The Hindu : `Govt. will fall if sants are arrested'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 25, 2002

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National

`Govt. will fall if sants are arrested'
By Anjali Mody

AYODHYA, FEB. 24. Lallu Singh, former Uttar Pradesh Power Minister and MLA for Ayodhya has retained his seat. But in Karsevakpuram, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's sanitised compound, this made no impact. Here all talk is of a Ram temple. And Mr. Singh's victory, according to locals, had nothing to do with the VHP's Ram temple campaign and everything to do with the improved power situation in the constituency.

The VHP's top leadership was gathered here for the Ram nam purna ahuti yajna, and the de facto commencement of the build-up to the March 15 deadline for the construction of the temple, announced during its Chetavani Yatra last month. Against the sound of chanting amplified on a public address system, the VHP's Ashok Singhal repeated his organisation's determination to proceed with the construction on that date.

Mr. Singhal, said that the VHP was asking for the return of ``undisputed land'' and that the ``Supreme Court has said should this be returned to its original owners''. Mr. Singhal said there was no confusion on the issue, but that the Prime Minister was ``creating confusion in this matter...when we are not talking about the disputed land...why is he talking about it...unless he expects some political profit from it?''

Sant Paramhans, head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, known for his dramatic threats said that he did not want ``violence or anything that could result in the fall of the Vajpayee's Government'' since he could not see a better alternative to it.

He however added forcefully that carved pillars for the temple, currently in the workshop near Karsevakpuram, would be taken to the construction site on March 15 and that ``...if sadhus and sants are arrested the Government will fall''.

As the sant and Mr. Singhal thundered at the gathered presspersons, some few hundred Bajrang Dal activists in their trademark saffron bandanas and a larger number of elderly women from Andhra Pradesh, North Bihar and Gwalior sat in the blazing sun waiting their turn to add their offering to the yajna fire. They were part of the VHP-estimated 10,000 people who are the start of what is effectively a relay - with the same number arriving and leaving everyday - of pilgrims, Ramsevaks and tourists brought to the town by the VHP's regional network until March 15.

The VHP has organised tent accommodation for some 20,000 people. Five kitchens at the site provide them their meals. Their only connection with the town is a one-km. walk from Karsevakpuram to the heavily barricaded site where their hosts hope to build a temple. For all this apparent activity, the strangely silent streets of Ayodhya remain so.

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