September 25
Housed in the precincts of Karsewak Puram in Janaki Ghat, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad-crafted model of Ram Temple looks lonely. All it has for company is a strong contingent of the local armed police and CRPF and Hira Lal, who calls himself a sewak (servant of the Lord).
His job is to guard the site, which -- post Babri Masjid demolition -- came to be identified with the hysteria the VHP whipped up off and on in the name of its deity.
Only two months ago on July 17, one such effort was made when the saffron group following their congregation at Karsweak Puram issued a belligerent note saying, “No mosque in Ayodhya, no mosque named after a foreign invader anywhere in the country.”
That day and this, Ayodhya has shown the Hindu and Muslim organisations fighting for the site that the temple town wants peace. “We have nothing to do with these things. We revere Lord Rama for the tolerance He preached. We want harmony with our Muslim friends,” Sarojini Kumari of Singaar Haat told The Tribune today.
Many other staunch Hindus like her admit that the Ram temple issue can no longer divide the locals, who depend on each other both emotionally and economically.
For ages, Muslims have aided spiritual ceremonies in Ayodhya’s 5,000-odd temples. They are involved in block printing that gives the saffron stole of sadhus its “Shri Ram motif”; they make the “khadaus” which priests and mahants here wear; they weave the garlands offered to Hindu deities. Even the clothes Ram Lalla wears at the makeshift temple in the disputed area are sewn by a Muslim tailor.
“Muslims are as much a part of Ayodhya as Hindus are. In indirect ways, they are engaged in every ceremony we host. Ours is a close-knit society which paid the price of politics others played in the name of Lord Rama,” says Satyendra Das, head priest at the Ram Lalla temple.
Across the city, Hindus proclaim they don’t want a Ram Temple at the cost of communal harmony.
It’s this feeling that is reinforced when you enter the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Karyashala (workshop) (200 yards from Karsewak Puram) where pillars and structures the kar sewaks prepared for the Ram mandir are gathering dust. Several minaret blocks are laden with algae in a compound occupied by over 30 security personnel.
“The materials are ready,” insists Hanuman Yadav, the guard of the Mandir Nirman Karyashala under Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas. But his claims are belied by prefabricated edifices on the workshop campus crying for repair and attention.
