339 activists arrested and all roads leading to Faizabad are heavily guarded by security forces.
The temple town of Ayodhya turned into a virtual cantonment on Saturday as the state government braced for an aggressive challenge from sadhus and sants aligned to a defiant Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). The sants will start the ‘84 kosi parikrama’ (religious march) to Ayodhya on Sunday despite the state government’s ban on it.
The UP government has cracked down on the VHP arresting 339 of its activists including sadhus.
Both the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and the saffron brigade led by the VHP have managed to create a situation of confrontation, apparently as a part of strategy to pander to their political interests in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Both sides have tried their best to recreate the hysteria of October-November 1990 but seem to have failed as the issue no longer generates spontaneous interest in the masses. (The then chief minister Mulayam Singh had ordered firing on ‘kar sevaks’ in Ayodhya and many of them were killed.)
However, to a certain extent, Mulayam Singh has once again managed to reassert his position as someone Muslims can trust while the issue has given a defunct and faction-ridden BJP in UP the opportunity to project itself as the champion of the Hindus as a whole.
The VHP, meanwhile, has suffered a major setback as Mahant Gayadas, the yatra convenor who was supposed to lead the ‘parikrama’, has backed out at the 11th hour. He has termed the VHP’s ‘parikrama’ as being against the Hindu religion and scriptures. He told reporters in Ayodhya that there was no tradition of any ‘yatra’ by sants during this time of the year. He said the ‘84 kosi parikrama’ had already been performed earlier this year, and that the VHP was only trying to incite Hindus for its political ends.
The state government has taken stern steps to thwart the VHP’s parikrama yatra. Senior VHP leader Swami Chinmayanad was put under house arrest in Shahjahanpur. Preventive arrests of several sants and mahants were reported from Ayodhya on Saturday evening. District officials have told sadhus and sants in Ayodhya not to venture out of their ashrams till 3 pm on Monday.
Security and checking at the borders of
Uttar Pradesh with Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh were stepped up.
Additional security forces have been sent to Ayodhya, Ambedkarnagar and Gonda, police officials said. Saturday, only 80 percent of state roadways bus fleet plied on the Faizabad route where more than 52 check points and barriers have been erected.
As many as 38 temporary jails have been set up in the six districts surrounding Ayodhya. Borders of all these districts have been sealed, and all roads leading to Faizabad are heavily guarded by security forces. –With agency inputs
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