

On a busy road, a group of guides offer to take pilgrims and visitors on a tour of the city and to the disputed site. “We have been guides for generations. Our ancestors could not see the temple come up. We want to see it in our lifetime,” said Vishnu Pandey. “It is now or never.”

Across the street, though, talk to Ejay Ahmad and the smile vanishes from his face. “We do not want any violence over this mandir-masjid issue,” the man who runs a small shop nearby, said, referring to events of 1992 and the bloody year that followed. “Who wants history to be repeated? Not me. I am happy to go about earning my livelihood.”

A school teacher by profession, Meraj Khan is also tentative. If he is hopeful, the hope is of a different kind. “The court will do the right thing,” he said. All we can do is wait patiently for the verdict. The date being postponed is not such a serious matter.”

Sitting quietly in his three-room house in Kotiya locality, main petitioner from the Muslim side Iqbal Ansari is unflappable as ever. “Now people are talking about bringing in an ordinance. But courts are also a part of the law. They are a part of this country,” he said.

Then there is Mahant Yugal Kishore Shashtri of the Ram Janki Mandir next door. “The issue has confused both communities greatly,” he said, after a four-hour long pooja. Given the sadbhavna samman by then vice-president Hamid Ansari, the 70-year-old Shashtri was witness to the tumultuous events of 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished by kar sevaks. A VHP member, he parted ways with the organisation in 1991.

“After the mosque was demolished, I was attacked by kar sevaks. They wanted me to support the movement, but I refused. I still believe people have faith in the judiciary to resolve the issue. Let the time come,” Shashtri said. Earlier this year, he organized an iftaar party during Ramzan.

Ever since the clamour around Ram Mandir gained momentum, with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and chief minister Yogi Adityanath pitching for it and former VHP chief Pravin Togadia visiting the city several times in quick succession, security forces have been on the alert. More than 70 trucks with building material reached Ayodhya last month. Locals are worried the place has begun to resemble barracks once again.

At the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Karyashala, where stones for the proposed temple are being carved by artisans, there is the usual bustle of work. As a priest chants hymns, pilgrims throng around a model of the proposed threestorey temple.

“I can’t comment on the SC. Our job is to carve the stones and make them ready in case there is a positive judgment,” said Rajnikant, an artisan from Surendranagar in

Gujarat

. The city at the heart of one of the most contentious issues in Indian history bides its time.