Ayodhya tense as Ram temple pitch intensifies
SAFFRON CONGREGATION Security upped as Shiv Sena, VHP activists pour in
AYODHYA/LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of Hindu religious figures and their followers were descending on Ayodhya on Saturday to crusade for the construction of a Ram temple on the ruins of a disputed 16th century mosque, as the authorities threw a tight security ring around the tense but calm holy city to deter troublemakers.
Chanting-slogan supporters of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which is spearheading the Ram temple campaign and organising the ‘Dharma Sabha’ (religious assembly) on Sunday, charged into the city on motorbikes, in buses and SUVS.
Activists of the Shiv Sena also poured into Ayodhya for the ‘Aashirwad Utsav’ organised by the party where Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray was in attendance.
Ayodhya was drenched in saffron -- the colour of both the VHP and the Shiv Sena -- as groups of their supporters took to the streets chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Pahle Mandir, Phir Sarkar’ (temple first, government later).
“Some intellectuals sitting in New Delhi think that Ram temple movement has lost relevance. We will show a mirror to them,” VHP vice-president Champat Rai said,
On Saturday, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, in Ayodhya for the first time, let go of the first, blistering salvo -- and it was directed against the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Thackeray, whose party is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the centre and in Maharashtra, likened the Modi government to Kumbhkaran, a character in the epic Ramayana.